Rosemary Rutherford, Cedric Morris, Arthur Lett-Haines

Following a visit to Gainsborough's House in Sudbury to see their new exhibition 'Revealing Nature' on the art of  Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines, I travelled on in Suffolk to see work by Rosemary Rutherford at St Mary Boxford, St Mary the Virgin Walsham-le-Willows, and St Mary Hinderclay.

The exhibition is the first to chart the phenomenal artistic careers of Morris and Lett-Haines, who were partners in love and art for sixty years. Morris is celebrated not only for his flower paintings and still lives but also for portraits and landscapes, and Lett-Haines is revealed as an important figure in developing Surrealist art in Britain. 

Based in Suffolk for most of their lives, primarily at Benton End, they established the East Anglian School for Painting and Drawing in 1937 which taught a generation of artists including Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling. Rutherford was another who attended the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Benton End, visiting regularly in 1950s and 60s and gaining much inspiration from Morris and Lett-Haines.

Life with Art: Benton End and the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing was an exhibition at Firstsite Gallery that showcased the inspiring role Benton House played in influencing the artists who lived and worked there, celebrating the beauty of the East Anglian scenery and the importance of creative spaces. Susan Gray, in an exhibition review for Church Times, noted that 'Rosemary Rutherford is one of Benton End’s rediscovered stars.'

Rutherford studied art in Chelmsford and at the Slade in London in the 1930s. She also trained in the art of true fresco. She was a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Red Cross nurse during the second world war and created a large portfolio of sketches and paintings of all she observed in hospitals, both at home and in Sri Lanka.

She learnt stained glass making and created 40 windows, including four in Broomfield church, where her father was Rector, to replace those shattered by bombing. She was deeply religious and her spirituality guided her artworks. Her fresco at Broomfield church shows ‘Christ Stilling the Storm’ and was surely intended to give people hope during the frightening turmoil of wartime.

Rutherford is perhaps most widely known for her stained glass windows, mostly in churches, throughout East Anglia and further afield from Yorkshire to Sussex and even in New Zealand. The exhibition features a montage of many of her windows showing her versatility of style and subject. Her love of bright, bold colours is evident both in the east window of Broomfield church, in her earlier figurative designs and in the more abstract compositions at Boxford and in windows made posthumously to her designs at Hinderclay in Suffolk.

Project Rutherford at St Mary with St Leonard Broomfield centres on the preservation and conservation of Rutherford’s special mural in the Norman round tower, St Mary’s unique 20th century fresco. Its protection within the tower and its promotion has involved replacement of the spire shingles, repair of the spire’s wooden framework, repointing of the round tower, conservation of the fresco itself and outreach to all church users and to the wider community in bringing the fresco, and Rosemary Rutherford, ‘out into the open’.

To bring the life and works of this remarkable but largely forgotten artist to the attention of the wider community, a permanent exhibition was opened in 2023. This exhibition summarises Rosemary’s life and extraordinary artistic achievements. Models reveal how fresco and stained glass are made. Some of her remarkable range of drawings and paintings are shown, including wartime artwork and flower paintings. Her spiritual, caring nature and brilliant artistry shine through.

This permanent exhibition can be viewed during church opening times, currently Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30 to 12:30 and after Sunday services.

I will be giving a People and Stone talk, together with Kathy Rouse, about the war art and religious art of Rosemary Rutherford at St Mary Broomfield on Saturday 2 November 2024.

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