Overview

Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery hosts a major new exhibition by painter Alison Watt, marking her first major public gallery exhibition in London since 2008.

From Light includes 18 new paintings created specifically for Pitzhanger. The title reflects the centrality of light in both Watt’s work and that of Sir John Soane, the architect of Pitzhanger, in harnessing light to shape space and create atmosphere. For Watt, light is the ‘very substance of painting’, while for Soane, it defined the architecture of Pitzhanger.

Watt has long-drawn inspiration from historical painting, especially artists Allan Ramsay (1713–1784), Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780–1867) and Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664). In From Light, she shifts her attention to the objects that formed Soane’s world — his collection, his fascination with historical figures, and his preoccupation with themes of mortality and memorialisation.

Le Ciel is a painting Watt created for Pitzhanger’s Eating Room, where Soane once entertained guests. Depicting a white rose in bud with partially diseased leaves, Le Ciel engages with Soane’s broader vision of integrating nature into his home, from the Library with its delicate trellises and vines to the hand-painted wallpaper of birds and flowers in the Upper Drawing Room.

A new series of three paintings of Oliver Cromwell’s death mask are inspired by a cast in Soane’s collection. Soane originally believed the mask to be that of the mutineering sea captain Richard Parker, but it was later identified as being of Cromwell. Watt’s multiple interpretations recall Van Dyck’s Triple Portrait of Charles I, referencing the layered nature of representation, power, and legacy in historical portraiture. Watt often depicts the same object from multiple angles, to reveal subtly different facets of its character.

Watt’s series of five rose paintings — Shaken, Heart, The Day After, Watch, Scar — displayed in Pitzhanger Gallery meditate on the rose as a symbol of beauty, innocence, and transience — but also of decline and decay. The motif of the fading rose has long been used in art history to represent the fleeting nature of life. Here, Watt’s treatment of the rose dovetails with Soane’s preoccupation with death and remembrance, alluding to the personal disappointments and health issues which ultimately led to the Soane family leaving behind the dream of Pitzhanger.

In addition to the play of light and space, the exhibition is an exploration of the relationship between the artist’s studio and the museum and the way in which specific objects act as guiding lights — enduring personal points of remembrance and stimulus behind an artist’s work. Watt has selected treasured objects from her Edinburgh studio that serve as daily sources of inspiration, which will be displayed in Soane’s Breakfast Room, including early paintings, gifts from fellow artists, and found objects imbued with personal significance. Among them is a goat’s skull from her late father’s collection, an object he once used as inspiration in his studio, and another skull is a gift from sculptor Kenny Hunter. Many of these objects represent personal friendships, underscoring the importance of relationships in the lives and practices of both Watt and Soane.