Viva Lewes Issue #122 November 2016

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From Christmas Chic To Fabulous Boutique Gifts Galore, Fashion, Homeware, Artisan Makers, Food & Drink LUXURY CHRISTMAS GIFT FAIR THURSDAY 24 & FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER * 10AM - 4PM East Sussex National Hotel, Uckfield TN22 5ES “A fabulous collection of Boutique Owners & Artisan Makers selling hundreds of beautiful & unique Christmas gifts & decorations” 8 Miles From Lewes / Admission £4 / Free Parking WIN £50 worth of vouchers to spend www.countrylifestylefairs.co.uk *T&Cs apply
COLUMN David Jarman 'Dissipated' artist John Hamilton Mortimer In his splenetic Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Discourses (‘This Man was Hired to Depress Art’), published in 1808, William Blake wrote: ‘Painters are noted for being Dissipated and Wild’. One artist, with a Lewes connection, that Blake may have had in mind is John Hamilton Mortimer. A brilliant and prolific draughtsman, he is largely forgotten now, but in the catalogue for the Tate’s 2001 James Gillray exhibition Richard Godfrey describes Mortimer as ‘the single most important influence on the early work of [18th century satirical artists] Gillray and Rowlandson’. John Hamilton Mortimer was born in Eastbourne on 17 September 1740. His father was a local corn dealer and customs officer. The artist’s later interest in depicting banditti, ultimately derived from the work of Salvator Rosa, is sometimes attributed, rather fancifully perhaps, to his childhood experience of smugglers in and around Eastbourne. One contemporary of Mortimer’s, also an artist, was Joseph Farington. A pupil of Richard Wilson, he is now best remembered for his diaries. Extending to sixteen volumes, they are a wonderful source of information and gossip about the London art world. It is the entry for 9 September, 1797 that tells us that John Hamilton Mortimer went to school in Lewes. Mortimer’s artistic training began with the portrait painter Thomas Hudson, in whose studio he first met Joseph Wright of Derby, who was to become a lifelong friend. (Reynolds was another of Hudson’s pupils). Thereafter Mortimer was a prizewinning student at St Martin’s Lane Academy, won further prizes at the Society of Arts, and from 1762 until 1777 he exhibited regularly at the newly founded Society of Artists, becoming their president in 1774. Unfortunately all this success was combined with a reputation for being, as the Dictionary of National Biography puts it, ‘a lively and reckless companion’ whose ‘high spirits degenerated into dissipation and folly’. According to another fellow artist, Edward Dayes, ‘nothing was too extravagant for him to undertake’ and on one occasion ‘he absolutely ate a wine glass, of which act of folly he never recovered’. Mind you, Dayes didn’t actually witness this ‘act of folly’ himself. And he seems to have been rather a censorious fellow. When his pupil, the great Thomas Girtin, died at the age of 27, Dayes wrote that this was a cautionary tale of how young artists should ‘shun the fatal consequences of vice’. Girtin had ‘trifled away a vigorous constitution’. Mortimer’s marriage to Jane Hurrell in February 1775 appears to have had a calming effect on the bon vivant, not least because she was able to undertake the regularisation of his chaotic financial affairs. In November 1778, Mortimer was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, but before he could receive his diploma he succumbed to a violent fever and died at 33 Norfolk Street, Covent Garden on 4 February 1779. He was 38. There’s a Self Portrait in Character by John Hamilton Mortimer in the collection of the Towner in his home town of Eastbourne. A postcard is on sale in the shop, but you’d probably have to ask if you wanted to see the actual painting. 'Self Portrait in Character' by John Hamilton Mortimer, courtesy of the Towner collection 35
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Page 5: THE 'HIGH STREET' ISSUE CONTENTS Bi
Page 8 and 9: THIS MONTH’S COVER ARTIST: SOPHY
Page 11 and 12: Photo by Alex Leith MY LEWES: PETER
Page 14 and 15: 吀䠀䔀倀䠀伀䔀一䤀
Page 16 and 17: Christmas at Middle Farm Aromatic E
Page 18 and 19: A. S APOTHECARY SMALL BATCH DISTILL
Page 21 and 22: BITS AND BOBS VOX POP: SUSSEX DOWNS
Page 23: BITS AND BOBS READER OFFERS: TWO-FO
Page 26 and 27: LAVENDER FIELDS • • I S F I E L
Page 28 and 29: Be enchanted by our magical lantern
Page 31 and 32: COLUMN Chloë King Gleans her act u
Page 33: COLUMN East of Earwig Just trying t
Page 37 and 38: ON THIS MONTH: LITERATURE Surviving
Page 39: ON THIS MONTH: LITERATURE Ladybird
Page 42 and 43: ENJOY CHRISTMAS AT BRINGING FRESH I
Page 44 and 45: ON THIS MONTH: FILM Cinema round-up
Page 46 and 47: SONGS OF FAREWELL For the hundredth
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Page 51: ON THIS MONTH: ART Focus on: While
Page 54 and 55: Winter Fine Sale: 29 & 30 November
Page 56 and 57: Beautiful art, affordable prices Ja
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Page 60 and 61: NOV MUSIC EVENINGS @ The Con Club 1
Page 62 and 63: chrismas ogden solicitors Charlotte
Page 64 and 65: Christmas at Nymans An exhibition o
Page 66 and 67: Party WINE DINE TIME Drop in for fr
Page 68 and 69: NOVEMBER listings (cont) THURS 24 -
Page 70 and 71: CLAREMONT HEIGHTS DENTON Beautiful
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Page 74 and 75: On Friday 9 December 2016 organise
Page 76 and 77: Rodmell CE Primary School Tel. 0127
Page 78 and 79: BURGESS HILL GIRLS. SEE US AT WORK
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Page 82 and 83: Horsted Place Country House Hotel A
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84 Photo by Rebecca Cunningham
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01323 870840 www.thesussexox.co.uk
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Prepare to Feast! ...Christmas orde
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Offer excludes drinks and weekends
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THE WAY WE WORK Peter, Richards But
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THE REAL EATING COMPANY Book your p
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Got a spare room? THE UNIVERSITY OF
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Harvey’s Brewery Shop Ed Page, sh
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104 Photos by Rebecca Cunningham
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FOOTBALL Magic sponge man Lewes FC
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COLUMN Lewes Out Loud Plenty more H
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WE TRY... NLP Retraining the brain
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FEATURE: WILDLIFE Illustration by M
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Directory Spotlight: Chemistry tuto
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HOME 117
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HOME
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GARDENS HEALTH & WELLBEING alitura
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HEALTH AND WELLBEING ᠠ 䈀氀
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OTHER SERVICES 倀爀甀刀漀
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Viva Lewes Issue #122 November 2016

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