A Purist’s Touch: Spring Summer 2013

Smythson’s Spring Summer 2013 collections draw inspiration from the soft, fresh hues of the Cornish coastline, whose ever-changing moods of earth, sea and sky have historically been both home and muse to so many iconic British artists.

Smythson Spring Summer collections. Clockwise from top: small Eliot pouch, Chameleon sunglasses case, envelope iPad clutch, ‘Make it Happen’ Chameleon Panama notebook.

Among the most influential were Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, members of the small colony of artists in St Ives that became as important as Paris or London during the golden creative period between the 1920s and 1960s. They became pioneers of the radical abstract art movement in Britain.

On holiday in 1931: (left to right) Ivon Hitchens, Irina Moore, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Mary Jenkins.

Barbara Hepworth, 1964 and Ben Nicholson, 1935

Both were celebrated for their ability to synthesise organic form, light and colour from nature to produce compositions of extraordinary elegance and clarity.

Barbara Hepworth ‘Pendour’ (1947-8)

Ben Nicholson’s work typically features cool, harmonious colours, subtle textures and precise shapes.

Nicholson first visited Cornwall in 1928, after moving in the Parisian art scene and mixing with the likes of Mondrian and Picasso. During this visit to St Ives, he chanced upon a local fisherman called Alfred Wallis painting in his home.

Wallis meets Ben Nicholson; a defining moment captured by Christopher Wood in 1928.

Nicholson was struck by the ‘naïve’ purity of the pieces he saw, and found in them an authentic freshness and immediacy which he aspired to in his own work:

‘There is a formidable organisation, a rhythm in which the movement of the whole landscape leads up to a decisive purpose. His imagination is surely a lovely thing – it is something which has grown out of the Cornish earth and sea, and which will endure.’
- Ben Nicholson, ‘Alfred Wallis’, Horizon Vol. VII, No. 37, 1943

Alfred Wallis 'The Blue Ship' (circa 1934)

Smythson greetings cards found in the archives 1909, 1898

Sunset over St Ives Bay

Wallis’ paintings spoke directly to Nicholson’s desire for a ‘truthful and fresh way of conveying reality’. His move towards abstraction saw a developing interest in texture as well as contour, adding a note of sensory depth to the clean lines and absence of ornament in his work.

Ben Nicholson (1934 – 1941)

Smythson embraces this philosophy with a new take on our classic collections. Pared back to a pure, more abstract form, our handbags are distilled to the original essence of their design. A palette of Prussian blue, dove grey and white is coupled with the crisp contrast of clementine, lifting the natural tones of the Cornish
land- and seascape.

We visited the Tate Modern to get a taste of the artistic movement Hepworth and Nicholson helped to define. One of the gallery’s five iconic core collections, Structure and Clarity traces the development of abstract art from the 1920s – a revolutionary new vision shaped by the geometrical laws of architecture, characterised by measured restraint and uniformity.

Smythson Chameleon tote in white, Spring Summer collection

Piet Mondrian 'Composition C (No. III) with Red, Yellow and Blue' (1935): At the heart of the exhibition stood a room holding Hepworth and Nicholson’s work. A beautiful counterpoint to the angular paintings that hung on the walls, Hepworth’s gentle sculptures bloomed voluptuously across the floor of the room, an elegant reminder of geometry’s softer landscapes.