Farley Farm House

The Farley Farm House.

Farley Farm House is a farm house near Chiddingly, East Sussex which has been converted into a museum and archive featuring the lives and work of its former residents, the photographer Lee Miller and the surrealist artist Roland Penrose.

Lee Miller and Roland Penrose came to live at Farley Farm House in 1949 and, in the thirty five years they lived there, built up a collection of contemporary art treasures. Many of these were made by their friends and visitors, including Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Max Ernst and Joan Miró.[1] These art treasures were put together with work of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, along with other artworks form all over the world by their son Antony Penrose, who has transformed the barn into an art gallery for upcoming and local artists to show their work. The house is surrounded by a sculpture garden and Lee Miller’s vegetable patches.[2]

External video
Man Ray Portraits: Lee Miller's house, tour with Antony Penrose (4:33), TheArtFundUK

Among the notable visitors to Farley Farm House was Pablo Picasso, who came twice, 11 and 15 November 1950, to visit Miller and Penrose. On his second visit he created a drawing in Indian ink on the first two pages of the ICA Visitors book of bulls with grasshopper's wings, perched on twigs. The drawing is thought to have been inspired by his visit that day to the dairy on Penrose's farm, where he encountered William, the Ayrshire bull. The ICA visitor's book containing this and drawings by other key artists is now in the collection of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, London. A lithograph of the drawing is on display in Farley Farm House and it is considered to be one of only two works Picasso created in England on his visit, the other being the mural on the wall of Professor Bernal's flat in London, dated 12 November.

The house is open to the public for guided tours on predetermined days, and the barn gallery is open between April and October. [3]

References

  1. ↑ Joanna Moorhead (5 April 2009). "Picasso came for tea". The Observer. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  2. ↑ The Home of the Surrealist, Antony Penrose, Published by Francis Lincoln.
  3. ↑ Farley Farm House official site

Further reading

External links

Coordinates: 50°53′58″N 0°11′55″E / 50.8994°N 0.1985°E