DANCE MASKS - Margaret Severn, daughter of Elizabeth Severn, psychotherapist and member of the Theosophical Society and the Golden Dawn

Olive Hockin - Pan, Dryads, and Nymphs watercolour

A recently discovered watercolour painting by Olive Hockin, Theosophist, Suffragette, and artist. She was influenced by spiritual and occult matters, and this painting shows a mystical woodland scene with the god Pan, Nymphs, and Dryads - beings she believed she could see. The style is reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelites, and Victorian Fairy paintings, but has a definite magic of its own; dated 1914.

Olive Hockin, like many Theosophian women artists, studied at the Slade School of Art in 1901-3 & again in 1910-11; she also wrote for Orpheus, the magazine of the Theosophical Art Circle.  As one of several leaders of the Suffragette movement suspected of plotting to kill the Prime Minister, she was arrested and imprisoned for four months in 1909, taking with her prints of Love and Death by G F Watts and The Golden Stairs by Edward Burne-Jones   She worked as a land-girl during World War One and wrote a book, Two Girls on the Land.  She married John Leared, a trainer of polo ponies and had two children: she died in 1936 but her descendants still treasure her work....

Signs, Symbols, Secrets: an illustrated guide to alchemy

Science Museum, Kensington

Seond Suggested duration: 15 mins

Opening Dates: Fri 27 Apr 2012 - Sat 27 Apr 2013

Cost: Free

The quest for the philosophers’ stone was a major preoccupation of the early modern world. This precious substance was said to transform base metals into silver and gold, heal sickness, and unlock the mysteries of God and nature. Its recipe was a closely guarded secret and a bewildering array of signs and symbols were used, both figuratively and allegorically, to convey key processes and ideas in the search for the fabled stone. This exhibition follows the theme of a recipe using the same sources devised and decoded by the alchemists themselves.

The exhibition displays 22 of the most striking images from the rich collection of the Science Museum’s Library & Archives. Dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries, these works reveal the power and intricacy of alchemical art, whilst allowing us to attempt an interpretation of the hidden meanings behind the symbols.

At the heart of the exhibition is a newly discovered manuscript: a Ripley scroll. These rare scrolls include some of the most complex and fascinating alchemical imagery in existence. For the first time, this object can be viewed alongside selected texts and images from the Museum’s collections.Its rich symbolism offers clues – both practical and theoretical – for the creation of the philosophers’ stone
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Only 23 Ripley scrolls are known to exist. This one dates from the 18th century and is the most recently discovered. Scholars believe that all the surviving examples are copies and variations upon a lost 15th-century original. They are named after the famous English alchemist George Ripley, although there is no evidence that Ripley designed the scrolls himself. The scrolls range in size, but are all too long to be viewed and understood in a single glance. Scholars are still investigating how they are meant to be read and used. It is possible that the original scroll was created for a wealthy patron interested in alchemy. Over time, the scrolls have become prized for the quality of their imagery.

BBC RADIO FOUR: IN OUR TIME

THURSDAY 21 JUNE 2012, 0900 AND 2130 - AND ON BBC I-PLAYER

Annie Besant

Duration: 43 minutes

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of the campaigner and writer Annie Besant. A radical political voice, Besant was involved in the 1888 matchgirls' strike at the Bryant and May factory, which brought the appalling working conditions of many factory workers to greater public attention. Later she campaigned for self-rule in India, and was a prominent member of the mystical Theosophical Society.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/annie_besant

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of the campaigner and writer Annie Besant. A radical political voice, Besant was involved in the 1888 matchgirls' strike at the Bryant and May factory, which brought the appalling working conditions of many factory workers to greater public attention. Later she campaigned... > Show more

Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies

Victorian Spiritualities

One Day Colloquium on 17 March 2012

This one-day colloquium will explore Victorian Spiritualities from a wide range of perspectives. Contributions on literary topics explore key figures such as Dickens and G.M. Hopkins, as well as lesser-known writers like Fitz-James O’Brien and T.E. Brown. Contributions on art history include a presentation on Evelyn de Morgan and Emily Ford, and there are also papers on ballet and textiles. Psychology, postcolonial studies and philosophy are also represented. The day will cover a wide variety of religious traditions, including Catholicism, Anglicanism and the Oxford Movement, Spiritualism, the Russian Orthodox Church, Quakerism, Judaism, and Buddhism. The keynote speakers are literary critic Elisabeth Jay and art historian Michaela Giebelhausen.

Registration Fee: £40 (includes copy of the Leeds Working Papers volume for the colloquium containing c.25 articles, plus lunch and refreshments). For more details and to register, contact j.hamblin@leedstrinity.ac.uk.

Colloquium convenor: Jane de Gay

Dreams of nature. Symbolism from Van Gogh to Kandinsky

24.02.12_17.06.12

Symbolism was a pioneering movement in painting of the late 19th-century. Its roots lie in philosophy and poetry, and it was closely associated with music. Symbolist artists endeavoured to evoke dreams and visions, rather than record visible reality. A reaction to the growing industrialisation and materialism of Europe, symbolist works reflect feelings of fear and pessimism, as well as a longing for spirituality and mythology.

This is the first exhibition dedicated to the symbolist landscape in Europe. Some 70 poetical and evocative paintings of nature from the period 1880–1910 will offer a new perspective on this intriguing movement. Artists used their landscapes to represent their vision of death, dreams, infinity and the cosmos, feelings of nationalism or ideas about science and the modern age.

The exhibition will cover a wide range of artists, from forerunners of symbolism, like Böcklin and Whistler, to Mondrian and Kandinsky, who provided the impulse for major 20th-century movements, such as surrealism and abstraction. Works by renowned painters, like Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Munch, will be presented alongside lesser known, but equally fascinating artists from the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe.

Music accompanying the exhibition
Symbolism emerged from philosophy and poetry and was closely connected to music. For instance, Kandinsky was inspired by the music of Schönberg, and Rachmaninoff wrote music to accompany Böcklin’s Island of the dead. Visitors to this exhibition can experience the mutual influence between these different arts for themselves by listening to compositions from the Symbolist period.

Themes
The exhibition is organised into the following six themes:

• Ancient and new paradises: Artists like Böcklin, Von Stuck and Puvis de Chavannes took inspiration from classical antiquity and mythology. Others, such as Signac and Gauguin, looked for paradise in unspoiled places far away from modern society.
• Nature and suggestion: Rather than just faithfully representing reality, landscapes by Symbolists such as Gallen-Kallela, Sohlberg and Hodler also reflect the feelings that nature evoked in the artist.
• Dreams and visions: Gauguin, Munch and Malczewski tried to open the gates to the unconscious mind. They painted dreams and visions, the world beneath the surface of observable reality.
• Silent cities: Many Symbolist artists saw modern city life as a threat. Whistler, Degouve de Nuncques and Khnopff transformed the city into a mysterious, dreamlike landscape born of memory and imagination.
• The cosmos: Through their landscapes, painters such as Watts, Van Gogh and Willumsen expressed their ideas about natural forces, cosmic energy, the eternal cycle of the seasons and the insignificance of human beings in the face of nature.
• Into the mystic: In their quest to express the sublime and spiritual, many artists (such as Whistler, Signac and Ciurlionis) drew connections between painting and music, while others (like Mondrian and Kandinsky) took the first steps towards abstraction.

Touring exhibition
Dreams of nature has been organised by guest curators Richard Thomson and Rodolphe Rapetti, specialists in the area of landscape painting and Symbolism. The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with The National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (14 July - 14 October 2012) and the Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki (16 November 2012 - 17 February 2013).

Publication
Landscapes of the imagination. Symbolism from Van Gogh to Kandinsky by Richard Thomson, Rodolphe Rapetti, Frances Fowle and Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff.
In this publication the authors present an entirely new perspective on these special landscapes, from the precursors of symbolism, such as Böcklin and Whistler, to Mondrian and Kandinsky, whose variations on landscape themes provided the impetus for their later abstract work.
(208 pages, 130 illustrations English, Dutch, French, Finnish, Swedish, softcover, approx. € 29.95, Van Gogh Museum/The National Galleries of Scotland/ Ateneum Art Museum / Mercatorfonds, available from February 2012)

Sunday lectures

• 26 February 2012 - Europe 1900: New landscapes for changing times by Richard Thomson, Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art, University of Edinburgh (English spoken). 1 April 2012 - Symbolist landscapes and silent cities by Frances Fowle, Curator of French Art, National Galleries of Scotland (English spoken).
• 6 May 2012 - Dream landscapes and music. From Debussy to Schönberg by Edwin Becker, Head of Exhibitions, Van Gogh Museum.

The exhibition has been supported by the Dutch government: an indemnity grant has been provided by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.

Dreams of nature is made possible with support from the Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation.

REMEMBERING MARY BRACE

Photo by Mary's good friend, Queenie Hamilton

The esoteric atmosphere created at 50 Gloucester Place by over 75 years of Theosophy and spiritual aspiration is a source of comfort and inspiration to many people. Mary Brace, a TS member since 1987, was undoubtedly one of them. Not feeling truly at home where she lived, she found inner peace at TSHQ. She was a familiar face in the front row at Sunday lectures for many years, and at Blavatsky Lodge meetings.

Born a short distance from 50 Gloucester Place (in Chiltern Street at 84 Wendover Court), she much liked the atmosphere of the Marylebone area and regretted leaving it. In her spiritual life although brought up Catholic, she became a Baptist, later to find Theosophy. Her career began with nursing, and developed into welfare and social work. She had multiple interests including: photography, ballet, swimming, French, German, Egyptology. Her good heart caused her, aged about 60, to run the London marathon, sponsored for charity.

She never married, but with her good friend Mike, she travelled to far-flung places such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, and The Gambia. Her next great adventure began suddenly at home in snowy mid-December, aged about 80. Her quiet, peaceful presence at TSHQ is much missed.

Edward Archer

(The London Theosophical Post will have room to honour all our members and rememberances are welcomed. - Ediitor)