Sunday, March 11, 2012

Alford Soord in Brighton


I am delighted to share this message that came to me from Derek Barnes, Director of Music and Treasurer of St Bartholomew’s Church, Brighton, England:

Dear Dr Dalles,

I have just been searching for information about the painter Alford Soord and have discovered the page Transformations and Whispers, of which from further investigation you appear to be the author (I hope I’m correct!).

Your text gives the most complete biographical details of AS that I could find and has a useful list of his paintings.

I am writing to you in case it may be of interest to you to know that a large painting of The Crucifixion by Soord hangs on the west wall of St Bartholomew’s Church, Brighton – signed by AS and dated 1912. We assume it is quite authentic and I attach a photograph of it – apologies for the angle but, short of putting up some scaffolding in our rather tall building to gain a better perspective, that’s the best I could do.

This painting as such does not appear to be in your list and it is probably a different work from the Reredos in the chapel of Oxford House, Bethnal Green although, having gone into that web site (www.oxfordhouse.org.uk/venues/chapel) and been able to download the picture of the chapel, I notice that our picture is virtually the same image as that in the Reredos but in mirror image – in our picture, Jesus’s head is lowered to the right and his knees face to the left, whereas in Oxford House, they are portrayed the opposite way round.

One of our churchwardens, who is steeped in the history of St Bartholomew’s, tells me that the painting appears to have been shown at an exhibition in the Brighton Corn Exchange somewhere around 1912-13 and we can only assume that it came into our possession shortly after that.

I hope that all that might be of interest to you.

Regards.

Derek Barnes
Visit:
www.stbartholomewsbrighton.org.uk


Isn't that wonderful? Follow the link and see and read about St. Bartholomew's Church.

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