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Stella Bowen: Inner worlds

Art, Love and War

 

  • Exhibition
  • Education material
  • Curators talks
  • Periods:
  • To England
  • An artist's journey
  • Inner worlds
  • The return to England
  • The war years

 

Inner worlds

Ford Madox Ford and Stella Bowen’s relationship began to deteriorate in 1924 when he became involved with Jean Rhys, whose novel Quartet is a semi-autobiographical account of their affair. In 1926 Ford went on a lecture tour of America, and it was around this time that Bowen’s interest in painting intensified. Freed from some of the demands Ford made on her time, she began a series of paintings reflecting her personal and domestic life.

During this period, her work traces her feelings about the gradual separation from Ford, as well as the search for her identity as an artist facing life as a single mother. She painted portraits of family and friends, but also still lifes, nudes, interiors and, particularly, evocative studies of windows and hands, each imbued with the resonance of her inner world.

 

Paintings

  • Julia
  • The house opposite
  • Flight from reason
  • Embankment gardens
  • Admiral Sir Ragnar Colvin
  • Bomber crew
  • Bombing up a Lancaster for Wing Commander Douglas
  • Remains of a flying bomb
  • Group Captain Hughie Edwards
  • D-Day, 0300 hours, interrogation hut
  • Flying Officer Frederick Syme, Sunderland captain
  • Pilot Officer Ronald Warfield
  • A Sunderland crew comes ashore at Pembroke Dock (F. Syme, Ron Warfield, Ron Tyson, Eric Genders, Charlie Martin, Spud Murphy, Bob Meade, Merv Pike, Jock Beattie, Curly Rowland and John Bishop)
  • At the Churchill Club, large and small worlds
  • RAAF airmen at Mongewell Park Medical Rehabilitation Unit
  • Private, Gowrie House
  • Repatriated prisoner of war is processed
  • Brigadier George Langley
  • Reception desk at Gowrie House, Eastbourne
  • Theaden in Kensington
  • [Flowers in a green Norwegian pot]

Last updated: 10 February 2021

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The Australian War Memorial building

The Australian War Memorial

Fairbairn Avenue
Campbell ACT 2612
Australia
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The Australian War Memorial

Fairbairn Avenue

Campbell ACT 2612

Australia

 

Opening Hours

10 am to 4 pm daily (except Christmas Day)

 

In preparation for the daily Last Post Ceremony,

galleries are progressively closed from 3:40 pm.

 

Public entrance via Fairbairn Avenue, Campbell ACT 2612

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