What’s it Like Visiting Photographer Lee Miller’s Country House? We Cycled to Find Out!

What’s it Like Visiting Photographer Lee Miller’s Country House? We Cycled to Find Out!

A very warm welcome to Art Gallery Explorer from East Sussex. It’s a bit of an inospicious place to start filming actually because as you can probably hear, I’m on the side of the A27 awaiting a friend who’s cycling over to meet me from Brighton. I’ve got the train to Glide Station. Um but I’m heading to um Farley Farmhouse in East Sussex in Chittingly to explore the home of British surrealism. Farley Farmhouse used to be the home of British surrealist and art promoter Roland Penrose. Penrose was one of the main organizers, for example, of the first um international exhibition of surrealism in London. And Lee Miller is is one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. She’s got an exhibition coming up in October at Tape Britain which I can’t wait to take you to. So, I thought I’d head along to Farley Farmhouse, bring you along for the ride. I’d never been before. Have no idea what to expect. I booked on for a house tour and I am just waiting currently on the cycle path. If I just spin you around, which conveniently runs alongside the A27 for a friend who’s cycling over from Brighton, and he’s going to join us on this um day out exploration. So come and join me as we head to Farley Farmhouse in East Chittingly, East Sussex to explore the home of British surrealism. Yeah. Fantastic. So, we’ve just arrived at Farley Farmhouse. This is Rich. Welcome to the vlog, Rich. Hello, everybody. Nice to see you. Um, we’ve got a guided tour book, so I’m not sure how much we’re going to be able to cover of that on camera, but we’ll pick up some filming of the outside as well if we can do. And then we’re going to pop to a lovely tap room, which Rich has been to, which I never have done, about less than a mile from here, and share our thoughts on the whole Farley Farmhouse experience. Yeah, Gun Brewery. You’re going to love it, George. Oh, brilliant. Thank you very much. Hopefully some good art and then some good beer. Thank you very much. We’ll see you on the other side. As we suspected, photography and videoing is not permitted inside the house. But don’t worry, me and Rich debriefed at at Gun Brewery on our experience of visiting Farley Farmhouse, and we will try and take you through and pull out some of the highlights. So, do stick with us for that debrief with a beer. There are two different prices for entering Farley Farm. For £25, you get a 50-minute tour of the house, as well as all day access to the sculpture garden, which you’re seeing here, and also the Lee Miller Gallery, which I’ll explain about in a minute. If you just want to pay £10, that gives you access to the sculpture garden and the Lee Miller Gallery. And I should say as well, there’s a cafe here. Some of the sculptures, like this one, really captured us. I would say the the um quality of the sculptures in the sculpture garden are variable. Um, some of them are from the 50s and 60s, including by Ronan Penrose. Some of them are for sale and are much more modern. The Lee Miller Gallery is a space opposite the house which has a rolling range of shows. And when we were there, there was a really interesting display of photography from women Indian artists. My personal view is if you’re visiting for the first time, you have to include the house tour for £25 because that includes that is the highlight of visiting Farley Farm. But if you’re revisiting, you might just want to visit the sculpture garden and Lee Miller Gallery. Well, we made it to the beautiful Gum Brewery. If I just spin you around, have a look at this a second. And you can see we’re right out in the Sussex countryside now. Um, this is only less than a mile. Cheers, Rich. Anyway, cheers. Very good. What did you think of I mean, the tour was interesting, wasn’t it? It was about a 50minute tour. What what did you feel about it generally? Was it did you enjoy it? Did you get a lot out of it at Fley Farmhouse? Uh yeah, man. It was it was a really interesting tour. Yeah. Uh all the little sort of knickknacks of the everyday everyday life of surrealists was uh yeah, that was um yeah, the big the big thing that was a lot of fun about it. like um uh they they like they had a lot of uh visitors who were famous artists at the time including like Picasso and Man Ray and some English other English surrealists as well and uh yeah like they all they all kind of made little or brought little bits and pieces with them that that are still there and collected cabinets or strewn around on the on the the sideboards and things. Uh yeah, which is very cool. Yeah, I think that was really interesting, wasn’t it? And I was just I was just saying on on our cycle over that um I always compare these places to Charleston, which is a really famous like artistic house. And I know you haven’t visited it, but um I was saying that the quality of art here was really good, wasn’t it? There was Picasso. There were three works by Picasso. High level. Yeah. Man Ray, there was a Leonora Carrington painting. There was some really interesting tribal art as well. And I thought the the tour was tour guide was really informative, wasn’t she? She knew her stuff. Yeah, she was good. She was into it. You Yeah, I felt like there was uh like we hadn’t really plumbed her depths as well, like if there’d been more Yeah. Like I think she had more to give like if we’d had time. Yeah. It was like her greatest hits, wasn’t it? And she drew us to certain certain um certain key objects. Yeah. But Yeah. But she knew Yeah. She knew her stuff and she seemed to be genuinely Yeah. genuinely into it as well. Yeah. And that was kind of infectious, wasn’t it? I thought I really like it’s sort of like an old farmhouse. I’m very sorry, by the way. We weren’t allowed to film in there and um we always respect that um on the vlog, but like it was an old farmhouse and so you entered through the kitchen, didn’t you? And that was where there was a Picasso that was kind of inserted into the wall above the oven, which I thought was really interesting. and and you then went through to and and and she sort of talked to us about but like not inserted in a in a way that was all like respectful of the fact that it was a original Picasso. It was just kind of like really budged in and just like yeah it was amazing. That was really funny, wasn’t it? And they bought that about from France that one that wasn’t one that was produced there but then there was a lithograph print of um that was that that was produced at the farmhouse, wasn’t there? But then it was a copy of that. Yeah. And that was linking to the Red Bulls as well. And they were trying to say that it was whatever Picasso had kind of done this. Yeah. Whatever he did in the ICA book, wasn’t it? Yeah. To to kind of give the ICA a little boost cuz um like Penrose had founded with somebody who who was the other person? He founded the A basically. Yeah. Which we love and which we’ve covered on this vlog as well. So, and there was some cow, some particular cow on the farm that they were trying to say was like in the in the in the Picasso. Yeah, it was a red Angus cow, wasn’t it? And the cow in this grasshopper, it was a grasshopper ball or something, wasn’t it? The picture by Picasso was which I’m really sorry I can’t bring you was um was was there and the kitchen was kind of it was weird because it was like an it had an ara, but it was kind of frozen in time. And we learned that Lee Miller in her in her sort of life towards the end of her life was a cord and blur cook. And I felt a bit sad about that. Did you? Uh I sort of felt that she was kind of not that I didn’t feel sad she was a cook but I felt sad that she left her brilliant photography behind. Yeah. But I mean, as the the guide explained, like she’d been um pretty shaken up by being a war photographer in World War II and um like maybe that was like she just kind of felt a need to uh dive into something else and Yeah. Yeah. put that sort of period of her life behind her. Yeah. Well, on the Yeah. On that note, there was like an amazing picture that she’d taken of her like her and another photojournalist who was of each other sitting in Hitler’s bath. Oh yeah. On the day that he killed himself in Berlin, which was weird. That was his Munich house, wasn’t it? Yeah. Just like amazing. And the guide explained that the boots were on the ground, weren’t they, by the bath and that middle dow the way before day four. Their army boots that they’d been uh you know. Yeah. Right. Wow. Yeah. Like tried she’d like trotten the mud of the um concentration camp into Hitler’s bath mat. Yeah. Yeah. It was very powerful that. Yeah. Yeah. And then you go from the kitchen, that was actually not in the kitchen, those photos, but you go from the kitchen into the into the um dining room, which is the oldest room in the house. And that’s pretty special, isn’t it? Now, you you and I both agree that Roland Penrose, who has lots of works displayed in this room, isn’t the greatest artist, is he? We would say probably not the greatest surrealist. Not the greatest of the surrealists. No, no, not even the greatest of the British Seren. But like he but there was an amazing fireplace, wasn’t there, which was beautiful actually. And um that’s on our stickers if you can see see the tour of the stickers. Like you could just see a little face of Yeah, this is a tour sticker. So like that was that was very Charlestonesque. It was kind of like this amazing fireplace which hasn’t been restored at all which links to the downs which we’re surrounded by. If I can get it in. Yeah. See if you can. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it links to the downs and the kind of log of Wilmington, doesn’t it? apparently. Although we didn’t really see that, but like yeah, they they said that they could see when they moved in, they could see the long man, which is like this chalk giant carved into the into the downs um from their garden or and like he he done the fireplace. I mean, it doesn’t look anything like the long man, but it’s some representation of of the long man as a sun god on the fireplace. I’ll tell you what it reminded me of. Do you know um Ron Gittens? Uh no. Who’s that? So he’s like in Do you remember? He’s like this mad kind of outsider artist who like turned his rented flat into Oh yes, I do know. Yes, I do know him. Yes. Yes. Yes. He he made like his fireplace into a minotaur. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I really wanted to visit that. That sounds incredible. Like in Burken Head like he died in 2019, I think. And um Yeah. And then like the landlord was just going to whatever smash it all up. And there was like this whole campaign. Uh I think Jarvis Cocker was was part of the campaign to get now now it’s been preserved as a as a museum. I think it’s like a listed uh thing. But yeah, it’s amazing like he he created this whole kind of outside Yeah. like world of kind of sculptures and murals sort of based on um like Greek and Roman mythology. I think did it remind you of that a little bit sort of that Yeah. Well, just like cuz the fire and Well, there was another fireplace in there as well that they’d done something with other than other than making fires, wasn’t there? There was like in that room that where the Hitler photograph there was like a big sort of stone head lying in a fireplace. So like Yeah. So that it did remind me of that cuz there was a couple of um in the wrong thing. Yeah. There’s this big like a relief sort of sculpture. He’s like he’s made like the fireplace into like a minotaur’s head with the mouth as the um the fireplace open and then I think there’s like a lion in one of the other rooms as well. Anyway, yeah, it did. It reminded you that’s interesting and it’s really Charlestonesque that little bit and then you go down a corridor and that’s where some of the highlights was what Rich was saying about this cabinet of curiosities where there’s this tiny little sculpture by Alexander Calder that you could imagine him making at the table you said couldn’t you that was really nice and there was a Leonora Carrington I mean there’s lots and lots of art around I’d say the majority of the paintings are by Roland Penrose but there’s lots of others by Man Ray as we say Picasso etc. And then the rest of the house is modern or you only see the downstairs and there’s this very big um like living room, isn’t there? And that has a some really lovely pictures of Lee Miller and you learn a little bit about her her transition from model to surrealist photographer to war photographer. And there was a massive you were taken, weren’t you, by the Papa New Guinea sculpture. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which apparently was um what was the son called? Anthony Penrose who we briefly saw by the way. He was there. He’s on the site and he’s written the book, The Many Lives of Lee or the Lives of Lee Miller. And he brought it back, didn’t he? But he brought this um like when his dad died, when Penrose died, Roland Penrose Yeah. died. Um like he’d been off on his travels and he um and he had this like b it’s like more than well it’s kind of like a life like a mansized seated wooden sculpture uh but with like a huge sort of mask like face but like uh but like to and and he’d sat it where where his dad used to sit in the room to like um and the and the uh the guide was saying that explaining that he he found it he thought it like a like a calming presence, a benign presence. She said, didn’t she? Yeah. Yeah. Which I I mean, yeah, I thought that was quite lovely actually. Like Yeah. To remember your dad by. That’s a beautiful. Yeah. And the final room was a was the most recently added. It was in the 1970s and it was a study and it was where Lee Miller worked on her cordon blur clock cookery. And I would must say by the way, I wasn’t dismissing her career as a cook. clearly had a massive wave of PTSD after what she saw in the wall and felt she could never really um return to that kind of art form and being an artist. And it was saying that like her son, she became pregnant. There’s a actually one of my favorite Roland Penrose pictures was the picture of Lee Miller pregnant and it was a surprise pregnancy and her son like didn’t know anything about her as her career as a photographer, did he? Apparently they found they found 60,000 negative in the attic after after she died or Yeah. Yeah. which is crazy. So it was really good. Did you think that I mean I think we both agree the grind was amazing. Do you think that I think it was £25 tour and and that included access to the whole site as well? So there’s beautiful gardens which we bought you. There’s the exhibition on Indian photography which I think we both enjoyed. Yeah. That was really fun. Like I like the uh I mean like the more documentary stuff I thought I thought it was good. Like maybe the other stuff wasn’t wasn’t quite for me but No, that’s fair enough. And I think but would you say that’s good value or would you say it’s kind of a bit expensive? I mean I suppose these places are privately run and so they rely on tours and donations. Yeah, I mean it was a bit I mean the the tour was good. I mean it How long do you think it lasted? Maybe 50 minutes to maybe. Yeah, I think it was longer than that, isn’t it? Maybe an hour. Yeah, it was maybe half an hour. Could have been 40 minutes. Yeah, I don’t know. No, 50, I thought. Yeah. 50. Sorry. I thought you said 50. Not good. Um Yeah. I don’t know, man. Maybe a little bit expensive, but then it’s a beautiful site. I mean, it’s interesting. And so, I do do recommend you come. Um it’s sort of quite unique, isn’t it? And I think you said, didn’t you, that it was like you felt the spirit of artists at work. Yeah, really like there was a very Yeah, you could you could sense like the playfulness of particularly Lee Miller. Um Yeah. throughout the throughout the rooms. Um yeah, just in all Yeah. All the little things just Yeah. Yeah. Not only like the the art objects, but Yeah. like the books and like there was all sorts of like found things that they’d brought in like a um there was like a a stuffed adder or a preserve an adder that was preserved in some way that they that they’d found obviously found and a mummified rat a mummified rat from under the floorboard but then like I noticed in that last room um there was like a glass or or was it plastic tubing but there was some kind of I think it might have been a coil of plastic tubing but with like a brass like a sculpted brass head and tail like that had been obviously been inspired by the the dead adder that they’d found. Oh, cool. I didn’t see that. That’s amazing. And like yes, there was there was all just like I don’t think like you you know you’re saying and like she said about like the you know the PTSD and how whatever she’d switched to the cookery and stuff but I don’t you don’t get the sense that she’d like lost her sense of fun and or anything like that you know like um that’s a really good point. I think that’s really Yeah, like it felt like, you know, the house I mean Yeah. like the house was alive with that with that sense of mischief and enjoyment of of of being alive and and being creative creatures. Yeah, exactly. That’s a really good point, I think. And so I think that might, you know, maybe I’d like to have paid Rich maybe 20, but I do appreciate as well that it’s like a private privately run gallery. It’s only open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. And you do have to book a tour in advance. So obviously go on the website. Um and just remember as well that Lee Miller is having a mega show of which farm of lending over 200 pieces apparently according to the guide um take Britain. Hopefully we can get rich along to take Britain to share his thoughts on the sort of the official Lee Miller. We’ll try that anyway um between now and February. Um but yeah, thank you ever so much for joining us on Art Gallery Explorer. This is the first of quite hopefully a few vlogs where I get out of London and explore hopefully with with special guests like Rich. Um, but we will now finish our points before getting back on the bikes and and and and heading home. So, thank you ever so much for watching. Do visit Fridays and I should say it shuts at I think it’s the 31st of October. Um, it’s not open over the winter. So, if you can’t get there before then, you might need to come in the a in the spring. Anyway, thank you very much for watching. Thank you, Rich. That’s brilliant. Cheers. Cheers. And uh we will say goodbye.

Come and join us as we visit Lee Miller and Roland Penrose’s Farleys House and Gallery and explore art by both, as well as Picasso, Man Ray, Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst

Tickets can be booked here:

Farleys House & Gallery