A recent bequest of four works by Edmund Blampied has prompted a fresh look at island life at Société Jersiaise.
Life in Jersey opens on Thursday 19th February and marks the first time in 20 years that the society has reimagined the exhibition running throughout its building from the permanent art collection. Invited to curate a new display, Laura Hudson has used the opportunity to focus on the working and domestic lives of Islanders, placing Blampied’s legacy at its centre.
The four newly gifted works, from the estate of the late Jean Bonhomme, form a focused installation within the exhibition. They sit alongside prints, paintings and artefacts that chart everyday life across the island, from farming and fishing to quarrying, sea rescue, food preparation and caregiving.
In her curatorial notes, Laura Hudson writes: “Rather than grand portraits of the great and the good, I have chosen to focus on Islanders’ working and domestic lives. From farmers to fishermen, smithies to quarries, horse racing to sea rescue, domestic food provision to caregiving. These are the roles often overlooked in historic paintings, yet these are the lives we might identify with today.
“We can relate to the details of other people’s lives through their labour, through the small individual actions, daily tasks, difficulties, and gatherings. A continuation of communities engaging with life on an island surrounded by sea. This selection offers a thoughtful glimpse into times past and considers how we might connect with the people and places of our past, from our perspective today”.
Blampied, born in Saint Martin in 1886, became internationally recognised for his illustrations and etchings capturing rural Jersey with warmth and close observation. During the German occupation he remained on the island, continuing to work under difficult conditions and producing designs that subtly expressed resistance. His work remains one of the most vivid visual records of Jersey in the early twentieth century.
Building on that legacy, Société Jersiaise is extending an open invitation to contemporary artists to create new pieces in response to Blampied as a chronicler of island life. These works will form a forthcoming exhibition titled Blampied and Us, organised by the newly formed Art Film Photography group, creating a dialogue between past and present.
