Edward James
Edward William Frank James was a British poet known for his patronage of the surrealist art movement.
Early life and marriage
Edward James was born on 16 August 1907, the only son of William James and Evelyn Forbes, a Scots socialite. He was reputedly fathered by the Prince of Wales and in his anecdotal reminiscences, recorded in Swans Reflecting Elephants – My Early Years, Edward James also puts forward this hypothesis. In his memoirs he wrote "I was not, I was, in fact, his grandson" saying that it was his grandmother that had an affair with the Prince of Wales. However, there was also popular belief that Forbes was one of the Prince of Wales's mistresses and there was a much-quoted ballad by Hilaire Belloc intimating this at the time.Edward James had four older sisters: Audrey, Millicent, Xandra, and Silvia. He was educated at Lockers Park School, then briefly at Eton, then at Le Rosey in Switzerland, and finally at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was a contemporary of Evelyn Waugh and Harold Acton, a fellow student at Christ Church. When his father died in 1912 he inherited the West Dean House estate in Sussex, held in trust until he came of age. He was also left a large sum in trust when his uncle John Arthur James died in 1917.
James's first sponsorship of note was in publishing John Betjeman's first book of poems when at Oxford. He worked with Brian Howard on the Glass Omnibus. After Oxford, James had a brief career as a trainee diplomat at the embassy in Rome. He was asked to send a coded message to London that the Italians had laid the keels for three destroyers, but got the code wrong; the message said "300 destroyers". Shortly after this he was sent "on indefinite leave".
In the early 1930s, James married Tilly Losch, an Austrian dancer, choreographer, actress and painter. He had several productions created expressly for her, the most notable of which was Les Ballets 1933, which included Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya and George Balanchine. He and Boris Kochno commissioned that year Brecht and Weill's last collaboration, The Seven Deadly Sins, which Balanchine produced, directed and choreographed.
James divorced Losch in 1934, accusing her of adultery with Prince Serge Obolensky, an American hotel executive; her countersuit, in which she made it clear that James was homosexual, failed. James was in fact bisexual. After the divorce, James joined a social set in England which included the Mitford sisters and the composer Lord Berners.
Surrealism
James is best known as a passionate supporter of Surrealism, a movement that evolved from Dada and the political uncertainty and upheaval of World War I and the following years. With a mix of Dada irreverence for the traditional political, religious, and bourgeois values of western civilization that they believed had led the world to the First World War; the surrealist explored the possibilities that had been opened up by Sigmund Freud regarding the subconscious mind, and the idea of pure thought, unfiltered and uncensored by political, religious, moral, or rational principles.He sponsored Salvador Dalí for the whole of 1938 and his collection of paintings and art objects subsequently came to be accepted as one of the finest collection of surrealist work in private hands. He also provided practical help, supporting Dalí for about two years.
James appeared in two famous surrealist paintings, both by Magritte:
- Not to be Reproduced
- The Pleasure Principle: Portrait of Edward James
In June of that same year, Magritte painted some portraits of James including Not to be Reproduced and '. In the first, James looks into a mirror which shows the back of his head; in the second James's head is an enigmatic radiating light. Magritte painted Pleasure Principle from photographs of James taken by Man Ray, following Magritte's precise staging instructions. The Pleasure Principle was based on a small ink sketch from the year before, titled Failed Portrait . In Not to be Reproduced, the book sitting on the mantle is the French edition of Edgar Allan Poe's The Mystery of Arthur Pym.
As well as Dalí and Magritte, his art collection included works by Hieronymus Bosch, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Klee, Leonora Carrington, Pavel Tchelitchew, Pablo Picasso, Giacometti, Max Ernst and Paul Delvaux, amongst others. Most were sold at a well-publicized sale at Christie's two years after his death.
His intellectual interest in surrealism is demonstrated by his sponsorship of Minotaure, a lavish Surrealist magazine published in Paris. His refurbishment of Monkton House, in a part of the West Dean Estate, was a Surrealist dream. It was done in collaboration with the pioneering British decorator, Syrie Maugham, and has some of the most iconic Surrealist works on display, including the large Mae West Lips Sofa to which Dalí gave the form and colour of the actresses lips, and his Lobster Telephone in white. James donated these two items to the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. James most fantastic surrealist creation was realised in the Mexican rain forest, a surrealist Sculpture garden, "Las Pozas".
New Mexico
In 1940, James stayed in Taos, New Mexico, United States, as a guest of Mabel Dodge Luhan, where he was known for his amusing, clever eccentricity and effeminate manner. In Taos, he met the Hon. Dorothy Brett, an impoverished British aristocrat and painter, who in 1941 sold him nine paintings for $580. He later invited the 70-year-old Brett to return to Britain and reside at West Dean, but she declined.Las Pozas
Las Pozas, near the village of Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, more than above sea level, in a subtropical rainforest in the mountains of Mexico, is a garden created by James. It includes more than of natural waterfalls and pools interlaced with towering Surrealist sculptures in concrete. Massive sculptures up to four stories tall punctuate the site. The many trails throughout the garden site are composed of steps, ramps, bridges and narrow, winding walkways that traverse the valley walls. Construction of Las Pozas cost more than $5 million. To pay for it, James sold his collection of Surrealist art at auction.West Dean
In 1964, James gave his English estate which included West Dean House at West Dean to a charitable trust. The Edward James Foundation comprises West Dean College, a centre for the preservation of traditional arts and crafts, through short courses and full-time Diplomas and MAs. One of only two professional tapestry weaving studios in the UK and an art gallery are housed on a estate which is open to the public through the .West Dean College is part of the Edward James Foundation set up in 1971 in response to James' vision of establishing "an educational foundation where creative talents can be discovered and developed, and where one can spread culture through the teaching of crafts and the preservation of knowledge that might otherwise be destroyed or forgotten".
Edward James is buried in the St Roche's Arboretum at West Dean, with the simple inscription Edward James 1907 – 1984 Poet. The stone was carved by John Skelton.
Writings
I have seen such beauty as one man has seldom seen;
surrounded by the forests, the great green gloom
Here amid the warmth of the rain, what might have been
who says: 'You did your best, rest' – and after you the bloom
And the ghosts of the birds I loved, will attend me each a friend;
You, through the trees, shall hear them, long after the end
continue, as – defended by the cortege of their wings –
—Edward James, Poet 1907 – 1984
- E. James, The Bones of my Hand, privately printed, London 1930.
- E. James, The Glass Omnibus, privately printed, London 1934.
- E. James, The Gardener Who Saw God, 1937.
- E. James, "The Sight of Marble, and Other Poems", Julian Messner, 1941
- Edward James wrote a collection of four poems, Sécheresses, and Francis Poulenc set them to music for choir and piano or orchestra in 1937.
Portrait sculpture