 |
| Olga Lehmann at work. |
Artist Olga Lehmann was born Louise Olga Mary Lehmann in Catemu, Valparaiso, Chile on
 |
| Self Portrait. Oil on Board. |
February 10th, 1912, to a Scottish mother and French (Parisian) father. She died in Saffron Walden, Essex in October 2001 aged 89.
Members of her family were and still are prolific creators, establishing successful careers in a wide range of arts. Olga Lehmann was married to Poet and Broadcaster Carl Huson and they
had one son, the renowned Hollywood film producer, writer and artist Paul Huson. Olga's sister was the late Monica Pidgeon (1913-2009), herself a noted interior designer and founder of
Architectural Design magazine - she was once hailed 'Queen of Architecture'. I am planning for Monica to be the subject of one of my future blogs. I feel extremely grateful that I was able to have a telephone conversation with Monica and some email chats in 2008, just before she passed away. In those calls, she gave me her blessing and said that she was really happy that I was researching the work of her sister.
My discovery of Olga Lehmann and her fabulous family links only happened because of a £10 original artwork purchase I made in 2004, in an Upminster charity shop of a painting of a 'hippie chick'. The subject was dressed in Bohemian style, sitting cross-legged, wearing a floral shirt and with a bandana round her head. She looked like the kind of free-spirited character I would love to meet. There was a Saffron Walden, Essex address scrawled onto the back of the painting, along with the name 'Miranda' and the date - 1975.
 |
| Miranda. 1975. |
In April 2005, I went to the Royal Academy of Arts in
London to see the much acclaimed ‘Turks’ exhibition and also to see ‘Matisse, His Art
and his Textiles: The Fabric of Dreams’.
In the foyer, I picked up a leaflet entitled
‘The Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden, Essex’.
The leaflet described the gallery as having ‘a unique collection of
paintings, books and ceramics by artists who have lived and worked in and
around Great Bardfield from 1930 to 1970 and in Saffron Walden since. Straight away, I thought of my painting of Miranda at home. The leaflet briefly mentioned the artist Olga
Lehmann. Nothing about her, just her
name. Incidentally, Great Bardfield was once the home of legendary artist Grayson Perry, who's work featured in a 2015 exhibition at the gallery.
A couple of days after finding the leaflet, I decided to drive the 49 miles from Upminster to the pretty village of Great Sampford, to find the
address on the back of my painting and also visit the Fry Gallery. I was wishfully thinking I would get the opportunity to meet the artist Olga Lehmann. There was no road name on my painting, so
after driving around for a while in what seemed like circles, up and down
country lanes, I eventually arrived at Sparrow Hall, a lovely detached country
home. From the side of the house, I
could see into the back garden, it rolled down a massive slope and had a pagoda
about half way down, from where I imagined the owners would have a very English afternoon tea,
while enjoying the wide-spanning country views.
Thaxted, just 3 miles down the road, is known as Constable
country and now I could see why. This
area is chocolate box gorgeous. No wonder Olga
Lehmann chose to live here. I felt really excited about the prospect of
meeting her and hoped she wouldn’t mind me turning up on her
doorstep. As I approached the house, a
builder appeared from behind his van. I
asked him if the house belonged to Olga Lehmann. He said she no longer lived there, having moved out years ago.
The lady owner of the house was away, and he was there doing maintenance work. I thanked him and
drove off, with my roof down, wind in my hair, taking in the Spring
sunshine and beautiful Essex countryside but feeling a bit gutted that the artist I was searching for, wasn't where I thought she might be. Admiring the rural views, I couldn’t help thinking that Constable’s Essex seemed so much different
to my Essex, which is actually a London Borough, a suburb bordering on East
London but which is also referred to as Essex.
 |
| Great Sampford Village - 12 Days of Christmas painting |
I headed for Saffron Walden to find the Fry Art
Gallery. The tiny hamlets seemed really
quiet, there were hardly any people around. After a while, in one of the sleepy villages, I saw two men gardening at a bungalow. I parked up and walked across, taking a chance and randomly asking if they had heard of the artist Olga Lehmann. The chance paid off! The older of the two men smiled and explained
that he and his wife had known her very well and that she had passed away a
couple of years ago. I told him about my
painting and said I was interested in finding out more about the artist and
that I had actually gone to Saffron Walden with the hope of meeting
her. I felt sad when he told me she was no
longer alive, but he said she had lived to the grand age of 89. My day was filling with a rollercoaster of emotions.
Having worked out that Miranda must have been painted when Olga
Lehmann was in her early sixties, this made me wonder how old Miranda was when she sat for that portrait and I also
wondered where Miranda was now, Who was
she? I couldn’t wait to find out. Would I find out? How exciting! I felt that I was on some kind of mission. The man from the garden told me that his wife
was an art teacher and that she taught at a girls school in Chelmsford. He said that when their children were
younger, Olga Lehmann had painted a pastel family portrait and that they also had
some other pieces of her artwork at home.
I gave him my mobile number to pass on to his wife and headed back to the car.
 |
| Olga Lehmann & her husband Carl Huson in the studio 1946 |
When I got to the Fry Art gallery, the exhibition on show was
of the artist Edward Bawden and there was no sign of any work by Olga
Lehmann. I spoke to Kenneth Wilson and a lady called Iris Weaver.
They said that due to the small size of the gallery, they could only
show about 100 paintings at any one time and that they have some of Olga
Lehmann’s works stored away in their collections and that arrangements could be
made for me to view them another time. Iris Weaver also explained to me
that Olga Lehmann was also a costume designer for Hollywood movies and
that her son (she didn't give me his name) was a film producer in America.
They were very helpful and gave me some contacts, who were friends
of Olga Lehmann that I could also speak to.
 |
| Sketch to accompany Carl Huson poem. |
The monochrome image above is of an artwork held in the Fry Gallery collection, showing Olga Lehmann working in her studio with her husband Carl Huson probably dreaming up his next poem. He wrote poetry during WWII and Olga did some striking illustrations to accompany Carl's words and they produced several poetry books. With Paul Huson's permission, I used some of the illustrations and poems in an exhibition in Shepton Mallet, Somerset on behalf of the Royal British Legion, for visitors to a pop-up shop for the fundraising Poppy Appeal in 2016.
Carl Huson also wrote poetry for children such as Over the Hills and Far Away. Some of his poems can be listened to on the Sound Cloud on-line. The poems are read by Carl himself. I've put a link below and also have other poems of his I will publish on a future blog.
Martin Salisbury,
subject leader of illustration in Ruskin Building APU at Cambridge School of
Art has co-written a book called
‘Artists at the Fry – A guide to works in the Fry Art Gallery’.
Olga Lehmann features in this book, which showcases artists including Tirzah Garwood, wife of Eric Ravillious who lived in the area of Great Bardfield between 1930 and 1970. Infamous cross-dressing artist Grayson Perry is from the same area and above the doorway of the Fry Gallery sits cheekily entitled 'Whore of Essex' a glazed earthenware ceramic.
 |
| Ceramic by Grayson Perry |
As I was heading for home, my mobile rang. It was the man from the garden. He said that he had got back and told his
wife about our conversation and she would like to invite me round for a cup of
tea and to show me her artworks by Olga Lehmann. I was so happy. How synchronistic that I happened to find that particular man in that particular garden when there was nobody else around! They gave me directions to their home and I
made my way there. Lizzie and Roger lived in a place called Millfield Cottage in Little
Sampford. At the time, Lizzie Schwier, a Ceramicist was teaching art at New Hall School in
Chelmsford, they told me their son is studying
to be an actor. Lizzie proudly showed me a picture of the Virgin Mary and a family portrait, both by the
artist Olga Lehmann. I felt like a new world had opened up for me to discover - I was bursting to find out more. A few days later, I wrote them a little thank you card for making me feel so welcome.
 |
| The Garden of Eden. |
When I got in, I googled like mad, finding out
anything I could about Olga Lehmann. In the
Independent on-line I discovered her 2001 obituary by David Buckman, giving me a
brief history of the artist. It was exciting to discover how prolific an artist and designer she was and how her
career had spanned 70 years, although she had remained relatively unknown in that
time. Olga had illustrated
books, designed costumes, scenic film sets and storyboards for major films,
both credited and uncredited work. She
had taken on many commissions to paint murals and had designed artwork for
record covers. She had even designed 'Fantasy' themed wallpaper in the 1950s.
What I found most fascinating of all was where the Independent on-line article explained that she had been commissioned during the
Second World War to paint murals to boost war time morale in a secret underground factory. I was interested to
find out more about these murals and although subjects around war had never
interested me before, I seemed to be drawn even closer to the artist and wanted
do look at her work, see it, feel it and touch it. The obituary also mentioned Lehmann’s son - I now had his name, Paul Huson, so I decided to try and contact him.
 |
| Circus mural in canteen area underground at Spring Quarry |
When I googled Paul Huson, I found his website and it was
all to do with Witchcraft. He is an
author of books on Wicca and Witchcraft.
I thought ‘oh, this could be spooky’.
I emailed him and briefly explained my story of discovering the painting
in the charity shop and then going on the journey to Saffron Walden to try to
find out more about his mother, the artist. Paul emailed me back that he was always
delighted when someone discovered his mothers work and he told me that Miranda
is his cousin. She’s the daughter of
Professor Andrew G Lehmann, Olga’s brother.
He also told me that Olga had sold Sparrow Hall in 1985 on the death of
his father, Richard Huson and that his mother had spent the rest of her life in a charming cottage in Artisan Dwellings, Saffron Walden. I couldn't believe it when I found out that the subject of my painting of Miranda was actually Olga's niece and to this day, feel really lucky to have found my hippie chick painting. It has since given me hundreds of hours of researching pleasure.
I was able to track Miranda down with the help of Paul Huson and Monica Pidgeon and one day she kindly agreed to meet me and brought along the original sketch Olga did before she created my painting! These days, Miranda told me she likes to be known as Chris and at the time I met her she was working as a Pyrotechnic. She is the daughter of Olga's brother Andrew G Lehmann (1922-2006), who was a literary critic, academic and essayist in subjects including the French Symbolism art movement. I understand he was known as George. My painting of Miranda has some peeling paint. I spent quite a bit having it framed but it really does need restoration before anymore of her face and forehead flake off.
Anyway, when working for the Hollywood movie industry, Olga Lehmann designed costumes, scenic film sets and storyboards for major films including academy award winning Tom Thumb, The First Modern Olympics 1896, Guns of Naverone and the Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman. I've heard she found it quite annoying that she wasn't always credited for her work on these movies. She also completed many commissions to paint murals, including a massive commission for Hollywood idol Errol Flynn for his Titchfield Hotel in Jamaica. The entire mural was around 40 feet wide and painted onto canvas.
 |
| Mural scene showing Captain Bligh bringing bread & fruit to the natives of Jamaica. Painted in 1952. |
In her lifetime, Olga would have met many famous Hollywood movie stars including Bette Davis, Errol Flynn and Barbara Stanwyck, Charlton Heston and Colby's TV actress Stephanie Beecham to name a few.
Some of these 'A' listers would sit for her to paint portraits which would often become part of the film set - for example as a family portrait above the fireplace in a movie scene.
Always one to diversify, Olga Lehmann also designed vibrant artwork for record covers, such as the Argo records vinyl of Under Milkwood for the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and The Wasteland by T.S. Eilot as well as for artists such as Robert Still and Edric O'Connor.
The British Film Institute holds an incredible selection of Olga Lehmann’s work in set design, costume design and stage design. I visited the archive at the John Paul Getty Conservation Centre in Berkhempstead 2010, put the white gloves on and was allowed the pleasure of viewing hundreds of original sketches and storyboards beautifully hand-drawn, annotated and coloured by the artist. I felt privileged to be able to see all of this incredible artwork close up. The list of movies she has worked on is much longer than your arm and includes major Hollywood movie productions including Tom Thumb, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The Crimson Pirate, Dark Avenger, Happy Go Lovely, A Countess from Hong Kong, Stage Fright (Alfred Hitchcock), Masters of Ballantrae,
First Modern Olympics 1896 (Athens), The Millionairess starring Sophia Loren and steampunk magical movie Around the World in Eighty Days (1956).
Olga received several Emmy nominations for her work but at times her name didn't even appear in the credits despite her talented creative input into so many high profile movies. This was a re-occurring theme throughout her life that she never seemed to get the credit she deserved and it's a familiar pattern for women artists who don't get the spotlight in the same way that male artists do.
 |
| Costume Design for the Dark Avenger movie |
Olga Lehmann illustrated several novels, including Evening Star by Mary Elwyn Pachett and Weekend Caravan by S Hillelson.
As well as the Victoria and
Albert Museum Art Archive holding a catalogue of Olga’s illustrations and wallpaper designs, they also hold original black and white photographs of the Corsham Murals, taken
at the time she was working on them.
The (now closed) Barnsdale Gallery in Yoxford, Suffolk held a selection of
her works and the Boundary gallery in
London has some of her war sketches and a collection of her drawings and
paintings.
The Imperial War Museum in London hold some WWII watercolour paintings where she documented life during the war, including the one pictured here of a film showing in an ad-hoc cinema set up in one of the tunnels underneath St Pancras Station in London.
As Corsham wasn't far from where I was living in Somerset, I decided to drive there to try to find the Ministry of Defence site where the underground murals were located. I found the above ground site of the abandoned Royal Navy training camp HMS Royal Arthur at Spring Quarry, which was decommissioned in 1995. I visited it twice and both times was followed out by the police. It was an incredible, wild and derelict landscape of abandoned barracks. The site had been taken over by graffiti artist from all over the world and was now home to some fantastic, vibrantly coloured murals covering all kinds of whacky subjects. I was in my element photographing as much as I could as an intrepid explorer trying to avoid being caught in an out-of-bounds location.
On my third visit, the security guard showed me a map of exactly where the murals are located and I noticed on the map that there was some kind of media centre built underground next door to the location of the murals. It was just a fleeting glance at the map. The guard also gave me the name of an RAF flight lieutenant who is interested in art and oversees anything to do with the murals. She said that if I apply to him officially through the MOD website, I could possibly get permission to have a tour of the murals. At the random times when I visited the underground RAF locations were on high security alert due to recent terrorist attacks in London, so I totally understood why I had been followed. I decided to go to the Corsham Tourist office and see if I could find out anything there. There was no literature about the Corsham murals and the staff that I spoke to weren't yet aware of the hidden art underground in the town. This made me even more determined to try and raise awareness of the treasure!
I purchased a book called ‘Secret Underground Cities’ by Nick McCamley and there is a brief mention of Olga Lehmann and the murals in there. I got in touch with Nick and he has been a great help with my research on underground Corsham.
BBC Inside Out programme did a documentary about the murals in 2006 as the hidden underground city 100 metres below HMS Royal Arthur slowly began to lift it's lid, revealing secrets and historical artefacts - such as I saw, the original telephone exchange equipment and even a hospital bay where the beds and some medical paraphernalia remain. The site is still not open to the public and much about the location of the murals still remains a mystery. Many believe that the murals should be protected and maintained as an important piece of local art and military history. The future for the site, which has 60 miles of roads, is not yet known.
After going through various official channels within the Ministry of Defence, I was finally granted permission to be taken underground to view the murals. This was one of the most exciting moments of my life! I went through various security procedures and then donned a hard-hat and went deeper and deeper below ground, walking through a network of unlit tunnels carved out of stone until I was led into a large canteen area where I saw some of the original murals for the first time. It took my breathe away. There they were in perfect condition as if they had only been painted yesterday. The main colours were blue, brown and cream which would have probably been the only colours available to the artist at the time.
Olga was commissioned by Sir Reginald Verdon-Smith, the head
of Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1942/3 during the Second World War to paint the murals in a 35 acre former Bath Stone Quarry at Corsham. It was being used
as a war-time ammunition store and as a factory making the Centaurus engine for
Hawker Tempest war planes. The idea was
to brighten up the canteen areas and boost war time morale for the underground
workers some 100 or so feet below ground.
Driven to Corsham in the dead of night, when reaching the
factory, Olga and her assistant artist Gilbert Wood were shown to their
lodgings in the workers' aboveground quarters. These were military style Nissen
huts. Men and women were located on
opposite sides of the grounds. The dormitories were sparsely furnished, but
well heated. There was a shared bathroom
at the end of each passage. A central block contained recreation rooms, a
dining room, and other rooms in typical factory layout.
The whole factory was painted cream. Walls had been hewn out
of the rock. In this underground labyrinth, all sense of direction was lost.
Trestle tables and chairs were lined up for the workers. Enormous machines were situated around the
sides of this seemingly endless underground city. Tunnels threaded their way up
and down. Little electric vehicles hummed about, driven by girls at the helm,
looking like ships’ figureheads. They were all dressed in dungarees and wore
their hair tied up in coloured cloth.
They finished the first canteen in one week; fitting the
other five in around film assignments over the following months. Mural subjects
included “Sailors of Bygone Days” ,their girlfriends, mermaids and sailing
ships, maritime artefacts, “Pre-Historic Animals, “Horse Racing;”
“Sports;” and “the Circus’.
English Heritage in 2007 photographed and documented many of the surviving underground murals. In the 1950s, the site became a Cold War bunker “Burlington’, from where the Government could have rebuilt the country in the event of a nuclear attack. It was decommissioned in December 2005. Also in 20007, Oxford Archaeology researcher Jane Phimister was commissioned by English Heritage to carry out research on the Burlington area, including the Spring Quarry (Copenacre) mural locations. I have put a link to her discoveries below for those who are interested in what lies beneath!
Jane also presented her findings at Corsham Town Hall on January 27th 2009 which was also attended by representatives of the MoD and Will Holborrow of English Heritage. She didn't see any of the circus themed murals when she was doing her research and believes these may now have been painted over.
At the Corsham Tourist Office, which is also the Heritage centre, there is exhibition space where on behalf of the Corsham Civic Society I curated a small display about the artist Olga Lehmann. Ideally located close to the Corsham Murals for their Heritage Open Days 2009 so that the public and particularly local people, could become more aware of their existence even though the site is not open to the public, for health and safety reasons it's intriguing to know that there are hidden underground cities still in existence.
Because there has been a media centre built below ground at the site next to where the murals are located, it makes me think there is a possibility that the murals could be made available for the public to see. Although I understand that this would be at considerable cost and with Health & Safety issues to contend with before public access would be allowed, my dream is that maybe, one day the site could be turned into a museum/gallery of sorts. Although I think that the more time goes on, the more damaged and faded the murals will become. Underground in Corsham is where many valuable works of art from the V&A and National Gallery were kept safe from bombing during the War and Corsham Court gallery holds a Historic collection of Old Master paintings, so the area has strong associations with the art world.
 |
| Photo: Courtesy of IBIS |
The Victoria and Albert
Museum Art Archive holds Olga Lehmann's illustration and mural work including black and
white photographs of the Corsham Murals, taken at the time she was working on
them. There was no end to her talents and the phenomenal body of work she produced, which will probably take years to document.
She even diversified to design wallpaper in the 1950s, the 'Fantasy' collection was manufactured by John Line & Sons Ltd and can also be viewed in the V&A archive. The Imaginative Book Illustration Society (IBIS) Newsletter, Issue 15, Summer 2000 featured several of Olga Lehmann's works including front covers she did for the Radio Times in the 1940s and early 1950s using scraper board techniques and then pen and wash.
Olga Lehmann was still working as an artist up until she was 88 years old, the year before her death. She would spend her winters in Los Angeles and return with various artworks for display and she would often organise her exhibitions herself. The Barnsdale Gallery in Yoxford, Suffolk held a one-woman show
retrospective of her work just before she died and The Boundary gallery in London has some of her
war sketches and a collection of her drawings and paintings as does the
Imperial War Museum.
In April 2010, I curated Underground/Overground, an exhibition for the Pound Arts Centre in Corsham to highlight the artwork of Olga Lehmann, showing many of her original paintings borrowed from various collectors of her work including Bruce Denman and in particular drawing attention to the underground murals. I combined contemporary urban graffiti art imagery with the historical murals and included fantastical paintings by Bristol graffiti artist Ferd Eye. Also in the exhibition were my own digital artworks - kaleidoscapes of photographs I took at the HMS Royal Arthur derelict site, mashed up with images of the Centaurus aircraft engines I photographed at the Bristol Aero Collection Museum at Kemble. The exhibition was very well received and I'm grateful to Nicholas Keyworth of the Pound for giving the go-ahead for the event (which included various talks about underground Corsham) to take place.
 |
| Digital Kaleidoscapes by Mandie Stone for the Underground/Overground Exhibition |
Paul Huson, the son of Olga Lehmann lives in Los
Angeles. He co-wrote the 1980s hit TV
series The Colbys, the television sequel to Dynasty and is also the author of books on Wicca, Witchcraft and Tarot. Paul, who continues to work as an artist and writer was partner of the late film
producer William Bast (1931-2015), who lived with James Dean in the 1950s and wrote the book ‘Surviving James Dean’.
It's all very interesting and for me a lifetime voyage of discovery that I keep on coming back to. Through Paul, I met Robert Worley, also a costume designer who has worked with Olga throughout his career. Both Paul and Robert have generously shared information and given me access to previously unseen artworks to enable me to create the exhibitions and continue to learn about and raise awareness of the artist. I'm truly grateful to them for their support.
I am in awe of the amount of artworks Olga produced in her lifetime. She must have had boundless energy, vibrancy and enthusiasm to have achieved so much. She is certainly a fantastic role model, to be admired and celebrated. I created an Olga Lehmann tribute page on Facebook (link below) - please like this page and share! I've also created a Pinterest board for adding photographs of Olga's work.
If you love the arts and are interested in this amazing woman and when researching her, discover images and information about her artwork and activities, please post about her and share on social media. Her legend must live on and if we can all work together to keep her in the spotlight, she will get the recognition she truly deserves and we will all be doing her proud!
Thank you so much for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, please comment if you want and please share the link with your friends and check out my other blogs. I have folders and folders of research on the artist - far too much to publish here. Please feel free to contact me with any enquiries. Meanwhile keep on celebrating the arts and in particular showing support to female artists, helping them to get well deserved exposure for their work!
Much love, Mandie xx
Links/Sources
