Folkestone Art Co-operative at The Grand

There could scarcely be a better place to view an exhibition of art than within the Palm Court of the genteel Grand Hotel, especially on a day when France revealed herself across the sparkling waters of the Channel. Such splendour, such gaiety, such temptation to take tea on the Leas, surely still the most elegant seaside promenade in the world.

Of Fontaine-Wolf’s paintings, ‘Tuscan Garden’ and ‘Sarah Reading’, the latter was the one that captivated. Until then, I confess that it was the architecture that held my attention, but the portrait of the young girl engrossed in fiction seemed both to stand out and belong. Yes, that’s it, it stood out because it belonged - stuck - defiantly - in that middle part of the twentieth century, between the Bloomsbury artists and Suez, or between the domestic servant and the hostess trolley. The world has changed, but The Grand, ‘Sarah Reading’ and Fontaine-Wolf it seems have not.

But despite this unease, I so admire the refinement of the painting. I am drawn into the intensity of the subject. Sarah is reading, and we are observing her. It is her space, all chintzy informality, beautifully observed in soft greys and apricots. Her cat elongates across the back of the chair, but she is rapt in concentration; and the immediate sense of calm repose is replaced by tension. It is the universal experience of the reader when the book takes hold. Yes, it’s been done many times before - and I especially recall Vanessa Bell’s ‘Interior with Artist’s Daughter’, but in The Grand’s imperial setting, I loved it.