This year is the 60th anniversary of the death of the renowned artist Mary Stormont who, with the artist Eileen Eason, founded the Rye Art Gallery.
Mary married the artist Howard Gull Stormont in 1898, against the wishes of her parents. The couple eloped to Rye and lived in Ypres Studio on the High Street, and they became the focus in Rye for visiting artists. In the 1920s she was a founder member of the Rye Art Club under the patronage of author Henry James. The Rye Society of Artists continues the ethos and traditions of the founder members to this day.
In the times when Mary grew up, female artists were overshadowed by male artists, but during her lifetime this began to change, partly because of her influence. Mary lived next door to the painter Eileen Eason. Many artists from around the world were drawn to this quirky house to draw, paint and share ideas. The history of Rye Art Gallery is in essence the history of women painters who came together and, bonded by a common cause, encouraged women to break into a male-dominated scene.
The two ladies got together with a lawyer and set up the Rye Art Charitable Trust in 1957. By 1965 both artists were dead and their two houses were knocked through, Rye Art Gallery was born and the first exhibition took place.
Mary exhibited throughout her life, showing regularly at the Royal Academy, the Bruton Galleries in London, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and the Ridley Art Club. She first exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1899 with an oil painting, A Wayside Inn. She carried on showing her work in at least seventeen Royal Academy Exhibitions, her last being in 1940.
Mary was especially sought after for her flower paintings, but also painted interiors and landscapes. As well as a painter, she was an accomplished photographer. Her subjects were women on the land and beaches around Rye. She loved to capture the local customs and way of life, Her aim was to create a photographic documentary of the life of Rye through women’s eyes.
On her death she bequeathed Ypres Studio, approximately one hundred art works and money to the Rye Art Gallery Trust.
The first exhibition in the gallery this year, 2022, runs from 29 January to 20 March and showcases Paula MacArthur: Still Light. Running alongside this will be an exhibition called Still Life with Flowers featuring artists from the gallery’s permanent collection including Mary Stormont, Miranda Boulton, Hermione Allsop, Rachel Lancaster, Graham Crowley, Diana Low, Narbi Price, Kenneth Townsend and Judith Tucker.
It is very fitting to celebrate Mary’s works amongst the others, as it is sixty years since she died and her reputation has gone from strength to strength. Her legacy draws people from around the world.
The gallery is home to an inspiring display of regularly changing contemporary art and craft for sale, a fine permanent collection of national and regional importance and a variety of supporting events.
Curator and director Julian Day commented, “Rye Art Gallery with its large open gallery spaces, remarkable permanent collection alongside a great programme of exhibitions planned and fine art for sale by leading contemporary artists, makes us unique. Please do come in and visit us soon.”
