Henry Coombes
04 Sep - 09 Oct 2009
"The Bedfords"
Preview: 4th September 2009, 7pm
‘The Bedfords’ by Henry Coombes 4th September–9th October 2009 (Please note there will be no preview but the film screening will open on the 4th September and will be open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am-5pm thereafter)
The Bedfords is Coombes’s most ambitious film to date and tells the story of Sir Edwin Landseer, a famed artist and favourite portrait painter of Queen Victoria. The film opens on Landseer as he travels from his studio in London to the Highlands of Scotland to visit The Bedford family whose portrait he has been commissioned to paint. After the long coach journey north Landseer awakes and makes a sleepy entrance to the Highland home of The Bedfords. The domineering Duke of Bedford welcomes Landseer as the family gather in the drawing room to meet this famous London artist, a celebrity of his day.
The next day, the Duchess sits to pose for the artist and eyes him flirtatiously. Landseer nervously begins his portrait study but is afraid of eye contact with the Duchess who oozes sexual prowess across the room. With the Duke gone fishing and their son Giles at play outside, the Duchess flirts openly with Landseer. Asking him to undo a button on the cuff of her dress, their bodies come close and the pair embrace passionately.
The guilt of the forbidden affair with the Duchess weighs heavily on Landseer. Rather than enjoying the game of the stalk, Landseer is tormented by surreal visions out on the hill. Through the binoculars, Landseer imagines a spectacle of naked men, their antlers locked in battle. Surreal episodes become more and more frequent, revealing the fragile state of the artist’s mind.
The film is a far from ordinary period drama and was prdoduced by Brocken Spectre, supported by Scottish Screen and Sorcha Dallas, featuring a cameo apperance from legendary Scottish artist and writer Alasdair Gray with music by Tut Vu Vu and Cleveland Watkiss.
Coombes was born in London in 1977 and completed his BA at Glasgow School of Art in 2002. Solo shows include Anna Helwing, LA, ‘Black Button’ (Cooper Gallery, Dundee), and Suzie Q Project Space, Zurich. Selected group shows include ‘If Not Now’ (Broadway 1602, New York), ‘An Archaeology’ (The Zabludowicz Collection: Project Space 176, London), ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ (Museo Civico di Rovereto, Trentino) and more recently ‘Grin & Bear It: Cruel Humour in Art & Life’ (Lewis Glucksmann Gallery, University of Cork). In addition Coombes was a recipient of the 2005 Scottish Arts Council/Scottish Screen Film award and his subsequent short film, ‘Laddy and the Lady’, premiered at Tramway, Glasgow in June 2006. It has since screened at film festivals in Oberhausen, Norway, Edinburgh, Stockholm, and Nova Scotia. Coombes represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale in 2007, in which he premiered his third film ‘Gralloch’, which was subsequently screened alongside a solo presentation of his work for the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles in 2008. His fourth film ‘The Bedfords’ will be screened in 2009 at Light & Sie, Dallas, the Zabludowicz Collection: Project Space 176 and The Dean Gallery, Edinburgh.
Please contact the gallery for further information and images: tel + 44 (0) 141 553 2662 / info@sorchadallas.com
Preview: 4th September 2009, 7pm
‘The Bedfords’ by Henry Coombes 4th September–9th October 2009 (Please note there will be no preview but the film screening will open on the 4th September and will be open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am-5pm thereafter)
The Bedfords is Coombes’s most ambitious film to date and tells the story of Sir Edwin Landseer, a famed artist and favourite portrait painter of Queen Victoria. The film opens on Landseer as he travels from his studio in London to the Highlands of Scotland to visit The Bedford family whose portrait he has been commissioned to paint. After the long coach journey north Landseer awakes and makes a sleepy entrance to the Highland home of The Bedfords. The domineering Duke of Bedford welcomes Landseer as the family gather in the drawing room to meet this famous London artist, a celebrity of his day.
The next day, the Duchess sits to pose for the artist and eyes him flirtatiously. Landseer nervously begins his portrait study but is afraid of eye contact with the Duchess who oozes sexual prowess across the room. With the Duke gone fishing and their son Giles at play outside, the Duchess flirts openly with Landseer. Asking him to undo a button on the cuff of her dress, their bodies come close and the pair embrace passionately.
The guilt of the forbidden affair with the Duchess weighs heavily on Landseer. Rather than enjoying the game of the stalk, Landseer is tormented by surreal visions out on the hill. Through the binoculars, Landseer imagines a spectacle of naked men, their antlers locked in battle. Surreal episodes become more and more frequent, revealing the fragile state of the artist’s mind.
The film is a far from ordinary period drama and was prdoduced by Brocken Spectre, supported by Scottish Screen and Sorcha Dallas, featuring a cameo apperance from legendary Scottish artist and writer Alasdair Gray with music by Tut Vu Vu and Cleveland Watkiss.
Coombes was born in London in 1977 and completed his BA at Glasgow School of Art in 2002. Solo shows include Anna Helwing, LA, ‘Black Button’ (Cooper Gallery, Dundee), and Suzie Q Project Space, Zurich. Selected group shows include ‘If Not Now’ (Broadway 1602, New York), ‘An Archaeology’ (The Zabludowicz Collection: Project Space 176, London), ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ (Museo Civico di Rovereto, Trentino) and more recently ‘Grin & Bear It: Cruel Humour in Art & Life’ (Lewis Glucksmann Gallery, University of Cork). In addition Coombes was a recipient of the 2005 Scottish Arts Council/Scottish Screen Film award and his subsequent short film, ‘Laddy and the Lady’, premiered at Tramway, Glasgow in June 2006. It has since screened at film festivals in Oberhausen, Norway, Edinburgh, Stockholm, and Nova Scotia. Coombes represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale in 2007, in which he premiered his third film ‘Gralloch’, which was subsequently screened alongside a solo presentation of his work for the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles in 2008. His fourth film ‘The Bedfords’ will be screened in 2009 at Light & Sie, Dallas, the Zabludowicz Collection: Project Space 176 and The Dean Gallery, Edinburgh.
Please contact the gallery for further information and images: tel + 44 (0) 141 553 2662 / info@sorchadallas.com