Paintings, drawings maps and photographs often provide a valuable record of changes to buildings and landscapes. Reginald Brill’s picture ‘Mr Turner restoring the Barn’, in the dining room of Little Hall, records two of the Italian lead statues that were formerly on the garden terrace of the Hall. Brill’s viewpoint was on the first floor of the Hall, looking across the terrace to the garden wall to include the former home of Lady Malleson and ‘the Barn’, the nickname for Molet House, on the other side of the road from Little Hall.
The ink and grey wash picture of the ‘Barn’ is dated 1961, the year following Thomas Gayer-Anderson’s death. Brill did not retire as Principal of the Kingston School of Art until July 1962 when he became Warden of the Gayer-Anderson Hostel for Art Students at Little Hall. The statuary was probably in place during the time Little Hall was occupied by the Brills and their students and was moved into the building later, where it remains.
Thomas Gayer-Anderson notes that he and his brother brought the statues from Italy and that they were copies of Renaissance originals. There is a photograph of Brill relaxing in a corner of the garden with another of the statues on a plinth or shelf behind him, in Judith Bumpus’ book ‘Reginald Brill’. This statue is also no longer in the garden, but the photograph shows its exact location.
The library also features in Reginald Brill’s Little Hall paintings. His pen and wash preparatory study for ‘Artist in his library’ depicts the books, shelves and the storage cupboard door with meticulous detail and this is reflected in the finished work, which includes his full-length self-portrait. ‘Man in the Library’ dated 1964 is another self portrait but also a portrait of the library and its books.
Brill’s portraits of the library tend to show that the shelving and the leather-bound book collection have not notably changed since the 1960s.
Ken Burr – Little Hall volunteer.