REVIEW
LESLEY JACKSON on JOAN CHARNLEY

“I first encountered the work of Joan Charnley when I was researching my book Alastair Morton and Edinburgh Weavers: Visionary Textiles and Modern Art (V&A Publishing, 2012). Whilst sifting through the V&A’s collections, I came across a striking hand screen-printed cotton furnishing fabric called ‘Beachcomber’ (1952), acquired by the museum in 1954 (V&A Circ.455-1954). The design consists of pebble-like motifs against a granular background resembling sand. This presumably prompted the title ‘Beachcomber’, but the design also has a quasi-biological dimension, evoking micro-organisms viewed under a microscope. 

The pattern, although strongly organic, is arranged in a grid formation with star motifs at the intersections. Quartic blocks of colour overprinted in translucent dyes add texture and depth to the black linear design, creating layered effects which are subtle yet visually stimulating. Technically sophisticated and artistically adventurous, but with a relaxed informality, ‘Beachcomber’ made a vivid impression on me from the outset. My interest was further fuelled when I discovered Joan Charnley’s original artwork in the V&A’s Archive of Art and Design, both her initial rough sketch and her detailed design (AAD/2002/7/10/108-109), dated 30 May 1952. Drawn in pencil and ink with gouache overlays, the finished artwork consists of one full pattern repeat with four additional colourways. A work of art in itself, embodying both technical skill and artistic flair, it confirmed my belief that this was a truly original design. 

Having never heard of Joan Charnley, I was intrigued to find out more, which is what led me to track her down in 2009. One of the remarkable things about Joan is that she kept such detailed records. Although she had already turned 80 when we first met, she promptly retrieved a notebook documenting her correspondence and meetings with textile manufacturers in 1951, when she set out to establish herself as a freelance designer after completing her Postgraduate Diploma at Manchester Regional College of Art. 

The notebook records that she initially wrote to Edinburgh Weavers on 1 October 1951 and received a reply from their Carlisle-based parent company, Morton Sundour Fabrics, four days later. Shortly afterwards Joan visited Alastair Morton, the firm’s art director, at his home at Hawkshead in the Lake District on 20 October 1951. As a result of seeing her portfolio, Morton bought two designs for 25 guineas each, one for Morton Sundour Fabrics (a jacquard-woven yellow and grey damask), the other for Edinburgh Weavers (a three-colour screen-printed furnishing fabric). For the latter, ‘Beachcomber’, Joan was asked to develop her initial sketch into finished artwork. The textile, which closely matches the design, was hand screen printed by Edinburgh Weavers’ sister company, Standfast Dyers and Printers, at their Lancaster mill.

Interestingly, Alastair Morton had already recognised Joan’s potential two years earlier as he was one of her external examiners at Manchester School of Art (as it was then known) when she was studying for her Diploma in Textile Design in 1949. 

Her tutors at Manchester included Helen Dalby and Olive Sullivan, both of whom designed for Edinburgh Weavers. The centrepiece of Joan’s Diploma show was a large wall-hanging called ‘Milles Fleurs’, inspired by medieval tapestries. Hand screen-printed on a tablecloth, this ambitious design, featuring a medley of stylised flowers within a decorative border, inevitably caught Morton’s eye. As Joan’s assessor, he is also likely to have seen her 1949 thesis Horizontality and Verticality – The Importance of Stripe in Textile Design. 

Alastair Morton was highly regarded in the design world, having pioneered a collection of artist-designed textiles at Edinburgh Weavers during the late 1930s, including works by Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. By a curious coincidence Joan’s thesis includes specific references to two of Alastair Morton’s ground-breaking early post-war design initiatives: his experimental Unit Prints for Edinburgh Weavers (which she refers to as Morton Sundour), dating from 1945-6; and his ‘gay and picturesque’ dress fabric prints for Horrockses Fashions, produced from 1948 onwards, several of which she illustrates. Although drawn to these designs, however, Joan is unlikely to have known that Alastair Morton was their designer, as his name was rarely mentioned in publicity at the time. Nevertheless, the fact that she was instinctively attracted to Morton’s aesthetic and he spontaneously recognised her creative talent is highly fortuitous and significant. 

Unfortunately, the discerning Alastair Morton was a rarity in the textile industry when Joan embarked on her career. As her notebook reveals, most of her approaches to other companies came to nothing, which was why her father encouraged her to take a teaching job instead. This is a shame because, had she been touting her patterns a couple of years later when ‘Contemporary’ design (as it was known) had taken off and achieved widespread public popularity, she would have received a more positive reception. Following her interview with Ramm Son & Crocker on October 24th 1951, Joan writes: ‘Off hand. Do not buy Contemporary designs’. Even the enlightened Tom Worthington at Heal Fabrics, who had recently given Lucienne Day her big break at the Festival of Britain, declined to buy any of Joan’s designs when she met him on October 23rd 1951. 

The textile and wallpaper firm Sanderson, who clearly favoured more traditional designs, invited Joan to produce some roughs with ‘large columns, festoons – Pampas Grass etc’ in ‘Rich intense colourings’. As she later collected these designs from them, however, it seems her efforts did not lead to a sale. It was Sanderson’s who steered Joan towards Donald Brothers, who were known for ‘more Scandinavian type of Designs’, but when she approached them she was told they were ‘Not buying at present’. She was also turned down by Liberty’s and Ascher.

In spite of her lack of commercial success, there is no question that Joan Charnley was a gifted and highly accomplished textile designer. The dynamic and imaginative layouts in her 1949 thesis bear witness to her lively personality and artistic prowess. 

The inspired photomontages and exuberant decorative patterns that she created for this document reflect a mind bursting with creativity, stimulated by visual parallels between diverse phenomena in the natural world. Joan’s textile designs encapsulate a similar spirit of youthful enthusiasm. 

Although many of her designs never progressed beyond artwork, some were later printed at her initiative by the Great Yarmouth textile firm of Grout & Co. after she moved there to take up a teaching post at Great Yarmouth School of Art. Judging from the entries in Joan’s notebook, her association with Grout & Co. began in 1954. Although this mill specialised primarily in woven silk fabrics, it also had screen-printing facilities and carried out commission printing for firms such as Arnold Lever. As well as printing her own designs to order using Grout & Co.’s equipment, mainly for use as dress fabrics, Joan also undertook commissions on behalf of other firms, such as drawing up pattern repeats and painting Kodatrace negatives for transferring designs onto printing screens. Joan’s textile designs – like Joan herself – are very eclectic, ranging from the calligraphic sketches of ‘Lanterns’ (1956), to the quirky seaside panoramas of ‘Quayside’ (1957), to bold stylised florals such as ‘Prospectus’ (1954). In ‘Setts’ (1961), alluding to the rounded rectangular stone cobbles known as setts, she transforms something very down to earth and tangible into a freeform abstract design. Many of Joan’s patterns are deliberately unsophisticated, both in style and content, suggesting the influence of folk art. The naïve primitivism of designs such as ‘Blackbirds’ (1955) and ‘Yellowhammers’ (1958) implies that she was consciously seeking a childlike simplicity in her work. Similar aspirations towards a pared down aesthetic are also evident in a series of designs with Scandinavian associations, including ‘Viking Rune’ (1952) and ‘Bergen Mono’ (1952).

It is no surprise to learn that Joan’s artistic role model during the early 1950s was Lucienne Day, whose ‘Calyx’ design for Heal Fabrics, featuring bold abstracted plant forms, caused a sensation when it was displayed at the Homes and Gardens Pavilion at the Festival of Britain. 

This is presumably where Joan first saw it as she has jotted in her notebook: ‘Lucienne Day ‘Calyx’ (Inspired by Miro) Festival of Britain 1951’. Several of Joan’s early designs reflect Day’s influence, notably the graphic linear ‘Geometric’ (1953), which has parallels with Day’s ‘Graphica’ (1954) for Heal Fabrics, and a pattern called ‘Beech Leaves’, featuring rows of spear-shaped leaves with linear veins and leaf pores. Although ‘Beech Leaves’ is undated, it probably postdates Lucienne Day’s ‘Fall’ (1952) for Edinburgh Weavers, composed of skeletal leaf motifs. The fact that Beech Leaves’ was printed as a dress fabric by Joan in Great Yarmouth suggests that it was designed between 1952-55. 

It could be argued that Alastair Morton’s formative influence on Joan Charnley, whether conscious or otherwise, was even greater than that of Lucienne Day. His propensity for freely drawn or loosely painted linear patterns, often incorporating doodle-like motifs, is characteristic of several of Joan’s designs, including ‘Stars and Stripes’ (1951) and ‘Sea Bed’ (1959). Radiating wheel-like images – another of Morton’s specialities – crop up in Joan’s ‘Daisy Wheels’ (1952) and ‘Sea Anemones’ (1952), although her drawing style is very different from his and her backgrounds are often very densely detailed.

As Joan’s thesis highlights, she was responsive to visual stimuli of all kinds, whether in the natural world or contemporary art and design. As well as being excited by the architecture and displays at the Festival of Britain, Joan’s imagination was fired by another exhibition that year called Growth and Form which she saw at the Institute of Contemporary Art. This exhibition, which was curated
by artist Richard Hamilton and drew parallels between biological science and contemporary art, prompted one of Joan’s most overtly organic designs, ‘Maritima’, created at around the same time as ‘Beachcomber’, featuring stylised shells, seaweed and mysterious organisms painted in white on a grey ground. Organic imagery of a more literal kind appears in subsequent designs, such as ‘Sea Shells’ (1952) and ‘Sliced Fruit’ (1957). 

While it would be easy to dwell on ‘what might have been’ if more of Joan Charnley’s designs had been picked up by manufacturers and disseminated in the wider world, the important thing is that a significant body of her creative work survives and has been preserved for posterity. Joan led a full and active life right though to her final years. Through her archives we can continue to enjoy and celebrate her achievements. Her remarkable thesis and her extraordinary designs live on to inspire future generations.”

Lesley Jackson
(Writer, Curator and Design Historian)

Author of Robin and Lucienne Day: Pioneers of Contemporary Design (Mitchell Beazley, 2001); Twentieth Century Pattern Design: Textile and Wallpaper Pioneers (Mitchell Beazley, 2002); Alastair Morton and Edinburgh Weavers: Visionary Textiles and Modern Art (V&A Publishing, 2012)