Graham Ovenden

Various aspects of Graham Ovenden's art are discussed in this book. It is the impact of architecture and antiquities and his representation of them which is my concern here. The influences at work on any artist are many and varied, some of which are visibly expressed at different stages in his or her art; other influences, conscious or unconscious, are the domain of critics and art historians. I write neither as a critic nor an art historian, but as an antiquarian and a friend of the artist with whom, over the years, I have had the opportunity to discuss a whole range of artistic, architectural, antiquarian and literary subjects of mutual interest. During the past two decades Ovenden has been closely involved with various aspects of the Victorian Revival. He has made major contributions to the study of Victorian photography on which he has written extensively. His interest in Victorian architecture is manifest in the creation of his own remarkable house Barley Splatt. He has thoroughly assimilated and put into practice the ideas of an impressive range of Victorian writers, from such well known theorists and poets as Ruskin, Pugin, Clare and Tennyson, to more obscure talents like Robert Hawker of Morwenstow.