Dulwich Picture Gallery and the ‘Doodlebug’

Image above: Soane Office, Interior perspective of the Mausoleum at Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1812.

Having forged a 15-feet deep crater where the bomb fell in nearby Gallery Road, it is no surprise that the Gallery suffered severe and widespread damage, with the mausoleum – the burial place of its three founders – destroyed. The chicken wire that had been installed under the Gallery’s skylights in 1939, as a preventative measure to catch falling glass and masonry in case of bombing, was no match for this blast.

Photos above: Bomb damage at Dulwich Picture Gallery -The mausoleum and south-west side (right) & The mausoleum, north-west side (left). July 1944. National Monuments Record / Dulwich Picture Gallery Archive, London

Fortunately, for the Collection at least, nearly four hundred paintings had already been evacuated in August 1939 and November 1940 by the local furniture removal company, Evan Cook of Peckham, to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. There the paintings were given sanctuary alongside other museum holdings and prized objects of national importance such as the Magna Carta. Even so, a handful of pictures that remained at the Gallery did suffer, including Sir Joshua Reynolds’ (1723-92) Death of Cardinal Beaufort (c.1787), extant today only in the form of a black and white photograph.

Photo above: Joshua Reynolds, Death of Cardinal Beaufort, c. 1787, oil on canvas, 134 x 166 cm. DPG483, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

In December 1945, the Curator of Sir John Soane’s Museum, Sir John Summerson (1904-1992), suggested that rebuilding Dulwich Picture Gallery should be ‘endorsed by anyone who has the slightest respect for architecture as fine art’. Yet, hampered by finances and planning regulations, the government building license was only granted in 1950. 

Vernon – first on the scene that fateful 1944 morning to collect debris in case useful for future reproduction – was appointed, as part of his local architectural practice, Austin Vernon and Partners, to carry out the rebuild. Two Royal Academicians, Arthur Davis (1878-1951) – whose firm had worked on the Ritz Hotel – and Sir Edward Maufe (1882-1974), the designer of Guildford Cathedral, acted as consultants.

Above: Austin Vernon, Design for rebuilding Dulwich Picture Gallery, late 1940s/early 1950s

The Victorian extension at the southern end of the Gallery was removed, while new doors were added to the north and south ends and windows inserted into the side galleries. The Gallery’s public entrance was also moved to the centre of the building’s east side (having previously been on the south side) – and a new porch was created. Nonetheless, the underlying principle of the re-building project was to restore the Gallery to its original form, as designed by Soane and constructed between 1811 and 1817.

After the war, while the Gallery was being rebuilt, and the Collection was undergoing a cleaning campaign, a group of paintings were able to remain on exhibition at the National Library of Wales. A further group of 54 works were also toured to the National Gallery, London and Leeds City Art Gallery.

Photos above: Exhibition catalogues. Dulwich Picture Gallery Archive, London

Three years after the re-building project was green lit, the rebuild was completed and the Gallery was formally opened by the Queen Mother on 27 April 1953; her name inscribed in a surviving visitors’ book. Summerson praised ‘Soane’s eccentric, haunting genius’ that – along with the paintings – had been ‘resurrected’. Certainly, the experience of visiting in the darker winter months would have been particularly ‘haunting’. With no money for modernising amenities during the re-build, electric light would not be installed until 1974. Thank goodness then for Soane’s pioneering roof lanterns in the enfilade, and evocative amber glass in the atmospheric mausoleum, which – still today – continue to flood the Gallery with natural light.

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Written by Dr Lucy West, Curator, Dulwich Picture Gallery

Banner Image: Graham Turner