The most recent exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery was Georgiana Houghton: Spirit Drawings. Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884) was a Spiritualist medium who, in the 1860s and 70s, produced a series of abstract watercolours. She claimed that her hand had been guided by various spirits and angelic beings, including some Renaissance artists such as Titian. The abstract works are highly unusual, but have not been shown in the UK for nearly 50 years. Many are held by Monash University Museum of Art in Melbourne, Australia, with whom the exhibition is organised in collaboration.
Houghton’s works are watercolours, bold and complex, technically accomplished and surely unlike anything else produced in the Victorian art world. Perhaps a nineteenth century audience just wasn’t ready, for the 1871 exhibition she held in Bond Street was a commercial failure and nearly bankrupted her.
I’m no art expert, but I loved these works: whether Houghton’s hand was guided or they were produced by her own consciousness, they are extraordinary.