house guidebook
Helen Ede’s bedroom and bathroom
While the Edes were living at Kettle’s Yard, Helen Ede’s bedroom and bathroom remained a private space that was not accessible to those visiting the house. Grandchildren Jane and Quince remember her room as an informal space, in contrast to the spaces elsewhere in the house. Jane recalls ‘sewing, everywhere’, and children’s drawings, which their grandmother always showed an interest in. Quince remembers more functional items – the ironing board and her grandmother’s sewing machine, as well as many books. After the Edes left the house in 1973 and moved to Edinburgh, Helen Ede’s bedroom was used as an office for the staff who cared for the house and ran the gallery. This is something Jim Ede later complained about, writing in 1977 to restate his hope that it may ‘become a very beautiful extension to the sitting room’. Not long afterwards, the bedroom was reintegrated into the publicly accessible parts of the house and used as a space to hang artworks from the collection in storage. Over the years, it has also been used for contemporary artists’ projects. One such intervention remains in this room – on the window that overlooks the churchyard are marks made in Dover chalk by artist Cornelia Parker for an exhibition at Kettle’s Yard in 2018.
1 Henri GaudierBrzeska, Self-portrait with a pipe, 1913 Graphite on paper
KY00566.EH
2 Henri GaudierBrzeska, Self-portrait with a pipe, 1913 Ink on paper
KY00567.EH
3 Henri GaudierBrzeska, Self-portrait with a pipe, 1913 Charcoal on paper
KY00568.EH
4 Spider conch shell, undated
KY00148
5 Henri GaudierBrzeska Samson and Delilah (The Embracers), 1913 Cast plaster
KY00372.EH
6 Ovidiu Maitec Bird, c. 1969 Walnut wood
KY01137.EH
7 Henri GaudierBrzeska Seated Woman, 1914 (cast 1964)
Bronze
KY01152.EH
8 Skull-shaped stone from Henri GaudierBrzeska’s studio, undated
KY01150.EH
9 Li Yuan-chia Untitled, 1968 Paint on metal, MDF, mirror, nails
KY01433
10 Ben Nicholson printed by Nancy Nicholson (1899–1977) letters and numbers, c. 1933 Lino block print on cotton
KY01430
11 Henri GaudierBrzeska Maternity (Mother and Child), 1913 (cast 1960s)
Bronze
KY00810.E
gallery
As the Martin-Owers extension neared completion in late December 1969, Jim Ede wrote in eager anticipation of the arrival of artworks into the space. ‘I should start placing everything in a week or two – the ground floor is promised for the 31st but I can’t believe it’, he noted. He spent a few days ‘living on the first floor’ of the new building, after which, he wrote, ‘I begin to see my way towards a unity’. As well as Windsor chairs and eighteenth-century armchairs, works by Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska were moved across from the cottages to the extension. Jim Ede delighted in the increased wall space, which gave him an opportunity to present a large proportion of his substantial collection of paintings by Alfred Wallis, who Jim Ede never met but corresponded with frequently. Ede recieved parcels of Wallis’s paintings in the post, priced by size, from which he would make a selection to purchase, and return the rest.
1 David Jones
Quia per Incarnati, c. 1953
Watercolour and graphite on paper
KY00766.EH
2 Ben Nicholson 1925 (bottle and goblet), 1925 Oil paint on board
KY00331.EH
3 Bible box, England, 17th century Carved oak
KY01092.EH
4 Ben Nicholson 1929 (Kingwater Valley, Cumberland), 1929
Pencil and oil paint on canvas
KY01426
5 Kate Nicholson Isle of Skye, 1948 Oil paint on canvas
KY00758.EH or (verso) Winifred Nicholson Portrait of a Lady, undated Oil paint on canvas
6 Henri GaudierBrzeska
Seated Woman, 1914 (cast 1964)
Bronze
KY00874.EH
7 Christopher Wood Building the Boat, Tréboul, 1930 Oil paint on board
KY00630.EH
8 Pomander, 20th century Orange and cloves
KY00377.EH
9 Tun shell, undated
KY00376.EH
10 Ben Nicholson 1927 (snowscape), 1927 Oil paint on canvas
KY00335.EH
11 Part of a tree, found 1966
KY00912.EH
12 Henri GaudierBrzeska
Bird Swallowing a Fish, 1914 Painted plaster
KY00493.EH
13 Ben Nicholson 1955 (spello), 1955 Graphite and watercolour on card
KY00763.EH
14 Christopher Wood Landscape at Vence – Little White House, 1927 Oil paint on canvas
KY00339.EH
15 Henri GaudierBrzeska Birds Erect, 1914 (posthumous cast) Cast stone
KY00985.EH
16 Large glass goblet, undated
KY01084.EH
17 Lucie Rie Bowl, c. 1971–74 Ceramic
KY01140.EH
18 Sandstone with fish fossil, undated
KY01105.EH
19 L.S. Lowry Mountain Lake, 1943 Oil paint on board
KY00986.EH
20 Henri GaudierBrzeska Head of Mlle Borne, 1914 (posthumous cast)
Bronze
KY01276.EH
21 Winifred Nicholson Cyclamen and Primula, c. 1923 Oil paint on board
KY00767.EH
22 Winifred Nicholson Seascape (Sea and Sand), 1926 Oil paint on canvas
KY00387.EH
23 Winifred Nicholson
Sam Graves, c. 1930 Oil paint on board
KY00674.EH
24 Henri GaudierBrzeska
Three Monkeys, 1914 Sandstone
KY00487.EH
Kettle’s Yard was the Cambridge home of Jim and Helen Ede. The couple transformed four derelict cottages to create a series of rooms filled with light, in which to display their collection of modern and contemporary art alongside furniture, textiles, ceramics and objects from nature. The Edes invited visitors into their home from 1957, and in 1966 gave the house and its contents to the University of Cambridge. Their collection includes drawings, paintings and sculpture by Constantin Brâncuși, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Barbara Hepworth, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood and many others. The Kettle’s Yard House Guidebook offers a room-by-room journey through the house, illustrated with newly commissioned photographs by Gilbert McCarragher, alongside Jim Ede’s original introduction to Kettle’s Yard and a short history of the lives of Jim and Helen Ede.