If you love finding art in the wild or enjoy wandering around an old graveyard, as I do, reading the headstones and admiring the craftsmanship, then there is one monument that you should definitely seek out. Tucked away behind St Andrew’s Church in Stratton you can discover a striking sculpture that looks like it belongs in a London museum, rather than amongst the granite memorials and golden buttercups.
The bronze statue is of a young man playing a harp, bare chested and head bowed, he focuses on his instrument while delicate fingers pluck at the strings. It is rather lovely. But I soon realised that there was only limited information about this work of art out there, which included some rather confusing articles online that repeatedly referred to the sculpture as a “mermaid” (he clearly has feet, am I missing something?!!), so I decided that I had to find out more.
Who was this work of art by, who was it commemorating and why was it in a quiet Cornish churchyard?
The first part of that question was easy, the statue is signed – Toma Rosandić – and that, for me, was when things started to become really interesting and rather curious. I realised that sculptures by this deeply respected Eastern European artist are rare, and that means that this one, placed in Stratton as an unusual funerary monument, might just be unique.
So how and why exactly was it in Cornwall?
Toma Rosandić
Toma Rosandić (1883 – 1962) was born in Split in what was the Austria-Hungarian empire, now part of Croatia. His father was a stonemason and Toma followed in his footsteps, learning to carve in stone and wood and then studied in Italy for a time. He was from a Serbian Orthodox family and when World War I broke out he took refuge in London.
It is likely that it was here in the city that he crossed paths with another immigrant family, the Winands. You see, the sculpture graces to grave of Anca Winand, full name Anca Winand van Wulfften Palthe – a young Dutch woman with a Belgian husband who was also living in London at that time.
Understanding Anca
Anca was born in Hengelo in the Netherlands on 12th February 1884 and met and married Francis Martin Samual Winand van Wulfften Palthe, who was from Belgium in about 1909. Francis (confusingly also known as Friedrich and Francois) was a ship broker, someone who organised the export of cargo, was the go-between for merchants and ship owners, often managing customs paperwork and of course working out of busy trading ports such as Rotterdam.
Charles Paul, the couple’s first child, was born in the Netherlands in 1910/1911 but soon after this, when their son was only a few months old, Anca and Francis moved to London. Here they seem to have shortened their surname to the more English sounding Winand. Francis was working for a Dutch firm with a quay at London Docks called CH Cornelder & Son’s Ships Agency and the family took a house in the suburbs, No 16 Raymond Road in Wimbledon.
They were well off enough to employ servants, the census of 1911 shows they brought two with them from Holland and by the time the enumerator visited again in 1921 the family had expanded. Still living on Raymond Road there were two more children, Francis Herbert and Sonia Beatrice, along with three live-in staff. But life was about to change dramatically for the Winands.
Wimbledon to Stratton
The first thing that happened is that the family moved, by 1922 they were living at No 27 Belvedere Grove. These houses were quite new at that time having been constructed only around 20 years earlier. The street was named after the old manor house, Belvedere House, which had been demolished in 1900 to make way for the new development. These properties were highly sort after being located in a desirable, leafy enclave of Wimbledon with wide avenues and fashionable ‘Arts and Crafts’ style houses.
Perhaps this move was not just an indication of Francis’ ongoing business success but also a clue to his and Anca’s artistic tastes. We know that Toma Rosandić had exhibited his sculptures in a number of shows in London from 1917 onwards, is it possible that the couple attended one, even met him perhaps? My research has indicated that the Winands were in fact passionate collectors of art for much of their marriage but more of that below . . .
Sometime in early 1922 it appears that Anca, then aged 38, realised that she was expecting their fourth child. And that summer it seems that the family decided to do what so many city folk did, they took themselves off for a holiday in Cornwall – they travelled down to beautiful Bude!
Arriving sometime in mid-August they would have found a town that was quickly becoming thriving little holiday destination, but unfortunately not one bathed in endless sunshine. That particular year the weather was noted as being unusually cool and unsettled in Bude, with temperatures far below the summer average and frequent rain showers splattered the sandy beaches.
The grey days, in hindsight, might have taken on a darker symbolism for the family because Anca did not return home with them to Wimbledon.
She died in the Cottage Hospital in Stratton on 26th August 1922.
Cause of Death
Standing at Anca’s grave I was struck by a couple of things – how beautiful the sculpture on it was and how wonderful it was that someone had commissioned such a work of art for her final resting place. But I also realised that there was a temptation to focus on that statue, not on the woman buried beneath it. I decided that I would find out all I could, hence the research above.
There were some things, however, that I knew I wouldn’t find in the parish records, newspapers or census returns.
So I ordered her death certificate.
Anca was a mother of three young children and just 38 years old at the time of her death, I wanted to understand what had happened to her.
The certificate, when it arrived in the post, filled in some of the gaps. It appears that Anca developed an appendicitis during the holiday in Bude, she was admitted to the Cottage Hospital and an appendectomy was preformed. It should have been a simple and survivable operation even in 1922 but it seems that there were complications. The procedure must have brought on a miscarriage. Her cause of death is noted as “1) Appendectomy 2) Premature Birth”.
And that was it.
Francis found himself registering the death of his wife with the local registrar, John Davey, three days later.
And the following day, 30th August, her funeral was held at Stratton church and then her bereft family returned to London without her.
Sometime after that, the statue by Rosandić was placed on her grave.
The Winand Collection
After Anca’s death Francis continued to collect paintings and sculpture. He also married again in 1925, another Dutch lady called Jeanette Elizabeth De Haas, and together the couple travelled and filled their home with more art. They visited Indonesia together in 1936 and then in the late 1940s the extensive collection of artworks they (and Anca) had gathered went on public display in a series of exhibitions at Eastbourne and in Kensington in London.
“ART GALLERY’S FINE SHOW UNIQUE STYLE IN THE ‘WINAND’ PICTURES & SCULPTURES Mr. and Mrs. F. M. S. Winand and Mrs. de Haas, sister of the latter, were present at the Towner Art Gallery on Saturday at an informal opening of the exhibition of the collection of paintings and sculpture belonging to the first named . . . The collection is wide enough in its scope to offer something to appeal to everyone. Mr. Winand, who has retired from active business in shipping, and Mrs. Winand, a prominent member of the Dutch colony in London, have travelled extensively and it has been in the course of these travels that the collection has been brought together. It is entirely a personal effort and the pictures and sculpture are normally at the Winand’s home in Wimbledon. In fact this Eastborne exhibition has provided the first opportunity for the collection to be seen outside London. Another interesting feature is that Mr. Winand has gathered together early works by now established artists. The result is that the collection includes works of a type not at present identified with the artist’s current recognised style.”
-Eastbourne Chronicle – Friday 13 October 1950
(You can see a picture of Francis at Kensington Art Gallery HERE, he is the one in the middle.)
As the years passed Francis (Francois) Winand became known as an important patron of the arts and a renowned collector of Modern British and European artworks. And perhaps most interestingly of all for us is that in 1997 Christie’s auction house sold another Toma Rosandić sculpture belonging to Winand called ‘Desire’ (it was sold again by Sotheby’s in 2006).
According to the sale provenance Francis had apparently bought the sculpture, which was carved from walnut, at an exhibition put on by the artist in London in 1917. So perhaps the puzzle pieces fall into place, did Rosandić and Anca meet in 1917? Did they become friends? And then, five years later in 1922, did Winand commission Rosandić to create something for her tomb?
Artistic Ambitions
My research of this family also led me to a strange episode that I feel can’t be a coincidence.
In May 1910 a “well-dressed” young man called Francois Winand who was from Belgium and gave his occupation as “sculptor”, was arrested in London. He was detained, along with another Belgian, Fernand Autran, a journalist, on suspicion of trying to pick-pocket a man in the street. The pair told police that they were innocent and were just visiting London from Brussels for the funeral of King Edward VII. It doesn’t appear that the case was taken any further, but does this snippet tell us that Francis/Francois had artistic ambitions of his own as a young man? Did Anca encourage her husband’s aspirations? Did their love grow from a mutual love of art?
So many questions!
One other detail I discovered is that Francis and his second wife Jeanette continued to travel into their retirement. Passenger lists tell us that they sailed to New Zealand and Cape Town in 1954, to Yokohama, Japan in 1955 and then four years later took another cruise to South America and one to New York.
Francis died in 1972 aged 89, fifty years after Anca, and Jeanette lived to be 96, dying in 1982.
Final Thoughts
I like to think that Francis might have visited Anca occasionally in the years that passed after her death, I suspect that he must have because amongst his collection of art works were a few paintings by Cornish artists. But whatever the case, he has given us all here in Cornwall something wonderful, not just a moving memorial to his wife, the sculpture in St Andrew’s Churchyard in Stratton is a remarkable artwork for everyone to enjoy.
I started this research with pretty much a blank canvas, beyond the weird references to a mermaid, and I sincerely hope that I have managed to piece together as much of this story as I am able so that we can all have a better understanding of the events that led up to a rare Toma Rosandić’s sculpture being installed in a Cornish churchyard.
My aim was always to explain why the statue was there but also to do my best to bring Anca and her story back into frame.
Further Reading
Things to do in Beautiful Bude
The Monument to the Battle of Stratton
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