A seascape sculpture by Ro Robertson, an artist who focuses on the relationship between the human body and the natural environment, is to be the first outdoor artwork at an 18th-century country house in Norfolk which has recently reopened to the public.
Robertson’s two-metre-high The Swell, a steel structure composed of three welded forms, will be sited from early next year in the grounds of Wolterton Hall in Norfolk, a 500-acre estate built in 1741 by Horatio Walpole, younger brother of Robert Walpole, Britain’s first prime minister. A fine Palladian country house with a Regency extension, Wolterton was badly damaged by fire in the 1950s. Later it was closed up for several decades until 2016, when it was bought by two businessmen who began a restoration that has been completed by its present owner, Richard Ellis, who bought Wolterton in 2023 after it was put on the market for £25 million.
In June, Wolterton began its latest phase, which may one day see it rivalling the outdoor artistic attractions of Houghton Hall, 30 miles away across Norfolk, a house built by Horatio Walpole’s celebrated elder brother, Robert. Houghton, owned by Robert's descendant the seventh marquess of Cholmondeley, has a permanent collection of outdoor art and regularly hosts temporary exhibitions of both outdoor and indoor work. In 2024 the featured artist at Houghton was Antony Gormley. This year it is the sculptor Stephen Cox.
Wolterton Hall, Norfolk, seen from across its 10-acre lake. The lake has been an inspiration for site-specific work by Ro Robertson and Maggi Hambling in the Wolterton exhibition Sea State © Wolterton Hall
Simon Oldfield, Wolterton’s artistic director, says the surrounding landscape has been central to what is being planned by the Ellis family. “We wanted to bring the landscape in: we want to echo the beauty of the parkland, the surrounding countryside and the lake—the formal gardens, the wildlife and the water,” he says. “What’s outside is essential to everything we’re doing inside.” He has paid particular attention, he explains, to opening up sight lines that allow views through the elegant halls to the gardens and land beyond.
Art in the opening exhibition, which features the work of Maggi Hambling alongside that of Ro Robertson, has taken inspiration in particular from the vast, 10-acre lake. Co-curated by Oldfield and Gemma Rolls-Bentley, the exhibition of work by both artists—all of it site-specific—focuses on water and the sea. Hambling presents a new piece in her Wall of Water series—the first paintings from which were shown at the National Gallery in 2015—as well as a new installation, Time, which celebrates her late partner, Tory Lawrence.
Robertson’s The Swell, presented in dialogue with both Hambling’s work and with paintings by Robertson herself, is the inaugural artwork in a Wolterton collection that Oldfield and Ellis hope will grow quickly. Early next year, once the show closes, The Swell will be repositioned outside—probably, says Oldfield, in the walled garden, which will also become home to an outdoor kiln used by the Clay Research Group, a Norwich-based collective of artists and others interested in exploring locally sourced ceramic materials. The group is at present experimenting with ceramic objects made and glazed with materials made from silt from Wolterton’s lake and the surrounding area.
Maggi Hambling's Tory (2024, centre) and her work Time (2025)—forty paintings of waves—created in memory of her late partner, Tory Lawrence, installed at Wolterton Hall, Norfolk, as part of the exhibition Sea State Photo Eva Herzog Courtesy the artist and Wolterton
Artists’ residencies will be another element of the Wolterton offering, and the first artists to take up residence are the Dutch collective De Onkruidenier, in conjunction with the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich where they are involved in the programme Can the Seas Survive Us? (until 26 October). They will create artworks made from soil, vegetation and other found objects from the Wolterton estate. One of their first events will be a performance where sculpted food will be served created from ingredients foraged on the estate. “You will literally be digesting their ideas,” says Oldfield.
The coming months and years will also see pathways opened up in the Wolterton grounds. Further ahead there is the enticing possibility of creating an even bigger estate since another, neighbouring, Walpole property—Mannington—has also been bought by the Ellis family. “This means another 500 acres for art and for walking and for the local community to enjoy,” Oldfield says.
- Sea State: work by Maggi Hambling and Ro Robertson Wolterton Hall, North Norfolk, Wednesdays to Sundays, until 7 December
