Basil Merrett and his drawing of the D. H. Lawrence house in Chapala

Among the miscellaneous, difficult-to-file, items I’ve encountered during my decades of research into the authors and artists associated with Lake Chapala is this curious one-of-a-kind drawing by Basil Merrett.

I got quite excited when I first saw this drawing (listed on eBay in 2016) because it purports to show the house rented by D. H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, for their three-month sojourn in Chapala in 1923, during which the English novelist wrote the first draft of The Plumed Serpent.

According to folk art collector and enthusiast Jim Linderman on his personal blog about “outsider art,” Merrett’s work is believed to date from the late 1940s or early 1950s, and is comprised of about 1000 works, mostly postcard size (6″x4″),  divided into several numbered series, each relating to a different topic. The Lawrence drawing is #44 of the “Famous Authors and Poets” series.

Basil Merrett. ca 1966? The D. H. Lawrence house, Chapala, in 1923.

Linderman also says that Merrett “was institutionalized at Bethlem Royal Hospital in London as a psychiatric patient.” Bethlem Royal Hospital, which was commonly known in the UK as Bedlam, was founded in the fourteenth century and is England’s oldest hospital for the treatment of mental illness. It is unclear how long Merrett may have been a patient there but, if he was there in the 1930s and 1940s, he would have had to endure some pretty dire conditions. While it came far too late for Basil Merrett, the Bethlem Royal Hospital opened its own gallery, Bethlem Gallery, in 1997, which showcases the work of visual artists who have, or have experienced, mental distress.

The artist Basil Merrett is believed to be Richard Basil Merrett, born 23 April 1910 in Lydney, a parish on the west bank for River Severn in the English county of Gloucestershire, U.K. His parents were Richard Merrett, a tinworker, and Martha Florence Clarke. They had married in about 1903, and Basil had an elder sister, Florence, born in 1904. Basil reportedly attended the Lydney Craft School (which later became the Lydney Art School).

In 1939, according to the Register for Gloucestershire, Basil Merrett was still living with his parents; the Register lists his “occupation” as “incapacitated.” Without knowing any details of the psychological challenges faced by Basil, we can only surmise that his care allowed him ample opportunity for reading and art. Basil Merrett, illustrator extraordinaire, died in July 1969 and was buried in Lyndley.

D H Lawrence house, Chapala, ca 1950. Photo: Roy MacNicol (Moore & Roberts, 1966)

Basil Merrett’s source for his illustration of the Lawrence House in Chapala in 1923 was certainly not based on any first-hand experience of Mexico. It was apparently based on this photograph, which appears in Moore and Roberts’ book D. H. Lawrence and his world, published by Thames and Hudson in 1966, where it is credited as “Lawrence’s house at 4 Zaragoza, Chapala, Mexico. 1923. Photo R. MacNicol.” It is unknown if the photograph had been published previously, though if Merrett’s illustration actually dates from the 1950s, then clearly it must have been! (If you know of an earlier publication featuring this photo by Roy MacNicol, please get in touch!)

In any event, the date of 1923 given in Merrett’s caption cannot be correct. First, the photographer—American artist Roy MacNicol (1889-1970)—was nowhere near Lake Chapala in 1923. MacNicol first visited Chapala in the early 1950s, and bought (and added a second story to) this house in 1954. His photo presumably shows the house at about the time he purchased it. Secondly, the photograph clearly shows the house after its remodeling in about 1940 by the famous Mexican architect Luis Barragán, who, as described in a 1941 article in House and Garden, added the highly distinctive “oriental halfmoon entrance gateway” shown in the photo.

So, sadly, even though Basil Merrett thought he was drawing the D. H. Lawrence house in Chapala in 1923, he was, in fact, drawing the house as it appeared some thirty years after Lawrence’s visit.

Source

• M. O. Goldsmith. 1941. “Week-end house in Mexico: G. Cristo house, Lake Chapala.” House and Garden, vol 79 (May 1941).
• Harry T. Moore and Warren Roberts. 1966. D. H. Lawrence and his world. London: Thames & Hudson.

Comments, corrections and additional material are welcome, whether via comments or email.

Tony Burton

Tony Burton’s books include “Lake Chapala: A Postcard History” (2022), “Foreign Footprints in Ajijic” (2022), “If Walls Could Talk: Chapala’s historic buildings and their former occupants” (2020), (available in translation as “Si Las Paredes Hablaran”), “Mexican Kaleidoscope” (2016), and “Lake Chapala Through the Ages” (2008).

Amazon Author Page                                          Facebook Page