\n But climbing into a dusty Oxford attic, he was stunned to find a treasure trove of art created by the novelist.\n<\/p>\n
\n Almost 80 paintings and sketches, which had been undisturbed in the eaves for decades, are now on display for the first time at the centre Leeson runs in West Sussex.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dame Iris lived in the house in the early 1940s, after arriving at Oxford University in her early 20s.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Going into that house really did feel like stepping back in time,” Mr Leeson said.\n<\/p>\n
\n “A space that hadn’t really been explored for a number of years. It really did feel like a complete treat to be invited in.\n<\/p>\n
\n “To find the actual materials that we didn’t know existed – what a thrill. I brushed off the dust, but other than that they are as they were found.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Iris Murdoch, right, at St Catherine’s College in 1977 (Image: Oxford Mail)\n<\/p>\n
\n The highlight of the exhibition is the author’s only known self-portrait.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Leeson added: “It shows us Murdoch in a new light.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Other pieces were inspired by surrealist artists the author admired, such as Paul Nash and Salvador Dali, while the threat of war in Europe also influenced her paintings.\n<\/p>\n
\n A free exhibition will run until December at the University of Chichester’s library, and afterwards it is hoped that the art may return to Oxford.\n<\/p>\n
\n Iris Murdoch studied classics at Somerville College, Oxford, starting in 1938, and returned to live in the city permanently in 1948.\n<\/p>\n
\n She lived for many years at a home on Charlbury Road in North Oxford with her husband, the literary critic and Oxford professor John Bayley.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 1948, the author was appointed as a philosophy tutor and Fellow at St Anne’s College, where she taught moral and political philosophy. Her first novel Under the Net was published in 1954.\n<\/p>\n
\n The writer spent 15 years teaching and researching at the college before resigning in the early 1960s to focus full-time on her career as a novelist.\n<\/p>\n
\n Winner of the 1978 Booker Prize for The Sea, the Sea, she was made a Dame in 1987.\n<\/p>\n
\n She died at a nursing home in Botley, in 1999 following a battle with Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miles Leeson has been studying Dame Iris – one of Britain’s best-loved authors – for more than a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-789376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}