Rupert – Page 92 – Toovey’s Blog

The Nativity Painted at Berwick, Sussex

The decorative painted scheme in the Renaissance style at Berwick parish church

With Christmas approaching, I have come to see the remarkable painted interior at St Michael and All Angels church at Berwick in East Sussex. I want to reflect once again upon Vanessa Bell’s beautiful depiction of the Nativity.

The fine decorative scheme was commissioned by Bishop George Bell of Chichester. Bell was a great patron of the arts. He wished to see churches once more filled with colour and beauty. Eternal truths would be proclaimed anew in modern art, poetry and music. More people would be drawn into the Christian community by the revival of this old alliance and renewed vitality. Bell founded the Sussex Churches Art Council. Relying on generous patrons, like the famous economist John Maynard Keynes, he began to commission work. Keynes was a frequent visitor to Charleston, where Duncan Grant had a great influence on his artistic sensibilities. Visitors to the Bishop’s Palace in Chichester included Gustav Holst, Vaughan Williams, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and T.S. Eliot.

The Revd. Rupert Toovey admiring Vanessa Bell’s Nativity at St Michael and All Angels church, Berwick, East Sussex

During the summer and autumn of 1940 the Battle of Britain was fought over the skies of Sussex. The Luftwaffe failed to defeat the R.A.F. but the Germans continued the Blitz into the May of 1941. Against this backdrop, Bishop Bell commissioned Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell to paint St Michael and All Angels. The parish church at Berwick is just a few miles from the artists’ home at Charleston.

Writing to Angelica Bell in 1941, Vanessa Bell proclaimed that Charleston was “all a-dither with Christianity”. Large panels were prepared to be painted on in the barn at Charleston. Family, friends and neighbours were used as models.

Initially the project met with local opposition but Kenneth Clark and Frederick Etchells acted as expert witnesses and the scheme was accepted. At the time Kenneth Clark was director of the National Gallery in London and Surveyor of the King’s Pictures.

The visitor today is met with a scheme of paintings in the Renaissance style. They depict scenes from the New Testament, which include the Annunciation, Christ Crucified and Christ in Majesty.

Vanessa Bell’s Nativity sets the familiar Christmas story of the birth of Christ in the folds of the Sussex Downs. The scene is painted in a barn beneath the Firle Beacon. Local shepherds posed for the panel. Their distinctive shepherds’ crooks are typical of those made at Pyecombe since medieval times. Vanessa’s daughter, Angelica, is depicted as Mary. St Luke writes: “Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Here Mary looks on, preoccupied with her thoughts. Many people have suggested that the baby Jesus is reminiscent of Vanessa’s son Quentin, but I have often wondered if she was thinking of her older son, Julian. Julian Bell, a poet, had been killed in the Spanish Civil War. Peter Durrant, a local farm worker, is painted as Joseph. He lost his left arm as the result of an accident in which he fell from a wagon. To his right are three children, who worship at the crib in their school uniforms. They are Ray and Bill West, sons of the Charleston gardener, and John Higgens, son of Grace, the housekeeper. The stable is lit by a lamp at the foot of the composition. The lamb below is a symbol for Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Berwick’s Nativity brings to life this timeless, much-loved and familiar story, placing it in the heart of Sussex. It also remembers the joys and sorrows, and the hopes and fears of this community of people. Like the first Christmas, the season remains a time of gathering, reflection and remembrance. A time of shared memories and stories.

The Rector, the Revd. Peter Blee, will be celebrating a candlelit Midnight Mass, which starts at 11.30pm on Christmas Eve, and a Family Holy Communion at 11.00am on Christmas Day. St Michael and All Angels is one of my favourite places to stop and pray when I am in the east of our county. My thanks go to the Revd. Peter Blee and his congregation, who make this a living, prayerful place of pilgrimage for us all.

I wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas!

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 24th December 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Winnie-the-Pooh: A Bear from Sussex

Ernest Howard Shepard - 'Make This a Pooh Christmas', pen and ink on prepared board, signed with initials, titled and annotated, measuring 18.5cm x 32cm

I wonder how many of us will be giving and receiving A.A. Milne’s wonderful stories about Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh and their many friends. These timeless characters are brought to life in our imaginations by E.H. Shepard’s captivating illustrations.

Both author and illustrator lived in Sussex. A.A. Milne purchased Cotchford Farm on the edge of Hartfield, East Sussex, in 1925. The surrounding Ashdown Forest would provide the inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood where Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh’s adventures are set. Ernest Howard Shepard lived at Lodsworth near Petworth, West Sussex.

E.H. Shepard was born in St John’s Wood and by 1906 had become a successful illustrator. He served in the First World War and was awarded the Military Cross for his ‘conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty’ at the Battle of Passchendaele.

Milne had been uncertain that Shepard was the right illustrator for his stories. But after the success of ‘When We Were Very Young’ Milne acknowledged Shepard’s contribution by arranging for the illustrator to receive a share of the royalties.

A.A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne, was born in 1920. Famously the inspiration for the characters in these stories came from Christopher Robin’s toys. However E.H. Shepard based his depiction of Winnie-the-Pooh on his son’s teddy bear called Growler.

Winnie-The-Pooh was first introduced as Edward.

“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn’t.”

The pencil and ink drawing by E.H. Shepard, illustrated here, remains one of my favourite objects ever auctioned at Toovey’s. Titled ‘Make This a Pooh Christmas’ this festive scene depicts Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo putting on antlers, whilst Winnie-the-Pooh sits in the sleigh dressed as Father Christmas. Piglet busily fills the sacks with books. Judging by the city skyline the friends have ventured beyond the borders of the Hundred Acre Wood. Perhaps unsurprisingly this wonderful sketch realised £16,000.

A 1926 first edition of Winnie-the-Pooh in its original red morocco and gilt binding and with the rare original publisher’s box

Copies of these stories, even early editions, can be bought reasonably but what a difference a fine edition or a dust-jacket can make. Take for example this 1926 first edition of ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ in its original red morocco and gilt binding. It came in with its rare original glassine dust-jacket and publisher’s box and realised £900 in a Toovey’s specialist book auction. Published by Methuen & Co the four first editions shown here all had their paper dust-jackets. They included ‘When We Were Very Young’, 1924; ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’, 1926; ‘Now We Are Six’, 1927 and ‘The House at Pooh Corner’, 1928. Together they realised £2900 at Toovey’s.

First edition copies of When We Were Very Young, 1924; Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926; Now We Are Six, 1927 and The House at Pooh Corner, 1928; in their original dust-jackets

I still take great pleasure reading the stories of Winnie-the-Pooh, especially in younger company. The stories have the ability to fill me with joy and laughter. I love Pooh’s delight in just being him and his conversations with Piglet:

‘ “When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.’

Who could not share Pooh’s delight in food when Christmas champagne, scrambled egg and smoked salmon are on the menu!

Toovey’s next specialist sale of books is to be held on Tuesday 21st April 2015. A first edition of ‘House at Pooh Corner’ from 1928 with its original glassine dust-jacket and publisher’s box is one of the early entries! If you would like advice on selling or buying collectors’ books please feel free to contact Nicholas Toovey at Toovey’s on 01903 891955.

Perhaps this Christmas you too should share the delights of that fine Sussex bear Winnie-The-Pooh. Whether it’s a new or a collector’s copy the stories, with E. H. Shepard’s illustrations, won’t fail to delight. Make yours a Winnie-The-Pooh Christmas!

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 17th December 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

William Blake, Exhibition Unites Sussex and Oxford

William Blake (1757–1827), ‘Newton’, 1795, large colour print finished in watercolour © Philadelphia Museum of Art

An insightful exhibition has just opened at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. It focuses on the life and work of the remarkable romantic, visionary artist and poet, William Blake (1757-1827). The exhibition ‘William Blake Apprentice and Master’ explores the artist’s formation as he became one of Britain’s most important poets, artists and printmakers. Although the importance of Blake’s work was not wholly understood during his own life-time it inspired a new, younger generation of visionary artists which included Samuel Palmer, George Richmond and Edward Calvert, who called themselves ‘the Ancients’.

William Blake’s artistic promise was apparent at an early age and he was apprenticed to James Basire aged fifteen. Basire was the official engraver to the Society of Antiquaries and sent Blake to study Westminster Abbey and other gothic churches in London. In 1779 Blake joined the Antique School of the Royal Academy. These early experiences would inform William Blake’s unorthodox approach to the depiction of both the gothic and the human form.

William Blake (1757–1827), ‘Nebuchadnezzar’, circa 1795–1805, colour print, ink, and watercolour on paper © Tate, London

By 1789 Blake was at the height of his powers, producing work of extraordinary originality. It was during this period that the artist began experimenting with new printing techniques including relief etching. His technical innovations included developments in colour printing, a method he referred to as ‘Illuminated Printing’. Examples in the exhibition include the book ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’. Its theme reflects the common Romantic narrative of the human journey from protected childhood innocence, to the effects of engaging with the world, leading to adulthood. The large colour print ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ highlights Blake’s visionary and romantic reinterpretation of Biblical subjects. Here this ruler, described in the Old Testament Book of Daniel, is depicted as half-human, driven mad by his excessive pride and self-confidence. The large colour print ‘Newton’ is a favourite of mine. It depicts the famous scientist at work. It was reinterpreted by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi in the late 20th Century for his sculpture of the same title outside the British Library.

Joseph Johnson published William Blake and many leading writers. These includied the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, the theologian and scientist Joseph Priestly, the artist John Henry Fuseli and the philosopher Richard Price. Blake became acquainted with these radical figures at Johnson’s gatherings.

Wormsley library. Image from book by W Blake — William Blake (1757–1827), Frontispiece and facing title page from ‘Songs of Innocence’, 1789, relief etching printed in brown ink with watercolour © Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

William Blake spent most of his life in London. However, for a number of years he lived in Sussex. In 1800 he moved to a cottage in Felpham, West Sussex, to illustrate work by the poet William Hayley. During this period William Blake wrote the poem titled ‘And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time’. It formed part of the preface to his epic work ‘Milton a Poet’. The title page is dated 1804 though Blake continued to work on it until 1808.

As we near the end of 2014, the centenary year of the start of the First World War, it is poignant to reflect that in 1916 Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate, edited a patriotic anthology of poems titled ‘The Spirit of Man’. Amongst these was the little known poem ‘And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time’ by William Blake, better known to us today as ‘Jerusalem’.

In 1916 Bridges invited Hubert Parry to set ‘Jerusalem’ to music and it became a national anthem. In it Blake articulates the triumph of our green and pleasant land over the enslavement of our island’s peoples by the dark satanic mills of the industrial revolution. At the heart of this poem is a questioning of the myth that Jesus Christ visited these Isles with his Uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, a tin dealer. In Blake’s poem heaven and earth are to be united in a perfected creation. The New Jerusalem is to be built here in England. Blake uses this story from the Book of Revelations as a metaphor for social justice in his own times.

The exhibition provides a very human insight into William Blake placing him in the context of his times and contemporaries. The recreation of his London studio, now lost, brings us an opportunity to connect with William Blake’s life and work in a particularly personal way.

This fine exhibition provides a reminder of William Blake’s artistic talent and strong moral vision. An important artist who has an important place in the story of Sussex as a leading centre for artists over the centuries.

‘William Blake: Apprentice & Master’, runs until 1st March 2015 at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. For further information go to www.ashmolean.org. The Blake Society are campaigning to buy his cottage at Felpham and preserve it for the nation, for more information go to www.blakesociety.org.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 10th December 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Frank Brangwyn at Christ’s Hospital School, Horsham

The interior of Christ’s Hospital School’s chapel with Frank Brangwyn’s panels

Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) was an important and influential artist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He bought a house in South Street, Ditchling called The Jointure in 1918. It was to remain his Sussex country home. He and his wife, Lucy, divided their time between London and Sussex.

In Ditchling he was reacquainted with the artist Eric Gill who had moved there in 1907. Together with a group of fellow artists Gill founded the Roman Catholic Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic at Ditchling. Thanks to their work this Sussex village had become a centre for the Arts and Crafts movement. Whilst Brangwyn was sympathetic to the cause of the craftsman artist he strongly disagreed with many of the views and practices promoted by some members of the Guild.

As a child Frank Brangwyn displayed a precocious artistic talent. His father, William, ran a thriving ecclesiastical atelier in Bruges whose output was predominately sold through his Baker Street shop in London. Brangwyn was introduced to William Morris by the renowned designer and architect Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo. In 1882, at the age of fifteen, Brangwyn began to work in the Morris workshops. He brought some of the necessary skills from having worked with his father. The young artist showed a particular gift for transferring Morris’s designs onto squared up canvases, skills necessary for the manufacture of tapestries and woodblocks for wallpapers.

‘St Wilfred First Bishop of Selsey Teaching the South Saxon’s A.D. 687’

Brangwyn had begun work on the panels in the chapel at Christ’s Hospital School in 1912 though they were not completed until 1923. Christ’s Hospital School was re-sited from the City of London to its current location near Horsham between 1893and 1902. The architect Sir Aston Webb, with his partner Ingress Bell, designed the Tudor-Gothic revival buildings which are still central to the school’s character today. Sir Aston Webb had supported Frank Brangwyn putting him forward for large scale projects over many years. Webb was able to secure Brangwyn the commission to paint the school’s chapel. The subjects were devised by the headmaster, the Revd. Dr A. W. Upcott. The scheme follows a procession from the earliest stories of the Church to the conversion of Britain and the mission of the Church of England.

‘St Augustine at Ebbsfleet “Turn O Lord Thy Wrath From This People” ’ — ‘St Augustine at Ebbsfleet “Turn O Lord Thy Wrath From This People”’

The panels are painted in tempera which gives them their luminous quality. They follow in a long tradition of wall painting in Sussex which stretches back to Saxon times. I am therefore particularly struck by the panel depicting St Wilfrid (c.633-709) who converted the South Saxons to Christianity when he came to Selsey from Northumbria and Ripon. Here he is depicted standing teaching as the Saxon’s draw in their nets. It is said that the South Saxons fished only for eels and that it was St Wilfred who taught them how to catch fish. Their first catch numbered three hundred and the amazed people turned to God. As they were baptized the rain began to fall ending three years of drought and despair. In thanks King Ethelwalh gave Wilfred eighty-seven hides of land at Selsey. St Wilfrid built a monastery and Cathedral on the Selsey peninsular which was lost when a new Cathedral was built by the Normans at Chichester. The panels show the influence of the Renaissance. Brangwyn, had visited Assisi and Venice soon after his marriage to Lucy in 1896. But these decorative paintings also show the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement, the Post-Impressionists and the strong, rich use of colour promoted by artist like Henri Matisse. The panels are united by the titled friezes with their rich blue grounds.

‘St Ambrose Training the Choir in His Church in Milan A.D. 687’

The panels are important not just as fine examples of Brangwyn’s work, but because they form part of a common narrative amongst modern British artists at the time who sought to reaffirm what it is to be British and to redeem our nation from the experience of the first industrialized world war. The panels are honest about the costs of standing up for righteousness with illustrations of Christian martyrs, many associated with Britain. But they are also hopeful in their vibrant Mediterranean palette, clearly depicting the triumph of good over evil.

Brangwyn articulated the view that work should be done meaningfully, to the highest standards, with humility and for the love of God rather than for gain or self-promotion. These aspirations still resonate with the school today. Christ’s Hospital is in many ways unique, offering an independent education of the highest calibre to children with academic potential, from all walks of life. It is a child’s ability and potential to benefit from a Christ’s Hospital education that determines their selection not their ability to pay. The Christian character of the Foundation and School has remained a constant in the life of Christ’s Hospital for over four and a half centuries. Christian values sustain the whole of Christ’s Hospital’s life, instilling care for the individual and tolerance whilst supplying a moral framework for the delivery of every aspect of education.

These values are at the heart of our nation and we should be grateful to all who make aspirational education and opportunity accessible to the broadest cohort of students from diverse social backgrounds. For more than a century Christ’s Hospital has added to the richness of the Horsham District by its example, outreach and patronage of the arts. It is rightly celebrated. Christ’s Hospital is a working school dedicated to preparing young people to flourish and contribute to our society. However, you can enjoy the remarkable Frank Brangwyn’s and some of the school’s artistic, architectural and historical treasures by joining one of the Verrio tours. Tours are available on Thursdays strictly by prior arrangement. For further information and to book a tour contact Lucia Brown on 01403 247407.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 3rd December 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Lost Saxon Art in the Heart of Sussex

For many years the remarkable wall paintings at the little known Saxon church, St John the Baptist, Clayton, West Sussex, were thought to date from the 12th century. This established view is being challenged and although opinion remains divided it seems increasingly likely that they are late Saxon, dating from the mid-11th century.

The wall paintings and chancel arch at St John the Baptist, Clayton

To explore this I meet my friend, Professor Robin Milner-Gulland, at Clayton. For some time Robin has been a leading voice in promoting the arguments for re-attributing these wonderful paintings to the late Saxon period. He believes that it is likely they were painted in the mid-11th century, before the Norman Conquest in 1066. From the time of Alfred the Great in the 9th century the Saxon kingdom of Wessex, of which we were a part, was a centre for the arts with influence drawn from France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Professor Robin Milner-Gulland admires the frescoes at Clayton

The church at Clayton sits in the folds of the South Downs National Park beneath the Jack and Jill windmills. The interior of the church is painted with some of the finest and most important fresco wall paintings in the country. There is a majesty and fluidity in the elongated figures whose tunics have a rare quality of movement and softness. The scheme is beautifully worked out representing stories from the Bible’s book of Revelations. Indeed, the church is believed to have originally been dedicated to All Saints. Unusually the artist predominately used lime white in the tunics which gifts the figures with a luminous quality. There is some charcoal used which can appear blue to us after the passage of time. The red and yellow ochre hues unite these frescoes with the churches at Hardham, Coombes and Plumpton and are common to most early wall-paintings.

Frescoes are wall paintings painted directly on to plaster while it is still wet. The artist has to work quickly and as the plaster dries the pigments and image are fixed. Robin explains “The quality of the Saxon mortar has given these wall paintings an outstanding durability.”

The depiction of Christ the King above the chancel arch is exquisitely conceived. Jesus sits enthroned with His arms raised in blessing within an oval shaped border known as a mandorla. Supported by two winged angels Christ is flanked by saints who appear to move about in easy conversation with one another. I also love the image of the New Jerusalem descending from heaven so that God will live among us once again in a new and perfected creation with no more suffering and injustice. The hexagonal city is finely executed.

Robin says “It is generally accepted that the fabric of the church is Saxon in its construction and proportion.” I remark on the height and the finesse of the chancel arch. He responds “There is a grandeur at Clayton. The walls are over twenty feet high and the chancel arch is awe-inspiring.” He continues enthusiastically “The overall processional composition, the ornamental borders, especially the lower palmettes dividing the scheme on the chancel wall, the movement in the folds of the massed hierarchical figures’ clothes and the lack of a hard outline in the depiction of many of them, all indicate a date in the 11th century” The compositional scheme certainly shows a cohesive sensitivity to the architecture of the interior.

Eve Baker worked to conserve these frescoes. Importantly she discovered that they were painted as true frescoes whilst the plaster was still wet and are the lowest layer of plaster on the wall surface. Robin suggests that it is unlikely that the church would have been left un-plastered after its completion. If, as seems likely, this is the case then the wall-paintings are contemporary to the building and are late Saxon. Those academics who argue that these paintings are later, from the 12th century, are suggesting that Clayton was later plastered some fifty to a hundred years after the church’s completion and painted in an earlier archaic style. To my mind their argument is unconvincing.

For me, when Baker’s conclusions are combined with the early style of the composition, and its depiction of the figures, it highlights the characteristics and influence of the Anglo Saxons in the painter’s hand.

Using the methods of contemporary art criticism, I think there is an increasingly strong argument for questioning the previously accepted view that the paintings at Clayton, Hardham, Coombes and Plumpton were united in their stylistic qualities and influences by the Benedictine Cluniac priory at Lewes. Whilst there are similarities there are also significant differences.

I am more and more convinced that these churches, once known as the ‘Lewes Group’, contain frescoes from the Saxon period and I look forward to returning to Hardham, Coombes and Plumpton in the New Year to re-examine the examples there.

This weekend the church celebrates the Feast of Christ the King and celebrates his authority. How fitting that this is so wonderfully depicted at St John the Baptist, Clayton. There will be a service of Holy Communion celebrated there this Sunday, 23rd November at 11.15am, where you can worship and inhabit this remarkable Church and its frescoes, as people have done since Saxon times. The church is usually open during the day and is one of my favourite places to stop and pray. Our thanks should go to the Revd. Christopher Powell, the churchwardens, Jill Rogers and Jim Coppen and the congregation who make this a living, prayerful place for us all.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 19th November 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.