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The ‘Revival’ in the Visual Arts in the Church of England, c.1935–c.1956
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
One fruitful organizing theme around which to write the history of the worship of the Church of England in the early part of the twentieth century might be that of the revival of ancient practice. In church music, for instance, the early years of the century saw the gradual readoption of plainsong, the rediscovery of the repertoire of the Tudor and Stuart Church, and the adoption of English folk-song, most visibly in the English Hymnal of 1907. In the placing of contemporary visual art in churches, however, the contrast is marked. Recent analysis of this period has tended to posit a Church largely indifferent to the visual arts, except for the activities of isolated individuals, and of two men in particular: George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, and Walter Hussey, Dean of Chichester and formerly Vicar of St Matthew’s, Northampton. This sense was shared by Sir Kenneth Clark, former Director of the National Gallery, in a retirement tribute to Hussey, with whose patronage Clark had collaborated since the early 1940s. ‘What’ he asked ‘has the Church done in the way of enlightened patronage of contemporary art in the present century?’ Only one man, Hussey, ‘has had the courage and insight to maintain – I wish I could say revive – the great tradition of patronage by individual churchmen’.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 44: Revival and Resurgence in Christian History , 2008 , pp. 297 - 306
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2008
References
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8 London, Lambeth Palace Library [hereafter: LPL], Bell MS 151, fol. 186 (Bell’s opening address to the conference); LPL, MS Bell 151, fol. 184 (programme and list of attendees). The Bell Papers are cited by kind permission of the Librarian of Lambeth Palace. A copy of Bell’s summary of proceedings found its way to Hussey, probably through Moore. Chichester, West Sussex Record Office [hereafter: WSRO], MS Hussey 180. The Hussey Papers are cited by permission of the Very Reverend the Dean of Chichester and with acknowledgments to the West Sussex Record Office and the County Archivist.
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12 T. S. R. Boase, ‘Religion and Art’, Theology 46 (1943), 241–8; Newton, ‘The Church and the Artist’, Theology 48 (1945), 36–9.
13 The series ran monthly between 1946 and 1948, and included Moore’s Northampton ‘Madonna’, and works by Georges Rouault, John Piper, Marc Chagall, Eric Gill and David Jones.
14 Conlay to Hussey (16 March 1944), and C. G. Mortlock (British Council) to Hussey (17 July 1944), both at WSRO, MS Hussey 333.
15 Jennifer Booth, ‘Rothenstein, Sir John Knewstub Maurice (1901–1992)’, ODNB.
16 Edward Sackville-West, ‘Art and the Christian Church’, Vogue (March 1947), 64, 114, 120; ‘Modern Church Art at Assy’, Vogue (April 1948), 58–61.
17 ‘[Untitled article on Moore] Architectural Review (May 1944), 189–90; J. M. Richards, ‘Coventry’, Architectural Review 111 Qanuary 1952), 3–7.
18 Eric Newton, ‘Art and the Church Today’, London Calling 283 (1945), 11–12; Iris Conlay, ‘Modern Art Comes to Church’, Near East Post (17 September 1944), 2; Benedict Nicolson, ‘Graham Sutherland’s Crucifixion’, Magazine of Art (November 1947), 279–81; Kenneth Clark, ‘A Madonna by Henry Moore’, Magazine of Art (November 1944), 247–9.
19 See, inter alia, on the Moore ‘Madonna’, Times (21 February 1944), 6; for Rothenstein, see note 6 above.
20 The Church as Patron of Art’, The Listener (14 September 1944), 298; The Church and the Artist’, The Listener (13 January 1955), 65–6.
21 Broadcast running order and script at WSRO, MS Hussey 205.
22 Clark, ‘Walter Hussey’, 68–9, 72.
23 Newton, ‘Art and the Church Today’, 12.
24 See the leaflet ‘A Guild Workshop for the Diocese of Chichester’ (undated, but probably 1947) at LPL, MS Bell 152, fols 16–17. On the influence of guild socialism, see Grimley, ‘Civil Society’, 238–9.
25 Hussey was Bell’s preferred candidate for the vacancy that arose in 1948. Bell laid out his vision of the new post in a letter to Hussey of 16 November 1948: WSRO, MS Hussey 96.
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27 Sermon, preached 5 May 1946 at Hussey’s invitation, and privately printed by St Matthew’s: WSRO, MS Hussey 114, printed pamphlet Five Sermons by Laymen, 7–11, at 9–10.
28 Bell, The Church and the Artist’, The Studio 124, no. 594 (1942), 81–92, at 87, 90.
29 Sermon given on 26 May 1946. WSRO, MS Hussey 114, Five Sermons by Laymen. The connection may have been due to Maclagan’s acquaintance with Earl Spencer, with whom Hussey was on good terms. Hussey, Patron of Art, 58–9.
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40 Feibusch, Mural Painting, 92.
41 Hussey, Patron of Art, 47–8, 73.
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