Background
Eric Gill was born on February 22, 1882 in Brighton, Sussex, England. He was a son of non-conformist minister. Eric's brother, Leslie MacDonald Gill, was a noted graphic designer, cartographer, artist and architect.
1927
Eric Grill, 1927.
Westminster, London, United Kingdom
Eric studied at Westminster School of Art.
London, United Kingdom
Gill attended Central School of Arts and Crafts (later known as Central School of Art and Design).
Burlington House, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London W1J 0BD, United Kingdom
In 1937, he became a member of Royal Academy of Arts.
(Here, in essays on industrialism, architecture, stone-car...)
Here, in essays on industrialism, architecture, stone-carving, lettering, clothes, philosophies of art, and much else, Gill emerges as the unabashed proponent of "every man an artist" - "every man as the crafter of the liturgy of the ordinary," as Pickstock so aptly puts it. In these essays is issued a call for the recovery of the Real in all its glory, especially the transcendental of Beauty, in which Truth and Goodness coinhere - a call to return to the Real once again its rightful and actual plenitude.
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1933
engraver printmaker sculptor writer typeface designer
Eric Gill was born on February 22, 1882 in Brighton, Sussex, England. He was a son of non-conformist minister. Eric's brother, Leslie MacDonald Gill, was a noted graphic designer, cartographer, artist and architect.
Initially, Eric attended Chichester Technical and Art School. In 1900, he moved to London, where he studied architecture under William Douglas Caröe. Some time later, Gill also attended Westminster School of Art and Central School of Arts and Crafts (later known as Central School of Art and Design), where he studied letter carving under the guidance of Edward Johnston. In 1903, Eric finally abandoned his architectural training to become a calligrapher, letter-cutter and monumental mason.
After studies, Eric started to work as a carver of tombstones, a position he held until 1910. His early works included "Madonna and Child" (1910), which English painter and art critic Roger Fry described in 1911 as a depiction of "pathetic animalism", and "Ecstasy" (1911). Such semi-abstract sculptures showed Gill's appreciation of medieval ecclesiastical statuary, Egyptian, Greek and Indian sculpture, as well as the Post-Impressionism of Cézanne, van Gogh and Gauguin. His first public success was "Mother and Child" (1912). After 1912, his success as a sculptor was established and he inspired an English revival of direct carving in stone, rather than using preparatory clay models.
During the period from 1914 to 1918, he carved the stations of the cross for Westminster Cathedral in London. Other major commissions included the relief "Prospero and Ariel" over the main entrance of Broadcasting House, London (1931), and the three bas-reliefs, entitled "The Creation of Adam" (1935–38) in the lobby of the council hall of the Palace of Nations at Geneva.
In 1915, together with Douglas Pepler, Eric co-founded St. Dominic’s Press. In 1921, he started a Catholic artists community, called "The Guild of St. Joseph and St. Dominic". In 1924, Eric moved to Capel-y-ffin in Powys, Wales, where he established his workshop. Four years later, Gill founded a printing press and lettering workshop in Speen, Buckinghamshire. David Kindersley, John Skelton, Donald Potter and Walter Ritchie were among his students.
Between 1927-1930, Eric designed the Gill Sans typeface, based on the sans-serif lettering. In 1937, he also designed the background of the first George VI definitive stamp series for the post office.
He also wrote constantly and prodigiously on his favourite topics, such as social reform, the integration of the body and spirit, the evils of industrialisation and the importance of the working man.
(Here, in essays on industrialism, architecture, stone-car...)
1933(Originally published in 1940, this autobiography offers a...)
1940Sample Image for the Font Joanna Nova
Map of North West England in the Midland Hotel, Morecombe (detail)
Signet Insel Verlag
Map of North West England in the Midland Hotel, Morecombe (detail)
Midland Hotel in Morecambe
Map of North West England in the Midland Hotel, Morecombe (detail)
Ex Divina Pulchritudine
Specimens of Typefaces
Wall-mounted Memorial Plaque to Sir Harry Johnston
The Graphic
Untitled
Woodcut from the Christian Social Book the Devil's Devices by H.d.c. Pepler, Showing a Bricklayer Overcoming the Devil Through Honest Work
The Soul and the Bridegroom
Mary Magdalen
Ascension
Crucifix
Hottentot
Woodcut Showing Hammersmith, Illustrating the Book the Devil's Devices, Or, Control Versus Service by Hilary Pepler
Bookplate
Golden Cockerel Press
Frederick Coplestone Memorial is Located in Handbridge
Bbc Speakerthon, Broadcasting House, London
Calvary, St. Thomas the Apostle Parish Church, Boston Road, Hanwell, London
Sculpture for Broadcasting House, London
Bas Relief in the Parish Church of Lapworth, Warwickshire, England
Christ Giving Sight to Bartimaeus, Moorfields Eye Hospital
Relief sculpture of Moses in Jerusalem
Ariel and Prospero Above the Entrance to the Bbc's Broadcasting House
Detail of the Clock at the Top of Broadcasting House
North Wind, st James's Park, London
Relief at University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, Usa
Statue of John the Baptist
Ecstasy
Wooden Doll, Carved by Eric Gill for His Daughter Petra
South Wind, st James's Park, London
Seahorses in Morecambe
Crucifixion at Guildford Cathedral
Monument in the South Aisle to Lady Ottoline Morrell
Seahorses Above the Entrance to the Midland Hotel in Morecambe
Detail from Relief in the Foyer of the Midland Hotel in Morecambe
Gill converted to Catholicism in 1913 and this influenced his sculpture and writings. Later, he also threw himself enthusiastically into the rituals and beliefs of the Dominican order of the church, and took to wearing ecclesiastical garments, including the belt of chastity, which he wore with no apparent sense of irony.
During the 1930's, Gill supported Social credit, an interdisciplinary distributive philosophy, developed by C. H. Douglas. Some time later, he moved towards a socialist position. Also, he was opposed to fascism and was one of the few Catholics in Britain to openly support the Spanish Republicans.
Quotations:
"The artist is not a different kind of person, but every person is a different kind of artist."
"Look after goodness and truth, beauty will look after herself."
"The free man does what he likes in his working time and in his spare time what is required of him. The slave does what he is obliged to do in his working time and what he likes to do only when he is not at work."
"The shapes of letters do not derive their beauty from any sensual or sentimental reminiscences. No one can say that the O’s roundness appeals to us only because it is like that of an apple or of a girl’s breast or of the full moon. Letters are things, not pictures of things."
"There are now about as many different varieties of letters as there are different kinds of fools."
"Legibility, in practice, amounts simply to what one is accustomed to. But this is not to say that because we have got used to something demonstrably less legible than something else would be if we could get used to it, we should make no effort to scrap the existing thing. This was done by the Florentines and Romans of the fifteenth century; it requires simply good sense in the originators & good will in the rest of us."
"Man cannot live on the human plane, he must be either above or below it."
Eric was a member of Peace Pledge Union. He co-founded Catholic peace organisation "Pax" together with E. I. Watkin and Donald Attwater. Also, Eric was a founder-member of the newly established Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry.
Gill was a pacifist. Also, despite the fact, that he was a very religious man, he did not limit his sexual activity, which included several extramarital affairs, sexual abuse of his two eldest teenage daughters, incestuous relationships with his sisters and sexual acts with his dog.
Gill married Ethel Hester Moore in 1904. Their marriage produced three daughters. Also, they adopted a boy.