Museum Bulletin
Museum Bulletin
Museum Bulletin
ERIC GILL
and art historian Ananda Coomaraswa- sphere and was too far from London,
my, Gill was fascinated during this pe- where most of his clients were. In 1928
riod by Indian temple sculpture. Along he moved to Pigotts at Speen near High
with his friend and collaborator Jacob Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, where
Epstein, he planned the construction he set up a printing press and lettering
in the Sussex countryside of a colossal, workshop. He took on a number of aphand-carved monument in imitation of prentices, including David Kindersley,
the large-scale Jain structures at Gwalior who in turn became a successful sculpFort in Madhya Pradesh, to which he tor and engraver, and John Skelton
had been introduced by the Indiaphile (192399), his nephew, and also noted
William Rothenstein.
as an important letterer and sculpIn 1913 he moved to Hopkins Crank tor. Other apprentices included Laurie
at Ditchling Common, two miles north Cribb, Donald Potter and Walter Ritchie.
of the village. In 1914 he produced Others in the household included Denis
sculptures for the stations of the cross in Tegetmeier, married to Gills daughter
Westminster Cathedral. In the same year Petra, and Rene Hague, married to the
he met the typographer Stanley Morison. other daughter, Joanna.
After the war, together with Hilary PepIn 1932 Gill produced a group of
ler and Desmond Chute, Gill founded sculptures, Prospero and Ariel, and othThe Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic ers for the BBCs Broadcasting House in
at Ditchling, where his pupils included London. In 1937, he designed the backthe young David Jones, who soon began ground of the first George VI definitive
a relationship with Gills daughter, Petra. stamp series for the Post Office, and in
In 1924 he moved to Capel-y-ffin 1938 produced The Creation of Adam,
in Wales, where he set up a new work- three bas-reliefs in stone for the Palace of
shop, to be followed by Jones and other Nations, the League of Nations building
disciples. In 1925 he designed the Per- in Geneva, Switzerland. During this peripetua typeface, with the uppercase based od he was made a Royal Designer for Inupon monumental Roman inscriptions, dustry, the highest British award for defor Morison, who was working for the signers, by the Royal Society of Arts and
Monotype Corporation.
became a founder-member of the newly
An in-situ example of Gills design and established Faculty of Royal Designers
personal cutting of
for Industry.
his Perpetua typeface his beliefs and practices were A deeply religious
can be found in the
man, largely folby no means orthodox
nave of Poling church
lowing the Roman
in West Sussex, on a wall plaque commemo- Catholic faith, his beliefs and practices
rating the life of Sir Harry Johnston. The Per- were by no means orthodox. He published
petua design was followed by the Gill Sans numerous essays on the relationship betypeface in 192730, based on the sans serif tween art and religion. He also produced a
lettering originally designed for the London number of erotic engravings. His personal
Underground. (Gill had collaborated with diaries describe his sexual activity in great
Edward Johnston in the early design of the detail including the fact that Gill sexually
Underground typeface, but dropped out of abused his own children, had an incestuous
the project before it was completed.) In the relationship with his sister and performed
period 193031 Gill designed the typeface sexual acts on his dog. This aspect of Gills
Joanna which he used to hand-set his book, life was little known until publication of the
An Essay on Typography.
1989 biography by Fiona MacCarthy. The
Gill soon tired of Capel-y-ffin, com- earlier biography by Robert Speaight mening to feel that it had the wrong atmo- tioned none of it.
Free Admission
April 24-30
26th Street and the Benjamin
Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19130