Sculptor, engraver and typographer

Biography

1882 Born Brighton, Sussex on 22 February

1897 Moved to Chichester. Attended Chichester Technical and Art School and learned decorative lettering

1900 Apprenticed to W.H.Caroe, architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in London. Evening classes at the Central School of Art and Crafts, London. Studied letter cutting under Edward Johnstone. Began to carve in stone.

1903 Broke apprenticeship with Caroe and became self-employed letter cutter

1904 Married Ethel Moore. Elected to Art Workers Guild as letter cutter and sign writer

1905 Taught monumental masonry and lettering for stonemasons at Paddington Institute. Joined Fabian Society

1906 Began to make wood-engravings. Traveled to Rome

1909 Began to carve figures in stone

1913 Set up an artistic community in Ditchling, Sussex. Converted to Roman Catholicism

1918 Called up for war service at RAF transport camp at Blandford

1925 Produced engraving for edition of The Song of Songs, Golden Cockerel Press. Pilgrimage to Rome

1926 Life drawing at the Academie Grande Chaumiere

1927 Lived in Salies-de Bearn, in foothills of Pyrenees

1930 Nervous collapse, treated in St. John's Wood, London

1931 Established own press , Hague and Gill, at Pigotts

1933 Founder member of Artists' International Association

1934 Traveled to Jerusalem to carve for Archaeological Museum and stayed 6 months

1936 Appointed Royal Designer to Industry

1937 Revisited the Holy Land

1938 Awarded Honorary Doctorate of Law from Edinburgh University

1940 Diagnosed with lung cancer. Died in 17 November in Harefield Hospital and buried with headstone of own design in Speen churchyard, Bucks.

Bibliography

1927 John Rothenstein compiled the first biography on Gill's work

1929 Art Nonsense and Other Essays and Engravings by Eric Gill: A Selection by Douglas Cleverton

1936 Eric Gill, The Necessity of Belief

1938 Eric Gill,Twenty-five Nudes

1966 Robert Speaight, The Life of Eric Gill, Methuen & Company, London

1981 Malcolm Yorke, Eric Gill: Man of Flesh and Spirit, Constable, London

1989 Fiona MacCarthy, Eric Gill, Faber & Faber, London

1996 Barbican Art Gallery, exhibition catalogue

1998 Dr. Judith Collins, Eric Gill: The Sculpture, The Herbert Press, London

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1911 First one-man exhibition at Chenil Gallery, London. Contemporary Art Society bought two reliefs

1914 Goupil Gallery, London, where he exhibited regularly until 1936

1918 Exhibition of drawings at Alpine Club Gallery, London

1928 Goupil Gallery, London

1933 Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

1982 Gillian Jason Gallery, Eric Gill: Matter and Spirit

Anthony d'Offay, London

1996 Eric Gill: Sculpture, Barbican Art Gallery, London

1998 Jason & Rhodes, London, (book launch for Judith Collins'Eric Gill: The Sculpture, The Herbert Press

Selected Group Exhibitions

1926 Venice Biennale

1930 Venice Biennale

Awards

1916 Designed war memorial of Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple for Civic Arts Association Competition, gained second prize

1935 Awarded Honorary Associateship of RIBA

1937 Awarded Honorary Associateship of Royal Society of British Sculptors; Elected Associate of Royal Academy

Public commissions

1912 Commissioned by Madame Frieda Strindberg to make sculptures for her nightclub, the Cave of the Calf

1913 Commissioned to carve set of Stations of the Cross for Westminster Cathedral (exempted from war service in 1914 in order to carve them)

1915 Village war memorial cross for Bryantspuddle village, Dorset

1916 Carved font for St. Joseph's church, Pickering, Yorkshire

1920 Sculpture of St. Michael the Archangel for St. Patrick's Church, Dumbarton, the only entirely painted sculpture in his oeuvre

1921 Set of Stations of the Cross for St. Cuthbert's Church, Bradford

1922 Leeds University war memorial

1924 Invited by government to design stamps and new silver coinage; set of Stations of the Cross for Our Lady and St. Peter's church, Leatherhead, Surrey

1928 Received commission to lead team of artists to produce sculpture for London Underground headquarters

1931 Began designs for BBC sculptures

1933 Received commission for sculpture for new Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem; Mary and the Christ Child, St. Denys and St. George at Manchester Cathedral; Crucifixion at St. Thomas Church, Hanwell, London

1935 Commission from HM Government to carve large relief for new League of Nations building, Geneva

1938 Collaboration with boys at Blundells' School, Tiverton, Devon, on a new central altar for their school chapel

1939 Carved St. John the Baptist at Guilford Cathedral