Stations of the Cross (1914)

Eric Rowton Gill

pen and grey ink, touched with watercolour and gold, squared for transfer

Prints and Drawings Department, British Museum, London

Photo credit: Trustees of the British Museum

Classification:

Drawing and Watercolour

Materials:

Paper, Ink, Pen, Watercolour

Physical Object Description:

First design for the Stations of the Cross, in Westminster Cathedral; fourteen panels recording Christ's passion, each with caption, beginning with "I JESUS.IS.CONDEMNED.TO.DEATH.", and ending with "XIV JESUS.IS.LAID.IN.THE.TOMB". 1914Inscribed: "Westminster Cathedral, Stations of the Cross" and "Scale 1/2'' = 1'0'' (1/24)" and inscribed and dated: "E.G. spring 1914" Inscribed on mount (transcribed on to modern mount): "See V + A, Dept of Engr. etc.,/Report of Accessions, 1923, p.264"This drawing was for Gill's first large public commission for sculpture. Literature: Ruth and Joe Cribb, 'Eric Gill. Lust for letter and line', BMP, London 2011, pp. 49-61 Label text from 2008-9 Sept.-Jan BM, British Sculptors' Drawings

Dimensions:

27.5 x 24.1 cm

Accession Number:

1920,1211.1

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1920

Scheme:

Historic Purchase by Committee

Ownership history:

Purchased by the Contemporary Art Society, 1918; presented to the Prints and Drawings Department, British Museum, 1920

Relationship:

Prints and Drawings Department, British Museum, London

Eric Gill was trained as stone mason, and became a member of the Arts and Crafts Society in 1904. In 1913 he converted to Catholicism, and this led to a commission from Westminster Cathedral (the Catholic cathedral for England) for a series of 14 stone reliefs of the Stations of the Cross. This drawing shows his first thoughts for their composition. The reliefs (which are still in the Cathedral) were executed between 1914 and 1918.

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