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The Religious Arts on a Rising Tide: People, Media, Networks

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Church and Patronage in 20th Century Britain

Part of the book series: Histories of the Sacred and Secular, 1700-2000 ((HISASE))

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Abstract

Chapter 5 places Hussey’s growing renown in the changed context of the immediate post-war period. Whilst the characteristic Catholic understanding of the nature of culture was mostly unaltered by the War, Hussey’s project was now also framed by the need for reconstruction, both physical and (as some saw it) cultural and spiritual. The chapter describes a moment at which a new settlement between the church and the arts seemed possible, supported by a growth in media coverage, scholarly interest and exhibitions. It also details two key relationships in Hussey’s network: with Kenneth Clark, perhaps the most influential individual in British art, and with George Bell, bishop of Chichester, the other most significant figure in Anglican patronage of the arts in the period. It was Bell who brought Hussey from Northampton to Chichester in 1955: the cathedral of a diocese in which Bell had done significant work in relation to the arts, but that was itself not quite ready for a project such as Hussey’s.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    P. Webster (2008) ‘Beauty, utility and “Christian civilisation”: the Church of England and war memorials, 1940–47’, Forum for Modern Language Studies, 44:2, 199–211.

  2. 2.

    J. Rothenstein (1947) ‘Introduction’ in E. Short (ed.) Post-war church building (London: Hollis and Carter), pp. 2, 7.

  3. 3.

    J.P. Stonard (2014) ‘Looking for civilisation’ in C. Stephens and J.-P. Stonard, Kenneth Clark. Looking for civilisation (London: Tate Publishing), pp. 13, 25.

  4. 4.

    G. Bell (1942) ‘The church and the artist’, The Studio, 124, n. 594, 81–89, at 90, 81.

  5. 5.

    E. Routley (1964) Twentieth century church music (London: Herbert Jenkins), pp. 142–144.

  6. 6.

    F. Spalding (2009) John Piper, Myfanwy Piper. Lives in art (Oxford: OUP), pp. 353–354, 358.

  7. 7.

    E. Mayor (2001) The Duncan Grant murals in Lincoln Cathedral (Lincoln: Lincoln Cathedral), pp. 17–20.

  8. 8.

    R. Cork (1999) Jacob Epstein (London: Tate Gallery), pp. 70–71.

  9. 9.

    B. Spence (1962) Phoenix at Coventry (London: Bles), pp. 17, 36, 69.

  10. 10.

    W. Hussey (1985) Patron of Art. The revival of a great tradition among modern artists (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson), pp. 67–71.

  11. 11.

    P. Foster (1999) ‘The Goring Judgement: Is it still valid’ Theology 102, 253–261.

  12. 12.

    E. M. Browne (1946) ‘Our aim’, Christian Drama 1:1, 1–2.

  13. 13.

    E. Sackville-West (1947) ‘Art and the Christian Church’, Vogue (March) 64, 114, 120; Anon. (1948) ‘Modern church art at Assy’ Vogue (April) 58–61; N. Pevsner (1945) ‘Thoughts on Henry Moore’, Burlington Magazine 66, 47–49; ‘[Untitled article on Moore]’, Architectural Review (May 1944) 189–190; J.M. Richards (1952) ‘Coventry’ Architectural Review 111, 3–7; B. Nicolson (1947) ‘Graham Sutherland’s Crucifixion’ Magazine of Art (November), 279–281. K. Clark (1944) ‘A Madonna by Henry Moore’ Magazine of Art (November), 247–249.

  14. 14.

    G. Bell (1942) ‘The Church and the artist’ The Studio 124, 81–92; W. Hussey (1949) ‘A churchman discusses art in the Church’, The Studio 138, 80–81, 95.

  15. 15.

    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.

  16. 16.

    E. Newton (1945) ‘The Church and the Artist’, Theology 48, 36–39; W. S. Reid (1958) ‘A reformed approach to Christian aesthetics’, Evangelical Quarterly 30, 211–219.

  17. 17.

    W. Wilson (1965) Modern Christian Art (New York: Hawthorn); E. Newton and W. Neil (1966) The Christian Faith in Art (London: Hodder & Stoughton); J.M. Todd (ed.) (1958) The arts, artists and thinkers. An inquiry into the place of the arts in human life (London: Longmans); H. van Zeller (1960) Approach to Christian Sculpture (London: Sheed & Ward); A.C. Bridge (1960), Images of God. An essay on the life and death of symbols (London: Hodder & Stoughton).

  18. 18.

    H. Carpenter (1996) The Envy of the World. Fifty years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson), passim.

  19. 19.

    Radio Times, 13 October 1944, p. 14 (CEMA concert); Radio Times, 29 October 1943 (Britten); Radio Times, 22 Nov 1946 (Berkeley).

  20. 20.

    G. Bell (1944) ‘The Church as Patron of Art’, The Listener 14 September, 298; G. Bell (1955) ‘The Church and the Artist’, The Listener 13 January, 65–66.

  21. 21.

    MS of Hussey’s talk at MS Hussey 204.

  22. 22.

    Partial script at MS Hussey 205; Radio Times, 1275, 19 March 1948, p. 26.

  23. 23.

    T. Devonshire Jones (1992) ‘Art: Theology: Church. A survey, 1940–1990, in the United Kingdom’, Theology, 360–370, at pp. 361–362.

  24. 24.

    The Christian theme in contemporary arts [London, 1953]: copy at MS Hussey 180.

  25. 25.

    ‘The churches and the arts’, Methodist Recorder, 26 March 1953; ‘Christianity and Art’, Church of England Newspaper, 27 March 1953: cuttings at MS Hussey 460.

  26. 26.

    Two draft letters of invitation, undated, at MS Hussey 114.

  27. 27.

    Sargent to WH, 6 January 1946; Nicholson to WH, 31 March 1948; Piper to WH, 11 March 1948, all at MS Hussey 114.

  28. 28.

    Lt-.Gen. Sir Oliver Leese, Read-Admiral R.J.R Scott, and Lord Tovey, Admiral of the Fleet.

  29. 29.

    Betjeman to Anthony Barnes, 12 May 1946, in C. Lycett Green, ed. (1994) John Betjeman. Letters, volume one: 1926–1951 (London: Methuen), p. 389.

  30. 30.

    Maclagan to WH, 8 August 1946, at MS Hussey 114.

  31. 31.

    Betjeman to WH, 23 August 1954, at MS Hussey 292; A.N. Wilson (2006) Betjeman (London: Hutchinson), pp. 36–40.

  32. 32.

    Betjeman to WH, 29 January 1944, at MS Hussey 307.

  33. 33.

    Betjeman to WH, 20 July 1946, at MS Hussey 284; Betjeman to WH, 8 August 1950, at MS Hussey 292; Betjeman to WH, 23 August 1954, at MS Hussey 292.

  34. 34.

    On Bell’s contacts with Germany in the 1930s, see A. Chandler (2016) George Bell, bishop of Chichester. Church, state and resistance in the age of dictatorship (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans), pp. 42–61.

  35. 35.

    P. Webster (2012) ‘George Bell, John Masefield and The Coming of Christ: context and significance’ in A. Chandler (ed.), The Church and humanity. The life and work of George Bell, 1883–1958 (Farnham: Ashgate), pp. 55–57.

  36. 36.

    G. Bell (1942) ‘The church and the artist’, The Studio, 124, no. 594 (September), 81–92.

  37. 37.

    Harold Williamson to WH, 23 September 1942, at MS Hussey 353.

  38. 38.

    A. Harris (2010) Romantic Moderns. English Writers and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper (London: Thames and Hudson), pp. 193–205.

  39. 39.

    C. Stephens (2014) ‘Patron and Collector’ in C. Stephens and J.-P. Stonard, Kenneth Clark. Looking for Civilisation (London: Tate Publishing), pp. 79–99, at p. 87.

  40. 40.

    Stephens, ‘Patron and Collector’, pp. 83, 92, 94.

  41. 41.

    M. Secrest (1984) Kenneth Clark. A biography (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson), p. 152.

  42. 42.

    Stephens, ‘Patron and collector’, pp. 92, 96, 97–98.

  43. 43.

    P. Webster (2008) ‘The “revival” in the visual arts in the Church of England, c.1936–c.1956’, Studies in Church History 44, 297–306, at 302.

  44. 44.

    Hussey, Patron of Art, p. 41.

  45. 45.

    Clark to Hussey, 5 April 1961, at MS Hussey 401.

  46. 46.

    Clark to Hussey, 16 August 1967, at MS Hussey 401.

  47. 47.

    Clark to Hussey, 6 July 1960, at MS Hussey 401.

  48. 48.

    Clark to Hussey, 7 January 1964, at MS Hussey 401.

  49. 49.

    WH to Clark, 23 March 1974, at Tate Gallery Archive, TGA 8812/1/3/1414; Clark to Hussey, 18 March 1974, at MS Hussey 401.

  50. 50.

    Hussey, Patron of Art, p. 145.

  51. 51.

    D. Coke and N. Collyer (1990) The Fine Art Collections. Pallant House, Chichester (Chichester: Pallant House) p. 40.

  52. 52.

    Sutherland to WH, 28 May 1957, at MS Hussey 345; Coke and Collyer, Fine Art Collections, p. 23.

  53. 53.

    Coke and Collyer, Fine Art Collections, p. 45.

  54. 54.

    B. Norman (1965) ‘The swinging Dean peps up the Psalms. With a touch of West Side Story’, Daily Mail, 9 August: cutting at MS Hussey 358.

  55. 55.

    Clark to WH, 6 May 1969, at MS Hussey 401; Clark to WH 26 February 1969, at MS Hussey 401.

  56. 56.

    Stonard, ‘Looking for civilisation’, pp. 14–16.

  57. 57.

    Stonard, ‘Looking for civilisation’, p. 29.

  58. 58.

    K. Clark (1969) Civilisation (London: BBC), pp. 345–346.

  59. 59.

    WH to Blagden (undated draft), at MS Hussey 94.

  60. 60.

    Hussey, Patron of Art, p. 40.

  61. 61.

    H.C. Montgomery-Campbell (bishop of Kensington) to WH, 31 May 1948, at MS Hussey 95; O.H. Gibbs-Smith (archdeacon of London) to WH, 21 April 1949, at MS Hussey 97.

  62. 62.

    P. Welsby (1984) A History of the Church of England, 1945–1980 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p. 29.

  63. 63.

    O.H. Gibbs-Smith to WH, 3 May 1954, at MS Hussey 98.

  64. 64.

    Bell to WH, 16 November 1948, at MS Hussey 96.

  65. 65.

    P. Foster (1999) ‘The Goring judgment: is it still valid?’, Theology 102, 253–261.

  66. 66.

    Winston Churchill to WH, 26 March 1955; Bell to Hussey, 29 March 1955, both at MS Hussey 89.

  67. 67.

    The present-day visitor to the cathedral sees the painting not in its original location. Painted for a recessed and blocked doorway in the south wall, it was moved to the west wall when the door was reopened in 1977, a move of which Feibusch disapproved. D. Coke and R. Potter (1994) ‘The Cathedral and modern art’ in M. Hobbs (ed.) Chichester Cathedral. An historical survey (Chichester: Phillimore), pp. 267–269.

  68. 68.

    R.C.D. Jasper (1967) George Bell, bishop of Chichester (London: OUP) pp. 122–125.

  69. 69.

    Jasper, George Bell, pp. 164–178.

  70. 70.

    Jasper, George Bell, p. 165.

  71. 71.

    S.C. Carpenter (1956) Duncan-Jones of Chichester (London: Mowbray), pp. 62–68: quotation at p. 62.

  72. 72.

    Browne-Wilkinson to WH, 6 April 1955, at MS Hussey 89.

  73. 73.

    A.S. Duncan-Jones (1924) ‘The art of movement’, in P. Dearmer (ed.) The Necessity of Art (London: SCM), pp. 77–80.

  74. 74.

    Jasper, George Bell, p. 35.

  75. 75.

    P. Barrett (2004) ‘The visitation to the Cathedral’ in P. Foster (ed.) Bell of Chichester, 1883–1958 (Chichester: University of Chichester), pp. 51–66.

  76. 76.

    There are copies of three letters from November 1947 at MS Hussey 461.

  77. 77.

    Mortlock to WH, 4 October 1944, at MS Hussey 333.

  78. 78.

    Mortlock to WH, 14 October 1944, at MS Hussey 317; Jasper, George Bell, pp. 131–132.

  79. 79.

    Macmorran to J.S. Widdows, 20 November 1953, at MS Hussey 461.

  80. 80.

    MS Hussey 135, passim.

  81. 81.

    R. Holtby (1994) ‘The immediate past’ in M. Hobbs (ed.) Chichester Cathedral. An historical survey (Chichester: Phillimore), p. 283.

  82. 82.

    J. Birch and A. Thurlow (2004) ‘Music at the Cathedral’ in P. Foster (ed.) Chichester and the Arts, 1944–2004 (Chichester: University of Chichester), pp. 115–116, 113.

  83. 83.

    Hussey, Patron of art, p. 100.

  84. 84.

    G. Turner (1992) ‘“Aesthete, impresario and indomitable persuader”: Walter Hussey at St Matthew’s, Northampton and Chichester Cathedral’ Studies in Church History 28, 523–535, at 528.

  85. 85.

    Minute of meeting of administrative chapter, 25 November 1955, at WSRO Cap I/3/14, p. 23.

  86. 86.

    Turner, ‘Walter Hussey’, p. 528.

  87. 87.

    Blacking to Judith Scott (Cathedrals Advisory Committee), 10 August 1956, at CERC, CATH/CS/CHI/1.

  88. 88.

    Spence to WH, 4 December 1955, at MS Hussey 163.

  89. 89.

    Spence to WH, 6 February 1957, at MS Hussey 163; Judith Scott to WH, 14 January 1957, at MS Hussey 163.

  90. 90.

    Potter to William Croome (Central Council for the Care of Churches), 12 March 1957, at CERC, CATH/CS/CHI/1.

  91. 91.

    Etchells had written to Hussey reporting that he had been involved in a car accident, but the letter makes no mention of retirement: Etchells to WH, 4 September 1956, at MS Hussey 160. The deliberations of the Chapter suggest that there was a subsequent letter from Etchells, but this seems not to have survived: 28 December 1956, WSRO, Cap I/3/14, p. 140.

  92. 92.

    WH to Bell, 3 June 1957, at LPL, Bell Papers vol. 204, f. 203.

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    Peter Webster

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Webster, P. (2017). The Religious Arts on a Rising Tide: People, Media, Networks. In: Church and Patronage in 20th Century Britain. Histories of the Sacred and Secular, 1700-2000. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-36910-9_5

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