Mosaic
THE BRANGWYN MOSAIC
The mosaic’s conception was in 1909 when Robert Hawthorne Kitson, a parishioner of St Aidan’s, offered £100 each year for ten years for his friend, the artist Frank Brangwyn, to design and decorate the eastern apse of the church. After a long period of consultation Kitson convinced the authorities that Brangwyn had the right appreciation of the unusual architecture of St Aidan’s for such work. It would be a continuous painting in tempera showing four events in the saint’s life.
But this was not to be for concerns about the filthy atmosphere of Leeds forced a change of composition. The painting was abandoned and he started afresh in mosaic. The work moved to London where Brangwyn engaged Sylvester Sparrow, an experienced glass painter, as his superintendent and the firm of Henry Rust to execute the mosaic by employing young women who were trained in the art. Brangwyn’s full sized cartoons were reversed and the cut pieces of vitreous tesserae were stuck on face down. When a sheet was complete it was cut to a manageable size and sent to Leeds. It was then cemented to the wall, the paper soaked off and, after cleaning, lightly grouted with cement. The work was finished in 1916.
The mosaic is seen at its best on a bright winter’s day at around noon when the sun shines on it through the nave windows. It shows four periods in St Aidan’s life but not in any particular order. They are from left to right:
St Aidan feeding the poor
The arrival of St Aidan in Northumbria
St Aidan preaching
and the death of St Aidan
Mildred Gibb, who wrote a fine history of the church, used exquisite words to describe the picture:
‘Especially notable is the fine treatment of the gracefully balanced tall trees arranged in ably poised groups over the entire panel surface, giving dignity and unity of purpose to the whole design. The setting has the beauty of the English countryside in springtime; rich green grass, decked with great bluebells, wild purple anemones, a spray of budding apple blossom gleaming white against the dark background, yellow and mauve tulips in the immediate foreground. To the left is a pug dog with studded collar; in the centre are white plumaged geese, and a final happy detail of the familiar scene is conceived in the four yellow, new-born goslings, suggesting the eternal fruitfulness of nature.’
The chancel walls were also decorated but in more muted colours in keeping with the pious nature of the figures which mark the words of St Matthew: ‘Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavily laden and I will give you rest’. A display of stars on the south wall appears to be simply that, but closer examination will show that two of them spell out the letters F B and that the artist has signed his work.
In 2002 the mosaics were cleaned for the first time in more then 30 years. The main picture was very dirty after years of candle smoke and general wear. Many small items of detail became recognisable and parishioners of long standing expressed surprise at the many changes.
Among the many famous people who have viewed the mosaic are Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, the Most Reverend George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Healey of Riddlesden, and the late Sir John Betjeman, the Poet Laureate.
FRANK BRANGWYN
Brangwyn was the last of the great polymaths, an artist whose variety of work picks him out of the ruck. Few people are aware of the vast scope of his energies. Although he had little education and no formal art training, he was a natural draughtsman, and over the years took on the mantle of oil-painter, water-colourist, etcher, mural painter, architect, and designer of interior schemes, furniture, stained glass, mosaic, carpets, pottery and jewellery.
He was complicated, a man of contradictions and extremes – a lover of humanity who spurned social contact; a naturally restless spirit; a supremely charitable man with a reputation for being irascible; a pacifist yet a man whose brutal Great War poster Put Strength in the Final Blow (1918) reputedly led the Kaiser to put a price on his head.
His paintings, whatever the title, are usually concerned with the dignity of human labour, and the working man. Grand churches disappear behind ships’ rigging or markets or processions; lords and ladies, aristocrats and important people have no more precedence than the shirt sleeved or half dressed porters and sailors who populate Brangwyn’s world. As an outsider he didn’t expect to gain a grandstand view of important events, and so the gallery gazer is frequently presented with the back of a saint or important personage.
He was born Guillaume Francois Brangwyn in Bruges on 12th May 1867 where his Welsh parents were living and his father was working as an architect. They moved to England in 1875 and settled in the Shepherds Bush district of London. He left school at 12 and was employed by William Morris at 15. He was only 18 when his first work was accepted by the Royal Academy – it was an oil painting of a ship on the River Esk near Whitby. He had seven more accepted in the next five years.
He travelled widely – to Turkey, Tunisia, Romania and Spain. Later he visited South Africa and exhibited the work he did there in London. At the age of 29 he married Lucie Ray, a nurse, when she was 26. They lived for many years in Hammersmith. He became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1904 but it was another 15 years before he became a full member. His first work in Leeds was in 1905 when he was commissioned by Kitson to execute a verge for the walls of the University of Leeds. He did more work for Kitson and visited his villa at Taormina on Sicily where he painted frescoes.
In 1912 he started his work on the St Aidan’s mosaics and at the same time he was also designing stained glass and working on murals, large oil paintings, posters and etchings. He was a very busy man. The St Aidan’s work was completed in 1916. His world-wide work continued – the United States, France, Japan and Belgium where he was made a Commander and Cross of the Order of Leopold. And he and Lucy moved to Ditchling near Brighton. In 1923 he completed another major work – murals for Christ’s Hospital at Horsham that had taken him eleven years. Lucy died in the same year from broncho pneumonia.
He continued working in many different styles, lithographs, etchings, furniture, ceramics, crockery and an Egyptian setting for the Chelsea Arts Ball. He was very generous and gave many of his works to art galleries – Birmingham, Cardiff, Swansea, Brighton and Scarborough were recipients. Another major work was his panels for the British Empire Exhibition which can now be seen in Swansea. And he designed the cover for the 1934 Christmas edition of the Radio Times.
In 1938 he designed the stained glass windows for the church of St André in his birthplace of Bruges and he received another order from the King of the Belgians. He also designed the Brangwyn estate in Brighton, displaying yet another addition to his many talents. In 1941 he was knighted. And in 1952 he was the first living artist to be given a retrospective exhibition by the Royal Academy. He died in 1956 at the age of 89. His housekeeper, Lizzie Peacock, who had worked for him since 1904 was with him when he died.