Person    | Male  Born 22/2/1882  Died 17/11/1940

Eric Gill

Categories: Art, Craft / Design, Sculpture

Sculptor. Born Brighton. One of thirteen children of a clergyman, he remained religious all his life. Passionate believer in the "carving direct" method. His sculptures would sometimes depict controversial passions and his own transgressive sexual passions extended to a long incestuous relationship with his sister. Had strong views on what people should wear. Women, being inferior should cover up. Wrote a book on the effect of trousers on men's bits 'Trousers & The Most Precious Ornament'.

Studied under Johnston and assisted with the creation of the Johnston sans typeface. Then designed his own, the Gill Sans typeface. A 'compare and contrast' is fascinating. In 1914 was invited to design the Great Seal for George V. The design was accepted but never produced because WW1 intervened. More interestingly, at the time no one seems to have spotted that the king's mount was shown in the urination position. A mistake (or piss-take?) repeated by Hardiman in his statue of the mounted Earl Haig in 1937. Gill died Harefield Hospital, Uxbridge.

Other works in London include: relief sculptures on 55 Broadway (3 of the 8 Winds); Prospero and Ariel and others on Broadcasting House; Stations of the cross in Westminster Cathedral; Moorfields; and Doves Bindery and Press plaque (possibly).

2023: For a taste of the on-going controversy that surrounds Gill see the Daily Mail outrage regarding the BBC repairing the vandalised Prospero and Ariel.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Eric Gill

Creations i

British Museum War Memorial

Designed and carved by Eric Gill.

Read More

Edward VII Galleries, British Museum

So, all the sevens then. Eric Gill designed and carved this memorial.

Read More

People's Palace

The plaque names only 6 relief panels but there are 7, music being represente...

Read More

W. H. Hudson Memorial

The sculpture represents Rima, the nature-spirit heroine of Hudson's book "Gr...

Read More

Other Subjects

Richard Dadd

Richard Dadd

Painter. Born Chatham in Kent. Died in a lunatic asylum at Broadmoor, outside London of "an extensive disease of the lungs".

Person, Art

1 memorial
Antoine Watteau

Antoine Watteau

Artist. Born Jean-Antoine Watteau in Valenciennes. In 1702, he moved to Paris and worked as a scene painter at the Opera. He is credited with inventing the genre of 'fêtes galantes', which shows sc...

Person, Art, France

1 memorial
William Powell Frith

William Powell Frith

Painter.  Born Yorkshire.  Moved to London in 1835. Died Carton Hill. Wikipedia gives his birth day as "19" but the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and My Yorkshire both give "9".

Person, Art

1 memorial
Studio Weave

Studio Weave

A London-based idiosyncratic architecture practice.  The picture we have used is from their page about the Aldgate project.

Group, Architecture, Art

1 memorial
Sir Hugh Lane

Sir Hugh Lane

Art dealer and collector. Born Hugh Percy Lane  In Ballybrack House, Douglas, Cork. He moved to London, and opened an art gallery in 1898. Here he developed a reputation as a shrewd gentleman-deale...

Person, Art, Ireland

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Sacred Heart School, Hammersmith

Sacred Heart School, Hammersmith

The origins of the school date back to a nunnery in 1609. In 1869, Cardinal Manning decided to convert it into a seminary, and had John Francis Bentley (the architect of Westminster Cathedral) draw...

Building, Children, Education

1 memorial
St Mary Abbots Mission Hall

St Mary Abbots Mission Hall

W8, St Alban's Grove, 21, Leith's

Designed by architect T. Phillips Figgis.

4 creators