The city of Coventry has a preoccupation with looking into the past and also anticipating and planning for the future. A link with the past has in recent years been removed from the city in the form of the last sculpture of the artist Eric Gill.
Eric Gill – Brief Biography
Eric Gill is noted as a gifted English sculptor, letter-cutter, typographic designer, calligrapher and engraver who was born 22nd February 1882 and died 17th November 1940. The reputation as a gifted artist is, however, clouded today by evidence of his preoccupation with things of a sexual nature.
The Origins
It was in 1937 that Eric Gill drew sketches for an item of sculpture within Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital in Coventry based on the theme of the good Samaritan. The artist was to complete the work in October 1938 in situ in a prominent position above the main entrance of the hospital. During the night of 14th November 1940, the hospital received direct bombing hits - with Eric Gill’s sculpture receiving significant shrapnel damage.
The morning after the raid, the hospital scene was one of devastation. Fortunately, no one was fatally injured in this particular raid on the hospital. Doctors and nurses had worked bravely during the night to treat the wounded with the greater part of the roof missing and no electricity. Within the city at large, more than 600 people were killed in the raids. The city’s cathedral was also a victim of the firestorm.
In Isolation
The focus relating to Eric Gill’s sculpture became heightened with the building of Coventry’s new University Hospital at a site in the east of the city. An art committee had been initiated some time previously which had raised awareness of any items of significance which could be ultimately transferred to the new hospital site.
Curiosity about a ‘medieval like’ sculpture located within a brick wall of a building on the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital site led enquiry to the art curator of the Herbert Museum in the city. This sculpture was indeed a noted work of Eric Gill and as such was an item to be carefully conserved and managed. Why it had not been afforded a more secure location inside the hospital was an apparent mystery.
Security
There was, however, an immediate problem. The sculpture was effectively in a city centre site with minimal security. The sculpture was vulnerable to both theft and malicious damage. Publicity about the sculpture could therefore be well-intentioned but entirely dangerous.
Options
The hospital management had options with regard to the fate of the sculpture. They could conserve the item and incorporate it into the new hospital, donate the item to the City of Coventry, or sell the item and use the proceeds toward art in the new hospital. The option of selling the item was the one chosen – raising around £26000 at auction at Sotheby’s in July 2007.
On recently trying to contact the arts curator at the Herbert Gallery to find out more details of its present location, it transpires that he has been made redundant. In the context of the Eric Gill, it may have been too difficult a task to separate the legacy of the works of the artist from his lifestyle.
Douglas Clarkson - I have always had a keen interest in writing and find that the focus of writing about topics provides the necessary concentration to take ...
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