Frank Brangwyn

Horsham

 

The great possession of the chapel at Christ's Hospital at Horsham is the gallery of 16 immense cartoons running round the walls. They are by Mr Brangwyn.

There are few painters today who surpass Frank Brangwyn in the sheer energy of his work. He has depicted for us in a brilliant style the gorgeous colouring of Venice and the East, and his was a wise choice for these panels in which Christ's Hospital sought to present the story of the spread of Christianity to eager modern minds.

These 16 paintings, which have about 200 figures in them, are in tempera on canvas, and run along both walls under the windows, their cool blue colouring contrasting with and redeeming the red brick. Uniform in their scale and colour, they have sufficient variety in subject and composition to avoid monotony, each story being vividly told; line, form, and colour all display the eager invention of the artist. Conscious though he is of the sacred character of his scenes, he imbues them with a vigour and a modern zest of his own, his rich humour peeping in. In this varied gallery we meet the quaint folk we all know, the carefree street arab, the benevolent old man, the set-lipped cripple, the whimsical and the fanatical, the cynical and the melancholy.

 

The story the artist had to tell is that of the rise and expansion of Christianity, beginning with the Day of Pentecost and closing with a simple service in a London street. The first picture shows Peter at Jerusalem preaching in reply to the accusation that the eleven were filled with new wine, and making the prophetic declaration that young men shall see visions and old men shall dream dreams. Baskets of fruit enrich this scene.

The second scene is a sad one, the martyrdom of Stephen, and is inscribed, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.

The third shows Saul led by the hand to Damascus; it has Eastern colouring of great variety, and a camel forms a background.

The landing on Melita of Paul's shipwrecked escort follows. It is a realistic scene, the warm reds and yellows standing vividly out against the grey-blue of the sea while flying gulls and standing cranes add a decorative note. Paul, with hands upraised, has his back to the spectator, as he has in the next picture, when he is gazing at the palace of the Caesars across the Tiber.

The two next scenes belong to the fourth century, Augustine of Hippo seated in a lovely garden with a group of singing children round him, and Ambrose training the choir in his church at Milan, both tender and beautifully balanced compositions.

Columba landing at Iona, and Patrick dreaming in a flower-spangled wood come next, and then we have the scourging of Alban, the first martyr on English soil, with a group of Romans looking on.

The blue waters surrounding our island form the background of the next three subjects - the meeting of Augustine with King Ethelbert and his stately thanes, a picture of much spiritual beauty; Aidan training boys at Lindisfarne; and Wilfrid of Selsey teaching the South Saxons to fish, a masterly composition in which yellow and orange form a strong colour note. There is wonderful vigour in the fishermen hauling at the net.

Eight hundred years pass before we reach the scene of the next picture, William Caxton showing a page of his printing to priests at Westminster. With jars for colour and a quaint little dog in the foreground, this panel is crammed with interest, as it should be, for it was the work of Caxton which made it possible for the Bible to be broadcast.

The broadcasting of the Bible is the subject of the next picture, where black-robed John Eliot is handing the Book to a gorgeously arrayed Red Indian; and the last panel is a realistic group in the East End of London, in which Mr Brangwyn has revealed his love of humanity in the figures crowded round the harmonium at an open-air service. Inscribed

"Let the people praise Thee, O God,"

there is an earnestness in the poorly-clad singers and the white-robed ministers which is a fitting climax to the sincerity this most gifted artist has revealed in all these panels.

 

 

 

 

Top of Page       main page:  www.yeoldesussexpages.com