Gill

1903 · 48719 — 1903. No Binding. Very Good. c. 1903. Ketton Stone. 21.5 x 38 x 9 cm. The most effective way to introduce this remarkably prescient example of "concrete poetry"-now more than a century old-is to draw extensively from some of the catalogue entries referenced below. The words carved here "Night treadeth on day" are taken from William Morris's poem For the Bed at Kelmscott 1891. The poem was embroidered by his daughter May Morris for the bed at Kelmscott Manor the Morris family's country home. This is the third last line in the poem. In 1989 there is the excellent entry by David Cohen in Peter Nahum Gallery's catalogue #4: "This carved inscription considered here was probably made in the first years of the 20th century. It is rare among Gill's inscriptions in that it is carved in relief for his letters are more usually engraved. The letters are not his own designs as far as we know and a few years later in his career Gill would have been too engrossed in commissions for tombstones memorial plaques and ecclesiastical inscriptions to have devoted such effort to a work most likely undertaken for personal pleasure or experiment. For Gill to choose a text by Morris to inscribe was most natural as there was a great affinity between the two men although Morris had died when Gill was still a teenager. Many of Gill's ideas about the evils of industrialism the value of handicraft socialism and medievalism derive closely from Morris. In 1903 Gill paid several visits to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition with which he himself would show from 1906. The Art Workers Guild which he joined in 1905 was deeply influenced by Morris. In later years after his conversion to Catholicism Gill tended to downplay his debt to Morris preferring instead to trace his pedigree to Ruskin.At the time of `Night treadeth on day' however no such theological barrier came between the young Gill and his mentor. This inscription resonates with the romantic fervour of Gill's early attraction to Morris's poetry and politics. Gill was a man for whom the literary and formal aspects of letters were inseparable. It would not be unreasonable perhaps for a contemporary audience familiar with Ian Hamilton Finlay or Tom Phillips to view this Ketton stone carving as an inadvertent precursor of `concrete poetry'. David Cohen August 1989. Peter Nahum Gallery's catalogue #4. Judith Collins notes several observations about the physical characteristics of the relief inscription in entry #102 of the Barbican 1992 Exhibition Catalogue p. 119. The letters are carved in relief standing out from the stone rather than being incised-a technique Eric Gill occasionally preferred between 1903 and 1910. A similar use of relief lettering can be seen in his 1920 Crucifixion panel. Interestingly this particular stone is not included in Evan Gill's Inventory of the Inscriptional Work of Eric Gill 1964 despite its provenance from the artist's own family. The work was exhibited at the following galleries: Anthony D'Offay Gallery London in Eric Gill: Drawings and Carvings A Centenary Exhibition 1982 catalogue no. 53 illustrated on pages 47 and 55; Peter Nahum Gallery London in British Art from the Twentieth Century 1989 catalogue no. 4 illustrated on pages 10-12; and Barbican Art Gallery London in Eric Gill: Sculpture 1992 catalogue no. 102 illustrated on page 119. Provenance: Rene Hague Gill's printer and husband of Joanna Joan Hague the artist's daughter; consigned to Anthony d'Offay Gallery in 1982; then with the Peter Nahum Gallery in 1989; purchased in 1996 from the Peter Nahum Gallery. unknown