R.M.Healey on the young antiquarian, bomb damage and beauty in decay.
Perhaps one of the oddest things about John Piper, arguably Britain’s best-loved twentieth-century artist, is not that he was attracted to the West of England, but that he forged this link so very early in his life. For as a teenager who had become besotted with antiquarianism, not only did he subscribe to the archaeological society of his native Surrey, but also became, for a short while, a member of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society. Such a commitment in one so young is rare indeed, especially as there is no evidence that he had ever visited the county at this point in his life.
(left: The Temple Church, Bristol 1940)
As he grew older, however, his interests turned away from antiquarianism towards modern art, and he was drawn more to the visual attractions of London and the Home Counties. Then, having embraced abstraction, he renounced it for a romantic vision of the topographical tradition in English art, for which he is best known, and began to rove further afield in search of subject matter. At the same time an antiquarianism of a less academic kind eventually led him back to Wiltshire where, entranced both by Stourhead and the county’s Neolithic ruins, and also the architectural rhythms of Devizes, he re-joined the Archaeological Society. In all this exploration he was doubtless influenced by his friendship with John Betjeman and Geoffrey Grigson, both of whom actually lived in Wiltshire.
Piper travelled relentlessly in the search of the picturesque and saw much to inspirehim in the West. As a War Artist he was asked to paint the bomb damaged buildings of Bath in May 1942, a task he found abhorrent, as he confessed in a letter to Betjeman:
“I was miserable to see that haunt of ancient water-drinkers besmirched with dust and blast… 326 killed. 1,800 houses uninhabitable. Might have been worse but not much. But the air of Bath still there, and the back alleys and raised voices in courtyards, only all talking about how they’d escaped. Churches not too bad… My God, I did hate that week.”
From Bath he visited the equally bomb-damaged Bristol, walking back to his digs in Clifton from the devastated city centre with architectural historian John Summerson. “Bombing does not destroy towns,” he reflected in a letter to Betjeman, “They get even more of their own character to compensate.” He was later to say something similar about the bomb-damaged Norwich, and as someone who genuinely saw beauty in seediness and decay, there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of his observations.
Piper returned to Bath seven years later to find a more acceptable picturesque decay in such streets as Grosvenor Crescent, which in his hands becomes a symbol of the city’s determination to survive. Piper may have paid further visits to Bath. Certainly around 1959 he was moved to create striking Cubist designs (Stones of Bath) for cotton fabric by Sanderson, that were voted the most popular of the five patterns he submitted. Much later on, he found beauty in other parts of Somerset, most notably in the Levels, whose monumental church towers figure in several paintings.
Cheltenham was another favourite town. Piper found much to charm him here, and his paintings and sketches delight in the surviving Regency ironwork of Priory Parade and other streets. Many of his studies of the town were to appear three years later in Betjeman’s brilliant First and Last Loves.
Piper found less to paint in Devon and in another letter he voiced aesthetic objections to the red earth that surrounded Dartington College. In the same letter we discover that he also disliked the Arts and Crafts movement (he hated all things Bloomsbury too ) and found little to admire in either the building or its sandal wearing occupants. But later Piper found enough of interest in the county to submit many memorable photographs to Betjeman’s Shell Guide to Devon. But it was Cornwall, with its granite and romantic bleakness, that had a much stronger appeal for Piper.
Possibly encouraged by both Betjeman and Grigson, who had connections with the county, he paid a number of visits and was especially inspired by the coasts around Talland and Fowey, and by ruined churches from which he later made memorable aquatints.
John Egerton Christmas Piper was born in Epsom Surrey, on December 13 1903. Following his father’s death in 1926, he left the family firm of solicitors and joined Richmond School of Art. A year later he enrolled at the Royal College of Art. In 1929 he left to marry fellow student, Eileen Holding. In the 30s he became friends with Henry Moore, Ivon Hitchens, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Paul Nash. He exhibited regularly with the London Group and the 7 & 5 Society, and wrote for various magazines. In the summer of 1934 with Myfanwy Evans (whom he later married) he published the first issue of the magazine Axis. He also collaborated on the Shell Guides.
During the Second World War he was commissioned to record bomb damage, most notably in London, Bristol and Coventry, and in 1944 he was appointed official war artist.
In Bristol, Piper painted three ruined Bristol churches: Holy Trinity, Knowle (in Bristol City Art Gallery), Temple and St Mary le Port (in the Tate). He painted the underground Bristol ARP headquarters and ships being repaired in city docks.
As well as his huge output of abstract work, Piper is also remembered for his paintings of churches, castles and homes, his murals, stained glass, etchings and prints. He died in 1992.
John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art by Frances Spalding. Published in October 2009 by Oxford University Press. Priced £25 (hardback).
