SKU: 11261
Sir Thomas Monnington
(1902 - 1976)
Study for Bristol Ceiling, circa 1952
£5,400
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Sir Thomas Monnington (1902 - 1976)
Size:
Height – 54.6cm
Width – 44.5cm
Literature: Sir Thomas Monnington, exh. cat.. The Fine Art Society, London, 1997, p. 56
Monnington
began designs for fourteen Stations of the Cross for St George’s Parish
Church, Brede, Sussex, in 1959; he exhibited studies for Jesus Meets
his Mother and Jesus Falls for the First Time at the Royal Academy that
year.The works were commissioned by the Rector of Brede, the Revd Percy
Hill, with the support of Bishop George Bell, who enthusiastically
endorsed Hill’s choice: If you could get Monnington it would be
wonderful.’ Monnington accepted thecommission at a cost of ¬£100 for
each station. He expressed a preference to execute the works as
frescoes but, since the surface of the ancient walls did not allow
this, painted them instead in tempera on panel.The work took several
years to complete, and Monnington became deeply moved by the subject
matter. The last four or five stations are markedly different in style
from the earlier ones, as Monnington was increasingly drawn towards
abstraction. Strong stylistic parallels can be made between
Monnington’s Stations and Paul Nash’s twelve wood-cuts for Genesis
(Nonesuch Press, London, 1924).
Painter, especially of murals. Born in London, he studied at the Slade School in 1918-23 and was Rome Scholar in 1923-26. He married fellow Rome Scholar Winifred Knights in 1924. Among his public works are a decoration for St Stephen’s Hall, Westminster, 1928, and the new Council House in Bristol, 1956. Monnington taught drawing at the Royal Academy Schools, 1931-39, and in 1949 joined the staff of the Slade, whose strong linear tradition marked his own work. Monnington is represented in a number of public galleries, including the Tate, British Museum and Imperial War Museum. He was elected RA in 1938, became its President in 1966 and was knighted in 1967. There was a memorial exhibition at the RA in 1977. Another traveled from the British School at Rome to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter and the Fine Art Society in 1997. From the 1940s Monnington lived in Groombridge, Kent; the local landscape inspired much of his post-war work. Monnington was one of the outstanding draughtsmen of his generation. He had a considerable influence as a teacher (Euan Uglow was among his pupils), and was one of the most effective of the twentieth-century presidents of the RA, turning around the Academy’s ailing fortunes. Remarkably he was the first president of the Academy to produce abstract paintings and indeed made no distinction between abstract and figurative art: “Surely what matters is not whether a work is abstract or representative, but whether it has merit. If those who visit exhibitions would come without preconceptions, would apply to art the elementary standards they apply in other spheres, they might glimpse new horizons. They might ask themselves: is this work distinguished or is it commonplace? Fresh and original or uninspired, derivative and dull? Is it modest or pretentious?” (Interview in the Christian Science Monitor, 29.5.67).
Selected Literature: Judy Egerton, Sir Thomas Monnington, Royal Academy of Arts, 1977 Paul Liss, Sir Thomas Monnington, British School at Rome/Fine Art Society plc, 1997
