Eric Gill the Sculpture

A prolific engraver, sculptor, letter-cutter and typographer, and a prominent figure in the development of British art, Eric Gill (1882-1940) chose to be remembered on his grave simply as a stone carver. He carved his first figural sculpture in 1909, and his distinctive, serene figures have since become familiar landmarks, appearing in numerous churches and on village war memorials, on buildings such as the BBC's Broadcasting House in London and in public and private collections throughout the world. The expressive simplicity of Eric Gill's sculpture derives in part from his practice of carving directly from the block, reviving a tradition largely neglected since the Middle Ages. From slender crucifixes and tender Madonnas to lithe animals and vuloptuous lovers, his figures overflow with what the critic Roger Fry identified as an "unquenchable will to live", a will which sprang from a deep conviction of the interdependence of the spiritual and the sensual sides of life."