Ernest Gimson
Encyclopedia
Ernest William Gimson was an English furniture designer and architect
. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner
as "the greatest of the English architect-designers". Today his reputation is securely established as one of the most influential designers of the English Arts and Crafts movement
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Ernest Gimson was born in Leicester
, in the East Midlands
of England
, in 1864, the son of Josiah Gimson, engineer
and iron founder, owner of the Vulcan Works. Ernest was articled to the Leicester architect, Isaac Barradale. Aged 20, he attended a lecture on 'Art and Socialism' at the Leicester Secular Society
given by the leader of the Arts and Crafts revival in Victorian England, William Morris
.
Morris recommended him to the architectural practice of John Dando Sedding in London
. From Sedding, Gimson derived his interest in craft techniques, the stress on textures and surfaces, naturalistic detail of flowers, leaves and animals, always drawn from life, the close involvement of the architect in the simple processes of building and in the supervision of a team of craftsmen employed direct. He met Ernest Barnsley at Sedding’s studio, and soon learnt the crafts of traditional chairmaking and plasterwork.
In 1889 he joined Morris’s Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
(SPAB). In 1890, he was a founder member of the short-lived furniture company, Kenton and Co., with Sidney Barnsley, Alfred Hoare Powell
, W.R. Lethaby, Mervyn Macartney, Col. Mallet and Reginald Blomfield
. Here they acted as designers rather than craftsmen and explored inventive ways of articulating traditional crafts, “the common facts of traditional building”, as Philip Webb
, “their particular prophet”, had taught.
in Gloucestershire
in 1893 “to live near to nature”. They soon settled at Pinbury Park, near Sapperton
, on the Cirencester estate
, under the patronage of the Bathurst family
. In 1900, he set up a small furniture workshop in Cirencester
, moving to larger workshops at Daneway House, a small medieval manor house at Sapperton, where he stayed until his death in 1919. He strove to invigorate the village community and, encouraged by his success, planned to found a Utopian craft village. He concentrated on designing furniture, made by craftsmen, under his chief cabinet-maker, Peter van der Waals, whom he engaged in 1901.
His architectural commissions include a number of early works such as Inglewood (1892) and The White House (1898) in the prosperous Leicester suburb of Stoneygate
; Lea and Stoneywell Cottages (and others) near the Leicestershire village of Markfield
(1897/8); his own cottage, The Leasowes, at Sapperton (1903, with a thatched roof, since burnt); alterations to Pinbury Park (with plasterwork) and Waterlane House (1908), both in Gloucestershire; cottages and the village hall (completed under Norman Jewson
in 1933) at Kelmscott
, Oxfordshire; Coxen, at Budleigh Salterton
, Devon, constructed in cob (rammed earth); and the window for Whaplode
Church, Lincolnshire. His competition 'Design for the Federal Capital of Australia
' (1908) is an original project in town planning for the city which was to become Canberra
. His last major project was the Memorial Library (1918–1919) built next to the 1911 Lupton Hall (also a Gimson design) at Bedales School, near Petersfield
, Hampshire (built at his request by Geoffrey Lupton under Sidney Barnsley’s supervision and completed in 1921).
.
His architectural style is “solid and lasting as the pyramids… yet gracious and homelike” (H. Wilson, 1899). Lethaby described him as an idealist individualist: “Work not words, things not designs, life not rewards were his aims.” Norman Jewson
was his foremost student, who carried his design principles into the next generation and described his studio practices in his classic memoir By Chance I did Rove (1951).
Today his furniture and craft work is regarded as a supreme achievement of its period and is well represented in the principal collections of the decorative arts in Britain and the United States of America. Specialist collections of his work may be seen in England at the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, and in Gloucestershire at the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, Rodmarton Manor
and Owlpen Manor
.
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
as "the greatest of the English architect-designers". Today his reputation is securely established as one of the most influential designers of the English Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Early career
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, in the East Midlands
East Midlands
The East Midlands is one of the regions of England, consisting of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It encompasses the combined area of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire...
of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, in 1864, the son of Josiah Gimson, engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
and iron founder, owner of the Vulcan Works. Ernest was articled to the Leicester architect, Isaac Barradale. Aged 20, he attended a lecture on 'Art and Socialism' at the Leicester Secular Society
Leicester Secular Society
Leicester Secular Society is the world's oldest Secular Society. It meets at its headquarters, the Leicester Secular Hall in the centre of Leicester, England, at 75 Humberstone Gate.-Founding of the Society:...
given by the leader of the Arts and Crafts revival in Victorian England, William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
.
Morris recommended him to the architectural practice of John Dando Sedding in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. From Sedding, Gimson derived his interest in craft techniques, the stress on textures and surfaces, naturalistic detail of flowers, leaves and animals, always drawn from life, the close involvement of the architect in the simple processes of building and in the supervision of a team of craftsmen employed direct. He met Ernest Barnsley at Sedding’s studio, and soon learnt the crafts of traditional chairmaking and plasterwork.
In 1889 he joined Morris’s Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings was founded by William Morris, Philip Webb and J.J.Stevenson, and other notable members of the Pre Raphaelite brotherhood, in 1877, to oppose what they saw as the insensitive renovation of ancient buildings then occurring in Victorian...
(SPAB). In 1890, he was a founder member of the short-lived furniture company, Kenton and Co., with Sidney Barnsley, Alfred Hoare Powell
Alfred Hoare Powell
Alfred Hoare Powell was an English Arts and Crafts architect, and designer and painter of pottery.-Career:Alfred Powell was born in Reading, Berkshire, on 14 April 1865 , the son of Thomas Edward Powell by Emma Corrie.He was the architectural pupil of John Dando Sedding, working in the 'crafted...
, W.R. Lethaby, Mervyn Macartney, Col. Mallet and Reginald Blomfield
Reginald Blomfield
Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield was a prolific British architect, garden designer and author of the Victorian and Edwardian period.- Early life and career :...
. Here they acted as designers rather than craftsmen and explored inventive ways of articulating traditional crafts, “the common facts of traditional building”, as Philip Webb
Philip Webb
Another Philip Webb — Philip Edward Webb was the architect son of leading architect Sir Aston Webb. Along with his brother, Maurice, he assisted his father towards the end of his career....
, “their particular prophet”, had taught.
Sapperton, Gloucestershire
Gimson and the Barnsley brothers moved to the rural region of the CotswoldsCotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
in 1893 “to live near to nature”. They soon settled at Pinbury Park, near Sapperton
Sapperton
Sapperton may refer to:*Sapperton, Derbyshire, England*Sapperton, Gloucestershire, England**Sapperton Tunnel **Sapperton Canal Tunnel*Sapperton, Lincolnshire, England*Sapperton, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada...
, on the Cirencester estate
Cirencester House
Cirencester House , at Cirencester in Gloucestershire, England, is the seat of the Bathurst family, Earls Bathurst. Allen Bathurst, the first Earl Bathurst , inherited the estate on the death of his father, Sir Benjamin Bathurst, in 1704...
, under the patronage of the Bathurst family
Earl Bathurst
Earl Bathurst, of Bathurst in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1772 for Allen Bathurst, 1st Baron Bathurst. He was a politician and an opponent of Sir Robert Walpole...
. In 1900, he set up a small furniture workshop in Cirencester
Cirencester
Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...
, moving to larger workshops at Daneway House, a small medieval manor house at Sapperton, where he stayed until his death in 1919. He strove to invigorate the village community and, encouraged by his success, planned to found a Utopian craft village. He concentrated on designing furniture, made by craftsmen, under his chief cabinet-maker, Peter van der Waals, whom he engaged in 1901.
Architectural work
Stoneygate
Stoneygate is part of the City of Leicester, England.Situated on the south-east side of the city some two miles from the centre, Stoneygate is a mainly residential suburb characterised by its large Victorian houses...
; Lea and Stoneywell Cottages (and others) near the Leicestershire village of Markfield
Markfield
Markfield is a commuter village sitting within both the National Forest and Charnwood Forest and in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England. The settlement dates back to at least the time of the Norman conquest and is mentioned in the Domesday Book under the name...
(1897/8); his own cottage, The Leasowes, at Sapperton (1903, with a thatched roof, since burnt); alterations to Pinbury Park (with plasterwork) and Waterlane House (1908), both in Gloucestershire; cottages and the village hall (completed under Norman Jewson
Norman Jewson
Norman Jewson was an English architect-craftsman of the Arts and Crafts movement, who practiced in the Cotswolds. He was a distinguished, younger member of the group which had settled in Sapperton, Gloucestershire, a feudal village in rural southwest England, under the influence of Ernest Gimson...
in 1933) at Kelmscott
Kelmscott
Kelmscott is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in West Oxfordshire, about east of Lechlade in neighbouring Gloucestershire.-Parish church:...
, Oxfordshire; Coxen, at Budleigh Salterton
Budleigh Salterton
Budleigh Salterton is a small town on the south coast of Devon, England 15 miles south of Exeter. It is situated within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty designated East Devon AONB.- Features :...
, Devon, constructed in cob (rammed earth); and the window for Whaplode
Whaplode
Whaplode is a parish in South Holland District, Lincolnshire, England, just west of the Prime Meridian.-Geography:In old documents, it is sometimes called Whapload. The main village lies on the marine silt ridge, known as the Townlands, which rises between the former salt marsh and the former fen...
Church, Lincolnshire. His competition 'Design for the Federal Capital of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
' (1908) is an original project in town planning for the city which was to become Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
. His last major project was the Memorial Library (1918–1919) built next to the 1911 Lupton Hall (also a Gimson design) at Bedales School, near Petersfield
Petersfield, Hampshire
Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth, on the A3 road. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct Line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth and London. The town is situated on the...
, Hampshire (built at his request by Geoffrey Lupton under Sidney Barnsley’s supervision and completed in 1921).
Legacy
The Sapperton workshop was closed after Gimson's death, but many of the craftsmen went with Peter van der Waals to his new premises in ChalfordChalford
Chalford is a village in the Frome Valley of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. It is about 8 km upstream of Stroud. It gives its name to Chalford parish, which covers the villages of Chalford, Chalford Hill, France Lynch, Bussage and Brownshill, spread over 2 mi² of the...
.
His architectural style is “solid and lasting as the pyramids… yet gracious and homelike” (H. Wilson, 1899). Lethaby described him as an idealist individualist: “Work not words, things not designs, life not rewards were his aims.” Norman Jewson
Norman Jewson
Norman Jewson was an English architect-craftsman of the Arts and Crafts movement, who practiced in the Cotswolds. He was a distinguished, younger member of the group which had settled in Sapperton, Gloucestershire, a feudal village in rural southwest England, under the influence of Ernest Gimson...
was his foremost student, who carried his design principles into the next generation and described his studio practices in his classic memoir By Chance I did Rove (1951).
Today his furniture and craft work is regarded as a supreme achievement of its period and is well represented in the principal collections of the decorative arts in Britain and the United States of America. Specialist collections of his work may be seen in England at the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, and in Gloucestershire at the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, Rodmarton Manor
Rodmarton Manor
Rodmarton Manor is a large country house, in Rodmarton, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, built for the Biddulph family. It is a Grade I listed building. It was constructed in 1909-1929 in an Arts and Crafts style, to a design by Ernest Barnsley. After Barnsley's death in 1925, it was completed by...
and Owlpen Manor
Owlpen Manor
Owlpen Manor is a Tudor Grade I listed manor house of the Mander family, situated in the village of Owlpen in the Stroud district in Gloucestershire, England. There is an associated estate set in a picturesque valley within the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
.
Sources
- Nicholas Mander, Owlpen Manor, Gloucestershire: a short history and guide (Owlpen Press, current edition, 2006) ISBN 0-9546056-1-6
- Alfred Powell, Ernest Gimson, his life and work (1919)
- Norman Jewson, By Chance I did Rove (Cirencester, 1951 (reprinted))