St. Mary's, Nottingham

Frederick (commonly F.L.) Griggs(1876-1938), was a distinguished English etcher, architectural draughtsman, illustrator and early conservationist, associated with the late flowering of the Arts and Crafts movement in the Cotswolds. He was one of the first etchers to be elected to full membership of the Royal Academy.

Born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, he worked as an illustrator for the Highways and Byways series of regional guides for the publishers, Macmillans. In 1903 he settled at Dover's House, in the market town of Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, and went on to create one of the last significant Arts and Crafts houses at 'New Dover's House'. There he set up the Dover's House Press, where he printed late proofs of the etchings of Samuel Palmer, amongst others. He collaborated with Ernest Gimson and the Sapperton group of craftsmen in architectural and design work in the area.

'Fred' Griggs converted to Catholicism in 1912, and set about producing an incomparable body of etchings, 57 meticulous plates in a Romantic tradition, evoking an idealised medieval England of pastoral landscapes and architectural fantasies of ruined abbeys and buildings. His best known etchings include <em>Owlpen Manor</em> dedicated to his friend and near neighbour, the architect-craftsman Norman Jewson, <em>Anglia Perdita</em>, <em>Maur's Farm</em>, <em>St Botolph's, Boston</em> and <em>The Almonry</em> (the last two are in Te Papa's collection). Collections of his etched work are held in major public collections worldwide.

Griggs was one of the finest and most respected etchers of his time. He was an influential leader of the British etching revival in the Twenties and Thirties, and "the most important etcher who followed in the Samuel Palmer tradition" (K.M. Guichard, British Etchers, 1977). He occupies a pole position in the Romantic tradition of British art: he links the world of Blake, Turner and Samuel Palmer to a younger generation of neo-Romantic artists, including Graham Sutherland, John Piper and Robin Tanner.

<em>St Mary's, Nottingham,</em> is the principal Anglican church in that city, a fine example of Perpendicular Gothic, which was in its early stages at the commencement of the building we see today (early 1380s) and in its very late stages with the completion of the tower, some 130-140 years later, during the reign of Henry VIII. Although it is not an architectural fantasy, neither is this etching for a moment a topographical illustration suitable for a guidebook. Griggs dramatically manipulates the scale and the worm's eye viewpoint.  This explains the huge magnificence of the south transept window, which almost dwarfs the tower. Griggs exercises further imagination in his depiction of St Mary's in a semi-ruined, roofless state, which certainly didn't correspond to the church he would have seen. This, together with plunging the structure into sublime shadow, was done as an expression of artistic grief over the losses suffered by Cistercian monasteries at the time of their dissolution in Henry VIII's reign, doubtless intensified by Griggs's romantic Catholicism.

See:

Allinson Gallery, 'Frederick Landseer Griggs, R.A., R.E. 1876-1938', http://www.allinsongallery.com/griggs/stmarys.html

Wikipedia, 'F.L. Griggs', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._L._Griggs

Dr Mark Stocker    Curator, Historical International Art    April 2018