Have you heard of the mad Englishman of art and abuse Eric Gill from England?
To be more precise, the paedophile sex abuser artist Eric Gill.
Mad Englishman Of Art And Abuse Eric Gill
Most of you might not have heard of him, but for graphic designers who work with typography and typefaces, they definitely know the typeface called Gill Sans, as shown below.
Eric Gill Typeface GILL SANS
Gill Sans is a sans-serif typeface was designed by this notorious Englishman Eric Gill back in 1926.
You can find this common typeface in various applications, including the iconic Penguin books typography, as a standard digital font installed on many computers, and in the modern BBC logo.
The vintage 1949 British Railway poster below used Gill Sans typeface.
Besides Gill Sans, he also designed other typefaces which include: Perpetua (1929), Perpetua Greek (1929), Solus (1929), Joanna and Bunyan (1934).
His Perpetua typeface was first use commercially for his 1929 book “Art-Nonsense And Other Essays”.
Eric Gill British Artist And Printer
Eric Gill full name is Arthur Eric Rowton Gill.
Besides being a typeface designer, Eric Gill was an English sculptor, stone-cutter and print-maker.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Eric Gill as ″the greatest artist-craftsman of the twentieth century: a letter-cutter and type designer of genius″.
Gill first public success with his art piece “Mother and Child” (1912).
This scandalous artist was infamous for for his controversial stance on art that most often involved erotic imagery, despite his strong religious views.
Gill was known for his association with the Arts and Crafts Movement.
It is an English aesthetic movement that represented the beginning of a new appreciation of the decorative arts, which emerged in the United Kingdom around 1860.
Eric Gill received the highest British award for designers, Royal Designer for Industry, the highest British award for designers, by the Royal Society of Arts.
Eric Gill Statue BBC
His other iconic carvings of Ariel and Prospero, inspired by the Shakespeare play “The Tempest“, still adorn the Deco parts of the BBC Broadcasting House in central London.
On January 2022, a protester defaced the statue of Prospero and Ariel at the front of old Broadcasting House in Central London with a hammer.
BBC has decided not to remove defaced statue by Eric Gill.
Besides his famous Prospero and Ariel statue at the BBC’s Broadcasting House in London, you can find his Stations of the Cross displayed inside Westminster Cathedral.
Gill also did a sculpture, reliefs and a medallion for the Midland Hotel in Morecambe, Lancashire, England.
He also created a sequence of seven bas-relief panels for the façade of The People’s Palace, now the Great Hall of Queen Mary University of London.
You can also view his bas-relief Creation of Man in the lobby of the Palais des Nations, now the European HQ of the United Nations in Geneva, as seen above.
Among many Eric Gill’s well-known blasphemous art works include: “Divine Lovers“,”Nuptials of God“, “God Sending” and “Earth Receiving“.
There is even a website called Eric Gill Society where you can join as a member.
It is a resource for the work and history of Eric Gill and the Guild of St Joseph, founded in Ditchling, Sussex.
During his life time, Gill published numerous essays on the relationship between art and religion, and a number of erotic engravings.
To check out Eric Gill prints, artwork or engraving, you just google it.
To know more about Eric Gill’s artwork, check out this 323-page book, with forty-two black and white illustrations illustrations.
The Life Of Eric Gill By Robert Speaight
To get this book free online, type: The Life Of Eric Gill By Robert Speaight pdf archive in Google search.
Then there is another side of Eric Gill which shocked and angered the world.
His personal life remained highly scandalous and controversial, as revealed in his personal diaries of deviant sexual conduct with his two daughters.
Eric Gill Diaries
In 1989, his sexual improprieties, taken from his private diaries, was exposed by Fiona MacCarthy in the biography tilted “Eric Gill“.
He started keeping a diary at the age of fifteen till fifty-eight.
The mad Englishman of art and abuse Eric Gill recorded his day to day of his work, earnings, expenditures and his ‘naughty escapade‘.
It was his wife Mary Gill who sold her hedonistic husband’s complete set of 40-volume diaries to the University of California, Los Angeles, shortly after his death.
This English artist-craftsman had lived a very perverse family and sexual life, that would revolt many of you.
Eric Gill had incestuous relationships with his own sisters Angela and Gladys.
He maintained these controversial relationships throughout the remainder of his adult life.
Not only that, this Catholic convert even had “inappropriate” intimacies with his sisters, but his two of his three daughters, Betty and Petra.
You can read the ‘naughty’ jottings from his diaries published on on page 156 in “Eric Gill” by British biographer and cultural historian Fiona MacCarthy.
Eric Gill By Fiona MacCarthy
To get this book free online, type: Eric Gill By Fiona MacCarthy pdf or Eric Gill By Fiona MacCarthy pdfcoffee in Google search. It is also found in: Z-Library.
Petra Gill Daughter Of Eric Gill
Strangely, according to his daughter Petra Tegetmeier, shortly before her 90th birthday, she revealed to Patrick Nuttgens, that she was not at all embarrassed!
Petra was not perturbed by the media furor.
She went on to say that her own attitude to sex had not been harmed.
Petra and her sisters, Betty and Joan had never been made to feel shame.
Eric Gill’s Dog
This wild Englishman of art not only bedded his own family members, but domestic helpers, the teacher who ran the school at Pigotts, North Dean and even the family dog was not spared.
This is doggone!
Eric Gill Mad Englishman Of Art And Abuse
I am sure you keep seeing this creative artist Eric Gill wearing a loose-fitting cassock, as seen below.
He wore this kind of attire, not because of comfort, but so that he could conveniently exposed his ‘manhood’ to others.
The mad Englishman of art and abuse Eric Gill died of lung cancer on 17th November 1940, and he was buried in the graveyard at Speen Baptist Church.
The head and foot stones in memory of Eric Gill designed by he himself and carved by his assistant Laurie Cribb.
The next time when you use the typeface Gill Sans in your graphic design, or walk past the BBC Headquarter in central London between Oxford Street and Regents Park, remember this mad Englishman of art and abuse Eric Gill!
Free Eric Gill Books
Here are some books by Eric Gill from the Info Ruckus Free Books Google Search Results Page series.
I do not link to the third-party websites which stored these books. i just show you how and where to find them in Google search.
An Essay Of Typography By Eric Gill
To find this book free online, type: An Essay Of Typography By Eric Gill pdf or An Essay Of Typography By Eric Gill pdfcoffee in Google search.
Art-Nonsense And Other Essays By Eric Gill
To get this book free online, type: Art-Nonsense And Other Essays By Eric Gill pdf in Google search.
25 Nudes By Eric Gill
To download this book free online, type: 25 Nudes By Eric Gill pdf in Google search.
Eric Gill: Autobiography By Eric Gill
To get this book free online, type: Autobiography By Eric Gill pdf in Google search.
Money & Morals By Eric Gill
To get this book free online, type: Money & Morals By Eric Gill pdf in Google search.
Letters Of Eric Gill Edited By Walter Shewring
To get this book free online, type: Letters Of Eric Gill pdf in Google search.
A Holy Tradition Of Working: Passages From The Writings Of Eric Gill
To get this book free online, type: A Holy Tradition Of Working pdf in Google search.
DISCLAIMER: This post is only for informational purposes. I do not publish or host the books on this site. They are copyrighted to their respective owners. All content cited is derived from their respective sources.