WHICH OF BRANGWYN’S PAINTINGS WERE YOU OPPOSITE AND IN WHICH YEARS?
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 4:29 pm
Keith Douglas (La A 1931-5 and Mid B 1936-8) was an OB and World War 2 poet, who survived the North African campaign, but most regrettably he was killed in action just after the Normandy landings at the age of 24. So he has left relatively little work, yet it is of a very high standard. (Edmund Blunden had sent some of his youthful poems to TS Eliot, who thought them “impressive” [Wikipedia].) Many think him the best of the World War 2 war poets. However Douglas was also an artist and it is likely that the Brangwyn paintings, opposite which he sat daily for his years at CH, may have had a great influence on him. WHICH PAINTINGS WERE THESE? Perhaps you can help me find out.
I was in Barnes A (1947 –56) and we always sat opposite the painting entitled, “Let all the people praise Thee! Let all the people praise thee!”. It was a most striking contemporary scene of an outdoor service of ordinary people (including a hunchback playing a harmonium) and located first on the right after entering Chapel. Barnes A then sat in the north east corner of Chapel.
Can. the FORUM’S READERS TELL US THEIR YEARS AND HOUSES AT CH AND OPPOSITE WHICH PAINTINGS THEY SAT? Please post a message in this thread of the Forum giving your house and years at CH, with the name of the painting opposite which you sat? Better still, if you know of a way to find all this information from a single list somewhere, do mention it? If also you can remember which pictures were on either side of “yours” (I can’t do this), do write in with this information too. To assist you by jogging memories there is a list of all Brangwyn’s Chapel painting’s titles below. Most of them describe the picture’s content. Although it is highly unlikely that a contemporary or near-contemporary of Douglas’s will respond, it’s possible.
I suspect that the houses’ positions in Chapel have changed very little over the decades. Perhaps they have never changed since 1902, for their logic probably results from the fact that in my day houses all set off together for Chapel and they march different distances, so arriving at different times in a well defined order. If your house’s Chapel position changed while you were at CH, it will help if you mention this. If any of Douglas’s contemporaries read this message, I shall be overjoyed to hear from you. From all this information it may be possible to deduce the paintings opposite which Douglas sat.
The reason for this longwinded request is to aid a non-OB friend, who is writing a biography of Douglas and thinks that knowing which Brangwyn paintings he knew so well in his most impressionable years may be of great significance, having probably influenced both his art and his poetry.
List of titles
- The Martyrdom of St Stephen “Lord. Lay not this sin to their charge”.
- “And the men led Saul by the hand and brought him to Damascus”.
- St Paul shipwrecked. “So it came to pass that all escaped safe to land”.
- “Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spake”
- The arrival of St Paul at Rome. “He thanked God and took courage”.
- St Ambrose training the choir in his church at Milan. AD 385.
- St Columba landing at Iona. AD 563.
- The conversion of St Augustine at Milan. AD 387. “Take read! Take read!”
- William Caxton printing Bibles at Westminster. AD 1476.
- St Patrick in the forest. AD 450.
- St Augustin at Ebbsfleet. “Turn O Lord Thy wrath from this people”.
- St Alban Martyr. ”Lord with all my heart I offer my soul to thee.
- St Aidan Bishop of Northumbria. AD 635. Training boys at Lindisfarne.
- Let all the people praise thee! Let all the people praise thee!
I was in Barnes A (1947 –56) and we always sat opposite the painting entitled, “Let all the people praise Thee! Let all the people praise thee!”. It was a most striking contemporary scene of an outdoor service of ordinary people (including a hunchback playing a harmonium) and located first on the right after entering Chapel. Barnes A then sat in the north east corner of Chapel.
Can. the FORUM’S READERS TELL US THEIR YEARS AND HOUSES AT CH AND OPPOSITE WHICH PAINTINGS THEY SAT? Please post a message in this thread of the Forum giving your house and years at CH, with the name of the painting opposite which you sat? Better still, if you know of a way to find all this information from a single list somewhere, do mention it? If also you can remember which pictures were on either side of “yours” (I can’t do this), do write in with this information too. To assist you by jogging memories there is a list of all Brangwyn’s Chapel painting’s titles below. Most of them describe the picture’s content. Although it is highly unlikely that a contemporary or near-contemporary of Douglas’s will respond, it’s possible.
I suspect that the houses’ positions in Chapel have changed very little over the decades. Perhaps they have never changed since 1902, for their logic probably results from the fact that in my day houses all set off together for Chapel and they march different distances, so arriving at different times in a well defined order. If your house’s Chapel position changed while you were at CH, it will help if you mention this. If any of Douglas’s contemporaries read this message, I shall be overjoyed to hear from you. From all this information it may be possible to deduce the paintings opposite which Douglas sat.
The reason for this longwinded request is to aid a non-OB friend, who is writing a biography of Douglas and thinks that knowing which Brangwyn paintings he knew so well in his most impressionable years may be of great significance, having probably influenced both his art and his poetry.
List of titles
- The Martyrdom of St Stephen “Lord. Lay not this sin to their charge”.
- “And the men led Saul by the hand and brought him to Damascus”.
- St Paul shipwrecked. “So it came to pass that all escaped safe to land”.
- “Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spake”
- The arrival of St Paul at Rome. “He thanked God and took courage”.
- St Ambrose training the choir in his church at Milan. AD 385.
- St Columba landing at Iona. AD 563.
- The conversion of St Augustine at Milan. AD 387. “Take read! Take read!”
- William Caxton printing Bibles at Westminster. AD 1476.
- St Patrick in the forest. AD 450.
- St Augustin at Ebbsfleet. “Turn O Lord Thy wrath from this people”.
- St Alban Martyr. ”Lord with all my heart I offer my soul to thee.
- St Aidan Bishop of Northumbria. AD 635. Training boys at Lindisfarne.
- Let all the people praise thee! Let all the people praise thee!