Rylands Blake project 6. Frederic Shields: The Chapel of the Ascension (1904)

On 26 February 1911, the Pre-Raphaelite artist Frederic Shields (born 1833) died, having spent the last twenty years of his life devoted to the decoration of the Chapel of the Ascension in Bayswater, London. Conceived of in 1887, completed in 1910, bombed in 1944 during the Blitz of World War II and demolished in 1969, the Chapel represents changing Victorian precepts of religion and faith as well as attitudes towards public art and decoration on the eve of the modern age. Designed by the architect and aesthete Herbert Horne (1864-1916) and modeled on thirteenth-century northern Italian church architecture, the chapel design was a reflection of the British rediscovery of the Italian Renaissance during the Victorian period. Shields’ use of the marouflage technique, mimicking continental fresco schemes, reflects a national desire to raise public British art to a level of “high art,” which would ensure it a place in the art historical canon.—MARGARETTA S. FREDERICK.

There have been at least eleven editions of the "Handbook" to the Chapel.

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AN INCOMPLETE LISTING
1897.—The Chapel of the Ascension. A descriptive handbook.—London : Elliot Stock.—xvi, 98 p ; 21 cm.

1898.—The Chapel of the Ascension : its story and scheme ... .—2nd ed.—London : Stock.—110 p incl plan ; 23 cm.

1902.—The chapel of the Ascension : its story and scheme.—4th ed.—London : Elliot Stock.—xviii, 124 p : plan ; 23 cm.

1904.—The Chapel of the Ascension : its story and scheme / by Frederic Shields.—5th ed., with additions.—London : Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row.—xviii, 124 p ; 23 cm.


1906.—The Chapel of the Ascension : its story and scheme / by Frederic Shields.—6th ed.—London : Elliot Stock.—xix, 130 p : ill, plans ; 23 cm.

1907.—The Chapel of the Ascension : its story and scheme / by Frederic Shields.—7th ed.—London : Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row.—xix, [1], 140 p ; 22 cm.

1912.—The Chapel of the Ascension : its story and scheme / by Frederic Shields.—New illustrated ed.—London : Women's Printing Society.—xiv, 156 p, plates : ill, port, plan ; 22 cm.
With a biographical note, by Ernestine Mills.

1916.—The Chapel of the Ascension, its story and scheme / Frederic Shields : a biographical note, [by] Ernestine Mills.—Illustrated 12th ed.—London : Women's Printing Society.—xiv, 156 p : ill, plans ; 22 cm.

1922.—The chapel of the Ascension, its story and scheme.—13th ed.—London : Women's Printing Society.—xiv, 156 p : plates (incl port) plans ; 22 cm.

1925.—The Chapel of the Ascension, etc.—London.—xiv, 156 p : plates (incl port) plans ; 22 cm.

1935.—The Chapel of the Ascension : its story and scheme / by Frederic Shields.—16th ed.—London : Women's Printing Society.—xiv, 156 p : ill, plans ; 22 cm.

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HALF TITLE
THE CHAPEL OF THE ASCENSION

TITLE PAGE
THE | Chapel of the Ascension | ITS STORY AND SCHEME | BY | FREDERIC SHIELDS | [device] | FIFTH EDITION | LONDON | ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. | 1904

COLOPHON
Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London.

DESCRIPTION
[1] leaf, xviii, 124 p. ;
Rebound in Rylands-style maroon half leather, original blue printed paper wrappers bound in.

CONTENTS
Advertisement leaf.—PREFATORY NOTE ON THE GENERAL SCHEME (v).—Plan of the Chapel of the Ascension (xi).—CONTENTS (xiii).—PART I (1).—PART II (75).—THE STORY OF THE CHAPEL (113).

RYLANDS
Accession number R12121
Pressmark L 755 S
Provenance
Presented to Rylands Library by Frederic Shields. Letter tipped in.

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ADVERTISEMENT LEAF
TWENTY-EIGHT brilliant Autotypes from the series of the Prophets and Apostles, painted by Frederic Shields in the Chapel of the Ascension.

Each Autotype measure 17 by 5 ½ inches.

The Set is handsomely mounted on stout plate paper (24 by 12 inches), with India tint, plate mark, and titles, and enclosed in a strong Portfolio. Price Ten Guineas.

Also a Set of Four Autotypes (upon the same scale) of Faith, Hope, Love, Patience. Price Two Guineas.

Specimens at The Autotype Company, 74, New Oxford Street, W.C.
A Selection of Single Copies may be made at 10s 6d. each.

The Descriptive Handbook of the Chapel of the Ascension accompanies the Portfolio, supplying a detailed key to the subjects.

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FROM THE TEXT
[x] With the exceptions of SS. Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, and Simon Zelotes, the designs of the Prophets and Apostles were originally made for the painted glass and mosaic decorations of Eaton Hall Chapel, Cheshire. In order to facilitate the progress of the work in the Chapel of the Ascension, the artist asked, and his Grace the Duke of Westminster most generously accorded, permission to repeat the series in their present medium.

[22] Flanking the Prophets Ezekiel and Daniel are symbolic figures of Babylon and Jerusalem.

9. Babylon.
Babylon, opposed to Jerusalem—the city of the world to the city of God, the power used by God as His rod upon the earth, and especially upon His sinful people Judah, her nest set on high amidst the clouds, and her walls running down with blood, vainglorious, the essence of all idolatry and superstition, and full of dark arts of magic, was the precursor and figure of the mystical Babylon of the Apocalypse.

[23] 10. Jerusalem.
‘Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.’ [margin Isa. lii.1,2.

[114] [Mrs. Gurney’s] desire to plant in some great highway of London a place of rest for wayfarers, and for prayer and meditation, wherein body, mind, and spirit, oppressed with the hurrying roar of the city’s life, might find repose and a refreshing feast ever liberally spread upon its walls, for whosoever willed to enter. Long ago the hope of building such a place had been aroused by a small chapel she had seen in Florence, where no services were held, but simply set apart of meditation and prayer, and always open.

[116] ... her [Mrs. Gurney’s] courageous perseverance received new stimulus through a suggestion made known to me by the architect, Mr. Herbert P. Horne (better known as the editor of the Hobby Horse). Mr. Kegan Paul had pointed out that the disused, decaying mortuary chapel of the old cemetery on the Bayswater Road, attached to St. George’s, Hanover Square, was a site that might possibly be acquired if proper advances were made to its governing board.

[117] Mr. Horne was then instructed to prepare designs; and, at Mrs. Russell Gurney’s desire and cost, architect and painter visited some of the northern Italian cities, and primarily Pietra Santa, in the Carrara district, where the beautiful façade of the principal church was indicated, as suggestive of the kind of design desired by Mrs. Russell Gurney.

The journey had much influence upon the views of the young and observant architect, and the result was [118] the present edifice, in connection with which he had the difficult task of preserving the old chapel on the one side, and the caretaker’s dwelling on the other, the space for the new chapel being thus strictly narrowed in limitation, and its interior controlled by the imperative necessity of subjecting its design to the unbroken wall-spaces require to receive the painted subjects.

[120] Since it was most inexpedient, by reason of the shortness of life, to await the completion of the chapel building, and the preparation of its walls for strictly mural painting, it became necessary to decide on some medium which would allow the paintings to be carried on in the artist’s studio, simultaneously with the progress of the builders.

So after inquiry and thoughtful care, the painter decided that, all things weighed, oil-painting, when placed in favourable conditions and carefully preserved from any form of artificial lighting, offered in this country, at least, the longest probabilities of endurance.

But the object was kept in view to avoid anything like framed pictures, and to obtain as far as might be, by the omission of all mouldings in the enclosing panelling, the general aspect of an unbroken wall of decoration.

[121] Gas having proved most destructive to oil-paintings, it was provided in the deed of gift that no artificial light should ever be introduced into the Chapel of the Ascension, the hours of daylight being sufficient for the purposes contemplated.

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Further reading

Margaretta S. Frederick.—“On Frederic Shields’ Chapel of the Ascension, 1887-1910”.—BRANCH : Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Ed. Dino Franco Felluga.—Extension of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net. [20/06/2014]
http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=margaretta-s-frederick-on-frederic-shields-chapel-of-the-ascension
A very full and informative study.