This artwork has been the focus of a co-curation consultation with Methodist Survivors Advisory Group who have advised on all aspects of curating and interpreting this work and this webpage.
Annunciation, c.1912
Eric Gill (1882-1940)
Watercolour on paper, 9 x 12 cm. Methodist Modern Art Collection, MCMAC: 052
NB: The picture was painted as a mirror image because it intended for projection through a mirrorscope, which reverses the image
Image Copyright © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. The Methodist Church Registered Charity no. 1132208
This painting is no longer part of the regularly touring Collection.
Future opportunities for its use in safeguarding training and similar contexts from 2026 are under discussion. For more information, please contact: artcollection@methodistchurch.org.uk
Biblical commentary
The following biblical commentary was developed in the context of a project to reinterpret this work with survivors of abuse and includes content that you may find difficult to read. This approach and text has been led and approved by members of the Methodist Survivors Advisory Group.
For more information about this project click here.
The text of the Annunciation and Mary’s response is found in Luke 1:26-55.
The subject of our small watercolour is Annunciation which was painted around 1912/13, when Gill and his family lived on the High Street at Ditchling in a house called Sopers. It is a subject that has historically been popular with artists and Gill appears to have been influenced by Renaissance artists such as Jan Van Eyck and El Greco and possibly the later 19th century Pre-Raphaelite painter Rossetti. The Angel Gabriel wearing a multi-coloured robe looms over the Virgin Mary, who kneels before him in what appears to be an austere cell-like room with one tiny window. In scale the Angel Gabriel is depicted much larger than the figure of Mary. The poignant white lily he holds and the lilies in a vase on the table signify spiritual purity. Lillies are often found in Annunciation scenes and usually refer to Mary's virginity. Gabriel’s message ‘Ave Maria’ ‘Hail Mary’ and Mary’s reply ’Fiat mihi’, ‘Let it be unto me’ are painted back to front, which is because the illustration was intended for projection through a mirrorscope, which reversed images as part of a light show.
From 1912 onwards Gill presented annual slide shows using a mirrorscope for his family and friends in the village at his home Sopers in Ditchling High Street or sometimes in his workshop, which he prepared for such entertainments. This was often at Christmas but not exclusively and each year went on into the New Year sometimes up until March. A number of other scenes from the Christmas story which Gill created survive as well as other topics such as the Wild West or small watercolours wishing everyone a Happy New Year. These were all used for entertainment for the children and villagers. The fact that this is a personal work, not intended for public display as such and that it shows the Virgin Mary in a cell-like room that resembles a bedroom with a simple bed, is particularly poignant given the knowledge the public now has of his abuse of his young daughters.
Artist biography
The following biography was developed in the context of a project to reinterpret this work with survivors of abuse and includes content that you may find difficult to read. This approach and text has been led and approved by members of the Methodist Survivors Advisory Group.
For more information about this project click here.
Born: Brighton, UK, 1882
Died: Uxbridge, UK, 1940
Early life and education
Eric Gill was an English sculptor, letter cutter, print maker and typeface designer who had a major impact on mid-20th century British artistic developments, as an artist-craftsman. Born in Brighton and raised in Chichester, he attended Chichester Technical and Art School. After initially training as an apprentice architect, he focused on lettering and sculpture.
Life and career
Gill was a significant figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, and undertook many major public commissions including the iconic sculpture of Prospero and Ariel (1931) on the front of the BBC’s Broadcasting House in London.
He was the son of a Protestant clergyman but converted to Roman Catholicism in 1913, as his career began to flourish.
He set up a succession of artistic communities each with a chapel at their centre – the first of these was at Ditchling in Sussex. He initially moved to the village of Ditchling, West Sussex in 1907, living in the High Street until 1913, when he and his young family moved to the common; his three daughters were home schooled and raised in isolation.
In 1914 he was commissioned to carve the Stations of the Cross for Westminster Cathedral and exempted from military service to complete the work.
He founded the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic in Ditchling in 1921, as a Roman Catholic Arts and Crafts community inspired by the medieval guilds. The Gills left Ditchling in 1924 with two other families and moved to Capel-y-ffin, a remote location in the hills above Abergavenny in Wales. The art critic John Rothenstein, an early visitor, noted that: “It rained continuously, the house was damp … there was no hot water, no newspapers, spartan food – and I enjoyed every instant of my visit: Gill's sharp-edged genial talk warmed the bleak house.”
It was a hard life, especially for the women in the community who, according to Gill himself, did all the “baking and brewing and milking and buttermaking, as well as all the housework, cooking and cleaning”.
It was here in this rural isolation that Gill created sculptures such as The Sleeping Christ (1925) for the Manchester City Art Gallery, and where he designed his famous Sans serif typeface for the Monotype Corporation in 1926.
David Jones, who was engaged to Gill’s teenage daughter Petra, joined the community sometimes – his work is also represented in the MMAC – but he did not return once she broke off the engagement in 1927.
After four years in Wales, Gill made a final move with his family to Pigotts Farm near High Wycombe, where his success as a sculptor was realised, producing such works as the Creation panel for the League of Nations, Geneva in 1936.
Gill died in 1940, aged 58.
Posthumous revelations
In 1989 Gill’s sexually abusive behaviour towards his young daughters, Betty and Petra, his incestuous relationship with his sisters and his sexual experiments with his dog all came to light with the publication of a controversial biography by Fiona MacCarthy. This publication drew directly from Gill’s personal diaries. Previous biographers had ignored his paedophilia and, despite these revelations, the first ever retrospective of Gill’s art still opened at the Barbican in 1992. It was only in the late 1990s when revelations about other high profile paedophiles came to the fore that there has been a focus on Gill’s sexual behaviour. This uneasiness about displaying his art increased following the groundbreaking 2017 exhibition Eric Gill: The Body at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft.
This knowledge now impacts how viewers see and understand Gill’s work and museums, galleries and churches have been considering how to display and interpret his work anew to acknowledge this dark side of his character.
The Methodist Church is committed to safeguarding as an integral part of its life and ministry. Safeguarding is about the action the Church takes to promote a safer culture. This means we will promote the welfare of children, young people and adults, work to prevent abuse from occurring and seek to protect and respond well to those that have been abused.
If you have been affected in any way to abuse connected to the Methodist Church and would like to speak with someone, please make contact with the Safeguarding team who work with victims and survivors of abuse. If you wish to remain anonymous this will be respected.
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7467 5189
Exhibitions and collections
Gill's public commissions are extensive and include Westminster Cathedral, London (Stations of the Cross, 1913), Leeds University War Memorial Christ driving the Moneychangers from the Temple (1917-23) and stamp and coin designs for HM Government (1924).
His work was displayed in many exhibitions including St George's Gallery, London (1927), the Venice Biennale (1926) and a posthumous exhibition at the Barbican Centre, London (1990-1).
Gill's work is represented in many collections including Arts Council, London; Tate Gallery, London; Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, USA.
Sources and further reading
Fiona MacCarthy, Eric Gill, Faber and Faber, 1989 (republished 2020)
Nathaniel Hepburn and Cathie Pilkington, Eric Gill: The Body, Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft Exhibition catalogue, 2017