Elisabeth Frink - Pietà

John 19: 38–42

The dead Jesus is shown, still crowned with thorns, after Joseph of Arimathaea has taken his body down from the Cross (The Deposition), before wrapping him in the linen cloth and placing him in the tomb. Jesus seems to be propped up against a rock, with his right arm extended upwards. The Pieta (Lamentation), normally portrays the sorrowing Virgin with Christ’s body. It is intended to aid devotional meditation rather than to portray the biblical narrative. Elisabeth Frink commented ‘I did a lot of drawings that were all entitled “Pieta” which, to me, has nothing to do with whether the Virgin Mary was represented or not…… These are details of the Christ from a “Pieta”.’

Commentary based on A Guide to the Methodist Art Collection.

Born:  Thurslow, Suffolk, UK, 1930

Died:  Woolland, Dorset, UK, 1993

Early life

Elisabeth Frink was brought up in Suffolk. Like her mother, she was the daughter of an army officer. The military connection stayed with her and when she married Michel Jammet in 1955 in the new church of Notre Dame, Leicester Place, London, the reception was at the Cavalry and Guards’ Club in Piccadilly.

Education

Frink studied at Guildford School of Art (1947-49) and Chelsea School of Art, London (1949-52).

Life and career

Frink developed her own method of modelling and carving in plaster of Paris. She admired the work of Giacometti, Germaine Richier and Picasso, all of whom made figurative sculptures in plaster.

The Tate Gallery bought a small bronze, Bird of Prey, in 1952 making Frink (still a student) the youngest female artist to have work purchased by a national collection. She taught at Chelsea School of Art, St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Arts in the 1950s and 1960s. Her first solo show was at St George’s Gallery, London, in 1955.

Frink was the only prominent female sculptor in post-war London. Her work in the 1950s was contemporary with British sculptors such as Lynn Chadwick and Eduardo Paolozzi, though the art historian Judith Collins sees her figures as having ”a greater sense of strength and optimism than theirs”. Her use of bronze for figurative work defied the fashion of the time for abstraction and the use of experimental media. While she is probably best known for her sculptures of birds, horses, male figures and heads, she was also a superb draughtsman. These drawings demonstrate her many influences and preoccupations. They are clearly more than preparatory studies for sculptures, being works of art in their own right. She gave up full-time teaching in 1962 to concentrate on exhibitions and commissions.

Frink was brought up a Roman Catholic but did not remain a churchgoer, disagreeing with the way the Church’s policies adversely affected the Third World and with changes in the Catholic liturgy. She remained a Christian believer (if not a church member) until her death. She took a particular interest in the “the divine in human form” (The Times Obituary) and worked on religious sculptures. These include the renowned Eagle Lectern for Coventry Cathedral (1962), a risen Christ for a church in Solihull (1964), and Walking Madonna (1981) in the close of Salisbury Cathedral. Her last work was a religious commission for Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral which she completed while struggling with cancer; The Risen Christ was unveiled on Easter Sunday, 1993, a week before her death. Her graphic work, including the Methodist Modern Art Collection’s Pieta of 1956, contains a similar power and strength to her sculpture.

Fink was appointed a CBE in 1969 and DBE in 1982, becoming a Companion of Honour in 1992.

Frink held a solo show every year from 1967 and exhibited in groups’ shows around the world. The Royal Academy held a retrospective exhibition in 1985 and she was given a major show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC in 1990.

Her work is in public collections throughout Britain, notably the Tate Gallery, and in major galleries in the USA, Australia and South Africa.

David Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945: Volume 1 A to L. Vol. 1 of 2 volumes. (Bristol, Art Dictionaries Ltd, 2006), p. 552. The text is also available on the Art UK website: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/frink-elisabeth-19301993 (viewed 18 September 2024)

Judith Collins, ‘Frink, Dame Elisabeth Jean (1926-2009),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford, Oxford University, 2015). The text is also available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/38274 (viewed 18 September 2024)

Richard Harries, The Image of Christ in Modern Art, (London and New York, Routledge, 2016), p. 97-99

Bryan Robertson, ‘Obituary: Dame Elisabeth Frink,’ Independent. 19 April 1993. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-dame-elisabeth-frink-1456195.html (viewed 18 September 2024)

Seeing the Spiritual: A Guide to the Methodist Modern Art Collection, (Oxford, Methodist Modern Art Collection, 2018), p. 42-43

Roger Wollen, Catalogue of the Methodist Church Collection of Modern Christian Art with an Account of the Collection’s History, (Oxford, The Trustees of the Methodist Collection of Modern Christian Art, 2003), p. 68-73