Ralph Beyer - The Son of Man is Come

This is a pencil study for one of the Tablets of the Word, eight large carved stone blocks around the nave at Coventry Cathedral, which its architect, Sir Basil Spence, commissioned from Ralph Beyer. The text, taken from Luke 19:10 and John 10:11, is written in freely composed letters. Next to it, a figure carries a sheep on his shoulders. The portrayal of Christ as the Good Shepherd is based partly on his parables (Luke 15:3–7 and John 10:1–18), partly on Psalm 23 (‘The Lord is My Shepherd’) and on Isaiah (40:11) and Ezekiel (34:2–31). Luke says when a shepherd finds a lost sheep: ‘he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.’ Such a figure is found in early Christian sculpture and inscriptions, particularly in Roman catacombs.

Commentary based on A Guide to the Methodist Art Collection.

Born:  Berlin, Germany, 1921

Died:  London, UK, 2008

Early life

Ralph Alexander Beyer spent his earliest years in Berlin and then Dresden. His parents were part of a radical circle that included artists, architects and theologians such as Paul Tillich and Martin Buber. His father, Oskar Beyer, set up Kunst-Dienst, an exhibition and information centre specialising in contemporary religious art. His family fled Germany when Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 although his mother returned to Germany during World War II.

Education

In 1937, Beyer was sent to England to work with the sculptor Eric Gill. After six months, he began attending the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. He also attended life modelling classes given by Henry Moore at Chelsea School of Art.

Life and career

In 1940, Beyer was interned as an enemy alien but was subsequently drafted into the military. He eventually worked as an interpreter for the intelligence corps in Germany where he learned of the death of his mother, who was Jewish, in Auschwitz in 1945.

In the 1950s, Beyer moved away from the more formal lettering style of Eric Gill. He developed his unique, informal approach to carved lettering, inspired by the work of David Jones (also represented in the Methodist Modern Art Collection) and by early Christian symbols and inscriptions which he saw in a book written by his father.  His striking, freely composed lettering can be seen in the altar inscription of the Royal Foundation of St Katharine in London (1954) and on the exterior of St Paul’s Church, Bow Common, London (1958-60), whose porch proclaims: “This is the Gate of Heaven.” From 1956, Beyer worked on the new Coventry Cathedral including the series of Tablets of the Word, quotations from scripture carved on eight large sandstone panels. The Methodist Modern Art Collection’s drawing is a sketch for one of these panels.

Religion was always important for Beyer, though he was not a churchgoer.

Beyer established a reputation as a leading European letterer, working with the foremost architects of the time including Sir Basil Spence at Coventry Cathedral. He produced inscriptions for memorials for Edith Sitwell (in Weedon Lois, Northamptonshire) and Noël Coward (in Westminster Abbey) and worked on the memorial to the theologian Paul Tillich in Indiana, USA.

He taught typography at the University of Reading from 1968 to 1986 and at the City and Guilds of London Art School from 1983 to 84.

Beyer’s work can be seen in Westminster Abbey; Coventry Cathedral; and several churches in the UK. Examples of his work are held in the Royal College of Art, London; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

David Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945: Volume 1 A to L. Vol. 1 of 2 volumes, (Bristol, Art Dictionaries Ltd, 2006), p. 134

John Neilson, ‘Obituary: Ralph Beyer.’ The Guardian, 7 March 2008, www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/mar/07/3 (viewed 18 September 2024)

John Neilson, The Inscriptions of Ralph Beyer, (Farnham, The Crafts Study Centre and Lund Humphries, 2021)

Seeing the Spiritual: A Guide to the Methodist Modern Art Collection, (Oxford, Methodist Modern Art Collection, 2018), p. 22-23

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. 42-48