Bible Artist's Models

I've received some interesting emails recently that I thought I'd share with you.
Philip Hanna contacted me from Kentucky in the U.S. to tell me that his mother, an Armenian lady, now 86 years of age, has a very interesting friend. Philip's mom grew up in Palestine and her close friend Najibe (Nadia) Kattan was the model for Mary (right) in Elsie Anna Wood's Bible illustrations. Philip received a phone call from Najiba only yesterday. She now lives in Los Angeles. Phil said that whenever his mom sees EAW'S pictures of Mary, she can recognize her friend's face from many years ago. Philips parents served for many years as Presbyterian missionaries in Lebanon.


I also received an email a few weeks ago from Linda Martin in Ontario, Canada whose great grandfather was William Hicks. Hicks worked on a farm in Shoreham Kent, and was the model for Moses (left) in Harold Copping's Bible illustrations.
Linda wanted to see Copping's pictures of Moses to see what her great grandfather looked like. As I still don't own a 'Copping Bible', I forwarded her request onto Dr Sandy Brewer.
Sandy Brewer was also contacted a few weeks back by the son of Henry Wickenden. Henry Wickenden was the model for the African boy in Copping's famous painting 'The Hope of the World'. Although Wickenden was not black, he was chosen because of his thick curly hair!

When I last spoke to Bible artist Keith Neely, he had a staggering 21,479 photos which he had taken of models in Bible costume! And that was for the Old Testament alone!
I suggested that when he and his team finish the 7,600 illustrations needed for the Thomas Nelson Illustrated Bible, that he should upload the best of these reference photos onto the web, or maybe bring out a collection of them for sale on dvd! If you would like to see some samples of Keith Neely's Bible figure reference photos, click here. This is one of Keith's Bible illustrations (right) which is in a different style to the one adopted for the T.N.I.B.
Image © Keith Neely 2008

Valerie Neild from London contacted me to ask if any of our readers might have any more information on Bible Artist William Hole? Valerie is a relative of William Hole and would like to find out more about him. If you have any information, please pass it on to me and I will forward it on to Valerie. Many thanks.

A Gift Returned with Love

I am deeply indebted to Prof Sandy Brewer for the loan of the very rare book 'A Gift Returned with Love' which is a brief autobiography by Bible artist Elsie Anna Wood. EAW was 87 years old at the time of writing and was living in a nursing home in Norwich. She died 4 years later in 1978 at the age of 91.This is one of the most unusual books I've ever seen. It has obviously been self published presumably at a low cost and is very simply bound. It contains no pictures, and the text is in a typewriter font which gives it the feel of an original manuscript. Combined with the poor quality paper, the impression is given that this is an unimportant book which it most certainly is not! Anyone with an interest in Bible illustration will find this a wonderfully fascinating and important book! It deserves to be reprinted and fully illustrated with EAW's full color pictures.

EAW saw herself as a 'Missionary Artist', and a successor in this respect to Harold Copping. A Missionary artist is one who provides pictures for missionary societies to help them present the Gospel message. EAW was a missionary artist in the true sense as not only did she go to live amongst the people that she was drawing, but just as a missionary has to learn a new language in order to effectively communicate, she also adapted her style of illustration, or rather she learned the 'visual language' of the people in order that her illustrations would be better understood by them. When in Egypt she wrote:
"...everything had to be noted and learnt, before I could begin to draw in a way which would be familiar and acceptable to the children who knew only their own country and its ways". She also makes an interesting observation about light and shadow in the Holy Land.
"Here I observed that even in representational paintings there was no use of shadows, as we are accustomed to see in Europe.....I began to perceive that this flat shadowless treatment was in fact due to the actual appearance of things in intense light. For the strong sunlight on the ground reflects light onto vertical surfaces, almost abolishing shadows". She also wrote "I found that when at the first I drew in pen and ink, using fine lines and cross-hatching for shadows to which I had been accustomed, the comment might be "Why has he got dirt on his face?" So I learnt that I must follow the Eastern manner and do without shadow....Although at the time I did not realise it, this study was for me equivalent to the language study with which most people started their missionary career. I was learning not word language but picture language".

EAW was especially thrilled to visit Jerusalem. She wrote "I am in love with Jerusalem. It is a much more beautiful place than I had imagined." she did regret not staying in the Jewish quarter of the city however, as she explains "It is probable that if I had lived in that Jewish Quarter I should have painted my pictures with more of the Hebrew rather than Arab touch."

When asked how long it might take her to complete the task of illustrating the 'Life of Christ' in fifty pictures, EAW estimated two years. She later commented "I had at first, in my ignorance, estimated that I would need two years to complete fifty pictures-!! Then I thought that they could be done in five years. Finally, with some other work undertaken, I found that 35 years had passed when nearly one hundred had gone to press. She had commented earlier "I don't want to sacrifice quality to speed though, in fact I just can't."
Sandy Brewer informed me that EAW had been involved in a car accident while in the Holy Land which had affected her eyesight.
EAW had hoped to be able to complete 100 Bible pictures, and despite problems with her eyesight, she still managed to complete 95!

EAW's research was second to none! In 1934, in preparation for her pictures of the Nativity she travelled to Bethlehem and sketched the landscape and the people. Later, when she had to draw Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, (see left), she travelled to Jerusalem and stayed in a little hostel belonging to the Greek Orthodox Convent which was situated in the upper garden itself. EAW comments "For the Gethsemane drawing, I had to get my information about the probable position and appearance of things. It would have been a moonlight scene, for Passover was at the time of full moon." While at the convent she would go out at night "to sit among the olives and try to determine what exactly is the colour of moonlight. I made rough charcoal studies of the trees (one cannot paint by moonlight) then I would come indoors and colour my sketches according to what I remembered, and out again, till I became too weary."
After EAW describes in her book the great lengths she went to in choosing the location for the Crucifixion picture, she says "Of course such detail as this makes no difference to the intrinsic truth of the story, but it does make a considerable difference to the maker of the picture, for the sense of actuality of a definite place and situation creates a firm basis on which the scene can be built up in one's mind." I agree with this comment wholeheartedly. If all the detail that Bible artists include in their pictures only satisfies them, it's been well worth the effort!

I found the book thrilling! I could associate with so much of what EAW speaks about, even down to the way she chooses a paintbrush! But what is most helpful is the wonderful way that EAW vividly describes the colors and scenery of the Holy Land. This book can only be described as a feast! I'm so glad that EAW wrote this book. In her closing remarks she writes "I look back to the day when, singing in the Sunday School, I mentally decided to be "on the Lord's side". A child's resolution has never been regretted. And as I trace the series of events which led to the task of painting the life of Christ, I see that He has acknowledged my resolve. For hardly a Sunday School or even a Day School is without at least some of my pictures of that life.
But how very much of their value depends not only on the pictures but upon the teachers who use them, giving children an awareness of Christ, His love and His power."
Elsie Anna Wood was a special lady with a great gift. A gift that she used for her Lord. It was a 'Gift returned with Love'.

Pictures © SPCK 2008

Related posts:
Elsie Anna Wood
More Elsie Anna Wood Bible Art

More 'Elsie Anna Wood' Bible Art

By popular demand we have two more samples of the Bible Art of 'Elsie Anna Wood' very kindly supplied by Dr Sandy Brewer. The first one is titled 'Jairus' daughter'. The second picture is 'Jesus stilling the storm'.

I've received a lot of emails from people wanting to know more about this artist and wanting to see more of her work. Sadly, there's only one book that's been written about this artist titled 'A Gift Returned With Love' which I believe is very hard to get hold of. This is surprising as she really sounds like a fascinating lady.
If I hear of any others books I'll let everyone know via the blog.

I would love to see an illustrated Bible using the Bible illustrations of artists from this era, Elsie Anna Wood, Harold Copping, Cicely Mary Barker, and William Hole etc. With an introduction by Sandy Brewer! Now that would be an illustrated children's Bible worth having!

Click on the pictures to see a larger image.

Related posts:
Elsie Anna Wood

Elsie Anna Wood

Many thanks to Prof Sandy Brewer for writing our fourth 'Guest Article' for the Bible illustration blog. Click on the pictures below for a larger image.

Elsie Anna Wood (1887 – 1978)

Elsie Anna Wood was born into a Baptist family who were all active in the local chapel in Crouch End, North London. Like so many other women illustrators – e.g. Cicely Mary Barker, Margaret Tarrant and Eileen Soper - she was fortunate in having an artistically talented father to encourage her precocious talents. Charles Wood worked in the art department of a London publishing firm, and, from a very early age, she was encouraged to draw and paint , and introduced to the tools, materials and skills required of a commercial artist. Elsie attended the Hornsey School of Art from the age of seventeen but was prevented from advancing to the Academy schools of art by a change in her family’s circumstances that necessitated her seeking paid employment. She produced illustrations for various publications working only in pencil or ink and taking up the challenge of full colour illustrations for books in her early twenties. Up to this point Elsie Anna Wood’s life might have taken the trajectory of contemporaries such as Margaret Tarrant who lived and worked in the Engish Home Counties, but in 1919 she successfully applied for a job with the Nile Mission Press working under the auspices of Constance Padwick in Cairo. Her role was to provide the accompanying illustrations for the children’s literature produced by the Press. The post was for six months and enabled Elsie to travel through Palestine as well as Egypt.

After returning to the UK she unsuccessfully applied to serve as a missionary overseas, but five years after leaving Cairo she was asked to return to Egypt to work for the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK). It is the work she produced for the SPCK that made the name of Elsie Anna Wood synonymous with Bible illustration all around the world. Many artists before her had travelled to the Holy Land - e.g. Tissot, Hole, and Copping – to observe at first hand the people and places of the Bible, but none of them had moved beyond the experience of a tourist to live and work among the people as Elsie Anna Wood did. As a result of her close observation and drawing from Palestinian models, she has, uniquely, shown us a Christ from Palestine which is in stark contrast to the conventional blonde European portrayal of Jesus adopted by most twentieth century Bible illustrators. But her bible illustrations were innovative in other ways too.

In her illustration of the infant Jesus (left) she shows us a self-confident child who looks out – confrontationally - at the audience.
In the background detail of picture 1, (above right) she reminds us that Jesus spent his early years in Egypt. Dr Brewer pointed out to me that the boats in the background of picture one (above) are 'Dhows' which were traditional Arab sailing vessels. GK

In picture 4, (bottom centre), the depiction of Jesus as healer, she conveys the light and shade and the movement of the crowd in the confined space of a Palestinian town. Finally, in what is my favourite of all of her illustrations of Jesus blessing the children (below right) she makes the disciples sympathetic characters and does away with the forbidding effect they might have on young viewers.
It is an interesting composition which adopts as its point of view that of a child and the effect produced is one of looking upwards to Jesus. There is also a strong impression created of a crowd pressing in on Christ and, as in other versions of the scene, there is a tree arching over the top of the picture, but this one is laden with pomegranates – a fruit with particular symbolic significance for Christians. As we look longer into the picture, other small figures become visible, one of whom is holding onto Jesus’ robe, smiling shyly while looking out at the viewer. Jesus is shown holding one small child, as is the convention in the scene, but what is different here is that he is reaching out to touch the head of a baby, which is being held by one of the disciples. This man is looking down at the baby with what appears to be puzzlement and Christ is depicted as looking at him and smiling. At the top left of the picture is another disciple, again with an infant in his arms. This is not a scene of rejection but of joyful happiness and among its many innovations is that Jesus is shown with his hair cut short and his beard clipped, as are the disciples who look like the young men they actually were, rather than the elderly patriarchs of convention.

This picture is carefully composed to take account of the predispositions of the very young child. For example, it is notable that in many hymns for children the writers never seem to tire of stressing the smallness of children yet this picture offers a way for the young viewer to overcome the limitations of its small stature in relation to that of adults. The dynamic of the composition is created by the line of sight which starts with the mother in the bottom left hand corner, moves up past the two small children, on to Jesus’ face, and ends with the smiling face of a little girl sitting on her mother’s shoulders. It is an adult who is in the lowest position in the picture and a child in the highest.

The format of Sunday school kindergarten lesson was the telling of an illustrated story, followed by activities linked to what had been heard. Within that context, this picture offers a multitude of opportunities for imaginative engagement with what is being depicted. Because some of the detail is half-hidden in the picture, it offers the chance of a game of seeking out visual information – an activity that requires the involvement of the teacher. The attention to detail of dress and ornamentation is again typical of the artist, but also indicative of the level of authenticity that publishers and educationalists expected. Learning about the dress, the customs, and geography of the Holy Land was all part of the process of making Christ real for children. Having lived and worked in the Holy Land, Wood was familiar with the inhabitants and was able to produce depictions of Jesus, his disciples and the people around him as clearly belonging to Palestine, whilst at the same time avoiding the orientalist excesses of other illustrators.

Elsie Anna Wood produced over 100 bible illustrations for the SPCK, which were published in various formats as books, postcards, attendance stamps, as well as large posters for the Sunday school classroom. The pictures were produced for educational purposes and to that end seem to transcend the limitations of two dimensions by compositional devices which draw the viewer further into the picture the longer one looks at it.

Elsie Anna Wood was a remarkable woman making her own living in the UK and the Holy Land at a time when society deemed a woman’s place to be in the home. She was not only a brilliant artist, she was also more astute in her business dealings than other Bible illustrators. When Harold Copping produced his sixty-four illustrations for the Religious Tract Society he was given a fixed sum for each completed picture with no royalties for the millions of reproductions which followed from his work. In addition, he was legally prohibited by the society from producing Bible illustrations for any other publisher. Elsie Anna wood on the other hand, had the foresight to opt for a contract, which gave her royalties on reproductions of her work and not just a one-off payment for each picture. This gave her a steady, if modest income which supported her through her long and productive life. Elsie Anna Wood died in a Norwich nursing home in 1978 but her work lives on, albeit with substantially less public recognition than it deserves. These short notes offer just a brief overview of the artist and a longer article will surface in the near future.
© Dr Sandy Brewer 2008

Related posts:
More 'Elsie Anna Wood' Bible Art
A Gift Returned with Love.