Arthur Eric Rowton Gill [commonly known as Eric Gill; also known as A.E.R. Gill] was born in Brighton, Sussex on 22 February 1882. He studied at Chichester Technical and Art School in Chichester, England (1898-99), following which he moved to London to be articled to William Douglas Caröe (1857-1938), architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. At the same time he enrolled in Edward Johnston’s evening classes in lettering at Central School of Arts and Design.
By 1903 he had abandoned architecture in order to concentrate on lettering. In 1907 he moved to Ditchling in Sussex where he helped to establish a semi-monastic craft community. While at Ditchling he took up sculpting in stone. He held his first exhibition in 1911 at Chenil Gallery. Two years later he entered the Roman Catholic Church. His religious convictions were to have a profound influence on his later work as a designer and from 1913-18 he carved fourteen 5 ft. stone panels depicting the ‘Stations of the Cross’ for Westminster Cathedral. He also took up illustration, producing woodcuts and wood engraving for ‘The Devil’s Devices’, printed by St Dominic’s Press at Douglas Pepler’s Hampshire House Workshops in 1915.
Gill was a founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers in 1920. In 1924 he moved to Capel-y-ffin, Wales. Here he designed his first two typefaces - Gill Sans and Perpetua, and produced wood engravings for the Golden Cockerel Press. Four years later, in 1928, Gill moved to Pigotts in Buckinghamshire, where in addition to developing his work as an artist, he produced a series of books and pamphlets in which he outlined his personal philosophy and ideas on art.
Gill was elected a member of the Art Workers Guild in 1904 and an Honorary Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Hon. A.R.I.B.A) in 1935. In 1936 he was conferred with the title Designer for Industry (DI) [from 1937 known as Royal Designer for Industry (RDI)] by the Royal Society of Art. He died in Hillingdon, Middlesex on 17 November 1940.
See:
Historic England [link below]
Wikimedia Commons [link below]
British Listed Buildings [link below]
Antonoff, Margaret. "This is the only Church he designed" : a study of St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church designed by the artist Eric Gill in light of his artistic, liturgical, and social beliefs. M.A. thesis, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, California, 2015
Armstrong, Barrie and Armstrong, Wendy. The Arts and Crafts movement in the North East of England: a handbook. Wetherby, England: Oblong, 2013
Attwater, Donald. Eric Gill: workman. London: James Clarke, 1941
Bailey, Bede. ‘Your Affectionate Son in St Dominic Eric Gill T.S.D.’ New Blackfriars vol. 63, nos. 745/746, July/August 1982 pp. 298-304
Brady, Elizabeth. Eric Gill: twentieth century book designer. New York, NY: Scarecrow Press, 1974
Brown, Stephen J. ‘Mr. Eric Gill in Ireland’. The Irish Monthly vol. 66, no. 781, July 1938 pp. 454-464
Carpenter, Hilary J. ‘Eric Gill’. Blackfriars vol. 21, no. 249, December 1940 pp. 690-693
Catalogue of an exhibition of Eric Gill from the collections of Albert Speirsen and others. Stanford, California: Stanford University, 1954
Catich, Edward M. Eric Gill: his social and artistic roots. Iowa City: Prairie Press, 1964
Cleverdon, Douglas. Stanley Morison and Eric Gill 1925-1933. Cambridge: Rampant Lion Press, 1983
Collins, Judith. Eric Gill. The Sculpture. A Catalogue Raisonne. London: Herbert Press, 2006
Commemorating an exhibition of lettering and type designs by Eric Gill. London: Monotype Corporation, 1958 [a special issue of ‘The Monotype Recorder’ vol.41, no.3]
Cribb, Ruth and Cribb, Joe. Eric Gill and Ditchling: the Workshop Tradition. Ditchling, Sussex: Ditchling Museum, 2009
Cribb, Ruth and Cribb, Joe. Eric Gill: Lust for Letter and Line. London: British Museum Press, 2011
Cribb, Ruth. Workshop practices and the making of sculpture : authorship and collaboration in the work of Eric Gill, 1909 to 1940. Ph.D. thesis, University of Brighton, 2013
Cunningham, Adrian. ‘Eric Gill and Workers' Control’. New Blackfriars vol. 63, nos. 745/746, July/August 1982 pp. 304-311
Doyle, James Patrick. Eric Gill and the Medieval Tradition. Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1974
Duchen, Monica. Eric Gill: matter and spirit. London: Gillisan Jason Gallery, 1982
The engraved work of Eric Gill. Compiled by John Physick. London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1969
Eric Gill. London: Ernest Benn, 1927 (Contemporary British Artists series)
Eric Gill, with a critical monograph by Charles Marriott. London: Cape, 1929
Eric Gill, 1882-1940: drawings and carvings, a centenary exhibition. London: Anthony d’Offay Gallery, 1982 [exhibition catalogue]
Eric Gill 1882-1940: drawings and engravings. London: Wolesley Fine Arts, 2001
Eric Gill 1882-1940: drawings and some other works. London: Piccadilly Gallery, 1979 [exhibition catalogue]
Eric Gill 1882-1940: prints and drawings, a centenary tribute. London: Blond Fine Art, 1982 [exhibition catalogue]
Eric Gill and modern British wood engravers: an exhibition. London: Christopher Drake, 1973 [exhibition catalogue]
The Eric Gill collection of the Humanities Research Center. Edited by Robert N. Taylor. Austin, Texas: Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 1982
Eric Gill: engravings. London: Sally Hunter Fine Art, 1989 [exhibition catalogue]
Eric Gill in Ditchling. Edited by Peter Holliday. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2002
‘Eric Gill in Edinburgh’. Blackfriars vol. 40, no. 477, December 1959 pp. 533-535
Eric Gill: sculpture and drawings. London: Goupil Gallery, 1928
Eric Gill: Work is Sacred. Edited by Martin John Broadley. Manchester: Catholic Archives Society, in association with Kolnonia Press, 2013 [Reviewd by Nick O’Brien in New Blackfriars vol. 96, bo. 1061, January 2015 pp. 114-116]
Faulkner, Peter. William Morris and Eric Gill. Tisbury, England: The Compton Press, 1975
Feeney, Joan Bronwen. The revival of calligraphy and its influence on three typefaces designed by Eric Gill. A.L.M. thesis, Harvard University, 1990
Gill, Eric. Autobiography. London: Jonathan Cape, 1940
Gill, Eric. Letters of Eric Gill. Edited by Walter Shewing. London: Jonathan Cape, 1947
Gill, Evan R. Bibliography of Eric Gill. London: Cassell, 1983
Gill, Evan R. The inscriptional work of Eric Gill: an inventory. London: Cassell, 1964
Goold, Madeline. A little revolution : direct carving revived : the stonecarving methods of Eric Gill and Jacob Epstein 1907-1925. M.Phil thesis, University of Birmingham, 1989
Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian architecture: a biographical dictionary. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1985
Hamilton, Alec. Arts & Crafts Churches. London: Lund Humphries, 2020
Harling, Robert. The Letter Forms and Type Designs of Eric Gill. New York, NY: The Typophiles, 2000
Holman, William R. ‘Eric Gill, master of letter forms’. Library Chronicle of the University of Texas in Austin, new series, no.2, Nov.1970, pp.15-26
Hoyland, Anthony. Eric Gill: Nuptial of God. Maidstone, Kent: Crescent Moon Publishing, 2012
Huxley, Sophie. Eric Gill in Oxford. Oxford: Huxley Scientific Press, 2011
Jones, David. ‘Eric Gill as sculptor’. Blackfriars vol. 22, no. 251, February 1941 pp. 66-74
Kelly, Bernard. ‘Eric Gill’s social principles’. Blackfriars vol. 22, no. 251, February 1941 pp. 82-87
Kelly, M. James Therese (Sister O.S.U.). An examination of Eric Gill's philosophy of art. Ph.D. thesis, Universitry of Notre Dame, 1962
Kelly, Michael. ‘Eric Gill and the Contemporary’. New Blackfriars vol. 63, Nos. 745/746, July/ August 1982 pp. 311-317
Kindersley, David. Mr. Eric Gill. New York, NY: The Typophiles, 1967
Kirk, Michael Daniel. The esthetics of Eric Gill. M.A. thesis, Loyola University, Los Angeles, 1959
The life and works of Eric Gill: papers read at a Clark Library symposium, 22 April 1967. Los Angeles, California: University of California Los Angeles, 1968
Lippmann, Irvin Michael. Engravings of Eric Gill : the study of a twentieth-century hieratic art. M.A. thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1975
MacCarthy, Fiona. Eric Gill. London: Faber & Faber. 1989
MacCarthy, Fiona. In Search of Eric Gill: An address given to the Wynkyn de Worde Society at its meeting held on Thursday 18th May 1989. London: Wynkn De Worde Society, 1989
Miles, Jonathan. Eric Gill and David Jones at Capel-y-ffin. Bridgend, England: Seren, 1992
Morris, Sallie Jane. Montotype and Eric Gill : a study of the design and production of Gill's hot-metal typefaces. Ph. D. thesis, University of Reading, Department of Typography & Graphic Communication (School of Arts and Communication Design), 2015
O’Neill, Vincent. An indexed sythesis of the critical thought of Eric Gill. M.A. thesis, DePaul University, 1954
Pepler, Conrad. ‘A study in integrity: thev life and teaching of Eric Gill’. Blackfriars vol. 28, no. 326, May 1947 pp. 198-209
Pepler, H.D.C. A letter about Eric Gill. Chicago, Illinois: Cherryburn Press, 1950
Rau, Mary James. Some phases of the social thought of Eric Gill in the light of papal encyclicals. M.A. thesis, Catholic University of America, 1949
Rich, Jennifer Ann. The artist as servant of God : the place of art in life, according to Eric Gill. M.C.S. thesis, Regent College, Vancouver, BC, 1993
Shewring, Walter. ‘Eric Gill: a reply’. Blackfriars vol. 29, no. 341, August 1948 pp. 385-387
Shewring, Walter. ‘Eric Gill and Eastern thought’. Blackfriars vol. 22, no. 251, February 1941 pp. 87-89
Simpicity or Splendour. Arts and Crafts Living. Objects from the Cheltenham Collection. Edited by Annette Carruthers and Mary Greensted. London: Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museums in Association with Lund Humphries Publishers, 1999
Skipworth, Peyton. ‘Eric Gill sculpture. London, Barbican’. The Burlington Magazine vol. 135, no. 1078, January 1993 pp. 43-45 [Review of an exhibition of Gill’s sculptures at the Barbican, London in 1993]
Speaight, Robert. The life of Eric Gill. New York, NY: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1966
Tehan, Rose. The Social Thought of Eric Gill. M.A. thesis, St. John's University, 1947
Thirties: British Art and Design before the War. Thirties: British Art and Design before the War.
A typographical masterpiece: an account by John Dreyfus of Eric Gill's collaboration with Robert Gibbings in producing the Golden Cockerel Press edition of 'The Four Gospels' in 1931. San Francisco, California: The Book Club of California, 1990
Wood-engravings: being a selection of Eric Gill’s engravings on wood. Ditchling, Sussex, England: S. Dominic’s Press, 1924
York, Malcolm. Eric Gill: man of flesh and spirit. London: Constable, 1971