Watercolour, 'The Organ Loft, Church of SS Peter and Paul, Little Saling', by Kenneth Rowntree; from the Recording Britain Collection (Essex); England, ca.1940.

A watercolour drawing of the organ loft seen from below; a sign reading 'Praise Ye the Lord' hangs below it, at the lower edge of the sheet. The walls are cracked in several places. Signed.

Given by the Pilgrim Trust

Of all the Essex churches depicted by Rowntree for Recording Britain, the church of SS Peter and Paul in Little Saling appears to have been his favourite; this is the third of three watercolours of the interior and exterior of the church. Rowntree often concentrated on written texts in his church and chapel pictures; David Mellor has theorised that this is perhaps because, as a Quaker, Rowntree was unable to bear witness or testify verbally, and so treated the texts as objets trouves and wrote them out again.

This work is from the ‘Recording Britain’ collection of topographical watercolours and drawings made in the early 1940s during the Second World War. In 1940 the Committee for the Employment of Artists in Wartime, part of the Ministry of Labour and National Service, launched a scheme to employ artists to record the home front in Britain, funded by a grant from the Pilgrim Trust. It ran until 1943 and some of the country’s finest watercolour painters, such as John Piper, Sir William Russell Flint and Rowland Hilder, were commissioned to make paintings and drawings of buildings, scenes, and places which captured a sense of national identity. Their subjects were typically English: market towns and villages, churches and country estates, rural landscapes and industries, rivers and wild places, monuments and ruins. Northern Ireland was not covered, only four Welsh counties were included, and a separate scheme ran in Scotland.

The scheme was known as ‘Recording the changing face of Britain’ and was established by Sir Kenneth Clark, then the director of the National Gallery. It ran alongside the official War Artists’ Scheme, which he also initiated. Clark was inspired by several motives: at the outbreak of war in 1939, there was a concern to document the British landscape in the face of the imminent threat of bomb damage, invasion, and loss caused by the operations of war. This was allied to an anxiety about changes to the landscape already underway, such as the rapid growth of cities, road building and housing developments, the decline of rural ways of life and industries, and new agricultural practices, which together contributed to the idea of a ‘vanishing Britain’. Clark also wanted to help artists, and the traditional forms of British art such as watercolour painting, to survive during the uncertain conditions of wartime. He in turn was inspired by America’s Federal Arts Project which was designed to give artists employment during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Over 1500 works were eventually produced by 97 artists, of whom 63 were specially commissioned. At the time the collection had a propaganda role, intended to boost national morale by celebrating Britain’s landscapes and heritage. Three exhibitions were held during the war at the National Gallery, and pictures from the collection were sent on touring exhibitions and to galleries all around the country. After the war, the whole collection was given to the V&A by the Pilgrim Trust in 1949, and it was documented in a four volume catalogue published between 1946 and 1949. For many years the majority of the collection was on loan to councils and record offices in each county, until recalled by the V&A around 1990. The pictures now form a memorial to the war effort, and a unique record of their time.

A pacifist and conscientious objector, Rowntree encountered frequent harassment during his time as a war artist because he was seen as a security risk. His decision to concentrate on churches may stem as much from personal preference and faith as it did from a desire to avoid the opposition from military authorities he encountered while sketching dock installations.
Kenneth Clark, one of the driving forces behind the Recording Britain scheme, urged his artists to focus on capturing the interiors and exteriors of parish churches, which faced the double threat of dereliction and bombing. Rowntree later remarked that he felt especially compelled to record those churches and chapels where 'the interiors looked tired and I wanted to get them down quickly'.

This is one of three watercolours Kenneth Rowntree made of the church of SS. Peter and Paul, Little Saling. All but one of the Essex watercolours Rowntree made for the Recording Britain scheme were of churches and chapels, but this particular church appears to have been his favourite. As is often the case in his images of church interiors, Rowntree focuses on the written word: here, a gilded sign reading 'Praise Ye the Lord'. Unable to bear witness or testify verbally as a Quaker, Rowntree seems to have treated these texts as found objects and wrote them out again.

The organ loft displays obvious signs of dilapidation -- cracking walls and stained plaster -- which made recording it all the more urgent. Indeed, Sir Kenneth Clark, one of the driving forces behind the Recording Britain project, encouraged artists to focus on parish churches, which faced the double threat of dereliction and bombing.

E.1413-1949