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Apple Picking, Screen Painting, Berwick church

Before the reformation even some of the small rural downland churches had extensive murals.
Bishop Bell of Chichester wanted to revive this tradition, and in 1941 he wrote to his friend Sir Charles Reilly, a neighbour of Duncan Grant's aunt and who was familiar with previous mural work. Berwick was seen as an experiment in promoting the relationship between Art and the Church.
The murals were painted between 1941 and 1944, the main artists being Duncan Grant(1885 - 1978), Vanessa Bell(1879 - 1961) and Quentin Bell (1910 - 1996).
Grant painted the chancel arch of Christ in glory, featuring Bishop Bell and the Rector of Berwick, the chancel screen and the pulpit - which was vandalised in 1962 and the panels repainted by Grant to designs by Angelica Bell. Vanessa Bell, sister of the writer Virginia Woolf, painted the Annunciation and the Nativity, and Quentin Bell who was son of Vanessa and Clive Bell undertook the paintings within the chancel, as well as the supper at Emmaus. His Medallion paintings have a distinctly Victorian feel to them.

See other images of Wall Paintings, Berwick church