Moonlight Sonata
23. Still God’s house

oil on canvas, 25 cm x 30 cm, Iain White £200

The parish church of St Michaels (1450) was elevated to cathedral status in 1918, but 22 years later it lay in ruins. The cathedral stonemason noticed that two of the charred medieval roof timbers had fallen in the shape of a cross. He set them up in the ruins where they were later placed on an altar of rubble with the moving words ‘Father Forgive’ inscribed on the Sanctuary wall. Another cross was fashioned from three medieval nails. The decision to rebuild the cathedral was taken on the morning of the 15th November. In line with the vision of Provost Howard, rebuilding would not be an act of defiance, but rather a sign of faith, trust and hope for the future.

Ashworth-1
 

The Cathedral, 1940 (watercolour & pencil, 1941)

Walter Ashworth (1883 to 1952)

In 1926 Walter Ashworth was appointed principal of the Coventry College of Art. In 1944, Ashworth thanked Radford Art College for purchasing some of his paintings of Coventry in WWII and said: “I hope the pictures will have some permanent value to the citizens of Coventry in years to come
….”
John Piper - 2
 

Coventry Cathedral, 15 November 1940
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum

John Piper (1903 - 1992)

View of Coventry Cathedral on fire during the bombing campaign of 15th November 1940. The Cathedral's tower is to the left; the stained glass window's outlines are silhouetted from the blazing fire inside. The work features a distinctly bravura style of painting, often described as Neo-Romantic, referencing a return to eighteenth and nineteenth century Romantic subject matter as expressed through the turmoil inherent in this Second World War air raid scene.

23. Still God’s house

oil on canvas, 25 cm x 30 cm, Iain White £200

The parish church of St Michaels (1450) was elevated to cathedral status in 1918, but 22 years later it lay in ruins. The cathedral stonemason noticed that two of the charred medieval roof timbers had fallen in the shape of a cross. He set them up in the ruins where they were later placed on an altar of rubble with the moving words ‘Father Forgive’ inscribed on the Sanctuary wall. Another cross was fashioned from three medieval nails. The decision to rebuild the cathedral was taken on the morning of the 15th November. In line with the vision of Provost Howard, rebuilding would not be an act of defiance, but rather a sign of faith, trust and hope for the future.

Ashworth-1
 

The Cathedral, 1940 (watercolour & pencil, 1941)

Walter Ashworth (1883 to 1952)

In 1926 Walter Ashworth was appointed principal of the Coventry College of Art. In 1944, Ashworth thanked Radford Art College for purchasing some of his paintings of Coventry in WWII and said: “I hope the pictures will have some permanent value to the citizens of Coventry in years to come
….”
John Piper - 2
 

Coventry Cathedral, 15 November 1940
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum

John Piper (1903 - 1992)

View of Coventry Cathedral on fire during the bombing campaign of 15th November 1940. The Cathedral's tower is to the left; the stained glass window's outlines are silhouetted from the blazing fire inside. The work features a distinctly bravura style of painting, often described as Neo-Romantic, referencing a return to eighteenth and nineteenth century Romantic subject matter as expressed through the turmoil inherent in this Second World War air raid scene.