3-082-907 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. W. B. Richmond, A.R.A., 1895. Designer of mosaics in St Paul's Cathedral. 'In these mosaics we have the revival of a lost English art. [A reporter interviewed the artist at his studio at Hammersmith. Richmond said:] "I have travelled a great deal in Italy since I was a boy, and I have studied somewhat intimately the mosaics to be seen there and in Greece and other countries...I sat down, and in about six weeks got out designs in the rough for practically the whole choir...I had a very strong feeling - the point is, I think, a most important one altogether in this country - that English, not foreign, labour should be employed...it was necessary that I should train my workers myself. That I have done, and these men - over a score of them - have acquired sufficient grip of the true principles of mosaic to be able in a great measure to go alone...As I have mentioned, I have seen all the principal mosaics in Europe, and quite apart from the quality of my designs, the mosaic qua mosaic in the choir of St. Paul's is as good as anything that was done in the best periods of the mosaicist's art. These periods were from the fifth to the ninth century, and again in the thirteenth century in Italy".' From "Illustrated London News", 1895.