Desmond Chute
Desmond Macready Chute | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1895 |
| Died | 1962 |
| Nationality | English |
Desmond Macready Chute (1895–1962) was an English poet and artist, who became a Catholic priest in 1927.
Early life
He was born in Bristol, the son of James Macready Chute (1856–1912) and his wife Abigail Philomena Hennessy (1855–1931). His father ran the family theatre.[1] His mother was the second daughter of Joseph Henessy of Richmond Terrace, Clifton, Bristol, a cattle-dealer: the Henessy family were Irish Catholics, Liberal in politics.[2] Abigail Chute was on good terms with Grace Mary Welch of Cheltenham, mother of Werburg Welch who later became a close friend of Desmond.[3][4]
Chute was educated at Downside School, where he was taught by the classicist Nevile Hunter Watts.[5] He went on to the Slade School of Art in London.[6] His mother had taken over the Bristol theatre on his father's death in 1912, and on the outbreak of war in 1914 he returned to Bristol to support her.[7]
Ditchling and the Third Order of Saint Dominic
In 1918 Chute encountered Eric Gill at work in Westminster Cathedral.[7] The contact resulted in Chute's participation in the craft community at Ditchling, Sussex. It had grown up over the previous decade around Gill and others. Chute became a close colleague, assistant and "beloved brother" of Gill, and a co-founder of The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic,[8][9] He published poetry in The Game, the community's magazine. His mother was a principal patron of the Guild in its early days.
Gill completed his work on the Stations of the Cross in the cathedral, and it was consecrated on Good Friday 1918.[10] He had been exempted from conscription while he was engaged on the task. He was called up in September of that year, to a Royal Air Force camp at Blandford. He left Chute in charge at Ditchling.[11]
In 1920 Gill and his wife Mary, Chute, Hilary Pepler and Herbert Shove became Tertiaries, joining the lay Third Order of Saint Dominic.[12] Chute, Gill and Pepler went on to found The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic.[13]
David Jones arrived in Ditchling in 1921, as an assistant to Gill. Chute befriended him, and taught him wood carving.[14] That year, Chute started to study for the Catholic priesthood, in Fribourg.[15]
Priest
Later Chute moved for his health to Rapallo, Italy, where he was a close friend of Max Beerbohm and Ezra Pound, and one of the Tigullian Circle clique around him.[16] He tutored Mary de Rachewiltz, Pound's daughter with Olga Rudge, and supported both of them when Pound was arrested and deported by the US army. During the war, Desmond was interned at Bobbio, where he taught English to the local boys, and where he remained until the end of the war.
Chute's radio play Poets in Paradise was broadcast by the BBC in 1955.[17]
Death and legacy
Chute died and was buried in Rapallo. A memorial designed by Eric Gill stands in Canford Cemetery, Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol.
Some of his papers are held in the Eric Gill Collection at Chichester, and others by his relation, David Charles Manners.
Associations
Chute was an intimate and influential friend of Stanley Spencer, from 1915.[18][19]
Chute became a convinced distributist and follower of Vincent McNabb,[20] to whom he and Gill were introduced in 1914 by Marc-Andre Raffalovich and John Gray.
External links
References
- ^ "Bristol's rich theatrical heritage revealed". University of Bristol. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
- ^ Carleton, Don E. (1983). The Prince's of Park Row (PDF). Bristol (Department of History, University of Bristol, Bristol): Bristol Branch of the Historical Association. p. 11. ISBN 0901388319.
- ^ Jamieson, Joanna. "Welch, (Grace) Eileen [name in religion Werburg] (1894–1990)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/65567. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ The Downside Review. Vol. 119. Downside Abbey. 2001. p. 13.
- ^ Shewring, Walter (1963). "Desmond Chute, 1895-1962". Blackfriars. 44 (511): 28. ISSN 1754-2014.
- ^ Shewring, Walter (1963). "Desmond Chute, 1895–1962". New Blackfriars. 44 (511): 27–36. doi:10.1111/j.1741-2005.1963.tb00882.x.
- ^ a b MacCarthy, Fiona (1990). Eric Gill. Faber & Faber. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-571-14302-3.
- ^ "CHUTE, Desmond Macready (1895 - 1961), Painter". Oxford Index. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
- ^ Ward, Elizabeth (1983). David Jones, Mythmaker. Manchester University Press. p. 27. ISBN 9780719009556.
- ^ Collins, Judith (1982). "Eric Gill's Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral". The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1890-1940 (6): 30. ISSN 2052-6342.
- ^ MacCarthy, Fiona (1990). Eric Gill. Faber & Faber. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-571-14302-3.
- ^ MacCarthy, Fiona (1990). Eric Gill. Faber & Faber. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-571-14302-3.
- ^ Seasoltz, R. Kevin (1 January 2005). A Sense of the Sacred: Theological Foundations of Sacred Architecture and Art. A&C Black. p. 322. ISBN 978-0-8264-1697-1.
- ^ Alldritt, Keith (2003). David Jones: Writer and Artist. Constable. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-84119-379-3.
- ^ Neumann, Therese (29 September 1962). "Fr. Desmond Chute". The Tablet: 20.
- ^ Wilhelm, J. J. (2010). Ezra Pound: The Tragic Years, 1925-1972. Penn State Press. p. 110. ISBN 9780271042985.
- ^ "Poets in Paradise". BBC. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
- ^ Gough, Paul (2011). Your Loving Friend, Stanley: The Great War Correspondence Between Stanley Spencer and Desmond Chute. Sansom & Co. ISBN 978-1906593766.
- ^ "Stanley Spencer by Chute - 1916". Stanley Spencer Gallery. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
- ^ O'Huallachain, D.; Sharpe, John; Carlson, Allan (2008). Distributist Perspectives: Volume II: Essays on the Economics of Justice and Charity. IHS Press. ISBN 9781605700021.
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