Overview

Surveying for the first time the Century Guild of Artists and its influential periodical, the Century Guild Hobby Horse, this original publication asserts the significance of the Guild in the development of the Arts and Crafts movement and its modernist successors. The founders of the Century Guild - architect Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and his 18-year-old assistant Herbert Percy Horne (afterwards joined by the artist and poet Selwyn Image) - were driven by the ambition to answer John Ruskin's radical call to regenerate art and society. Motivated by the concept of 'the Unity of Art', the Guild embraced a spectrum of arts which included architecture, painting, sculpture, metalwork, textiles and stained glass. It also reached out to music and literature, aiming to educate its public in practical form. Skilfully weaving chronology with the impressive artistic achievements of the collective, the authors also draw out the lively personalities of each of the protagonists and their wider circle. For anyone fascinated by the Arts and Crafts movement, this is essential reading.

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9781848224513

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Reviews

'This is fascinating cultural history that charts a difficult set of artistic relationships whilst expertly analysing their incredibly varied output.' - The Victorian magazine

'This is fascinating cultural history that charts a difficult set of artistic relationships whilst expertly analysing their incredibly varied output.'  – The Victorian magazine 'Both the book and exhibition under review, each in their own ways exemplary endeavours, serve to shed light on what has hitherto been seen as something of a digression in the narrative of late nineteenth century British art but, on closer inspection, proves to have been a significant creative alliance of lasting importance.' – Pre-Raphaelite Review

'This is fascinating cultural history that charts a difficult set of artistic relationships whilst expertly analysing their incredibly varied output.' - The Victorian magazine 'Both the book and exhibition under review, each in their own ways exemplary endeavours, serve to shed light on what has hitherto been seen as something of a digression in the narrative of late nineteenth century British art but, on closer inspection, proves to have been a significant creative alliance of lasting importance.' - Pre-Raphaelite Review

Author Information

Stuart Evans was an Independent scholar and research degree supervisor. He had a long career at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, where he helped develop the research degree programme. His published research focused on late nineteenth-/early twentieth-century furnishings, architecture and town planning, particularly in relation to the Century Guild of Artists. Jean Liddiard taught at Central Saint Martin's for several years, followed by roles at the Imperial War Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery. She is now an independent lecturer, writer and curator. She is the author of The Half-Used Life: Isaac Rosenberg Poet and Painter 1890- 1918, and has published several editions of Rosenberg's work.

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