Author: The British School at Rome

Eugénie Sellers Strong was an art historian, archaeologist and scholar of Roman and Baroque art. She was Librarian and then Assistant Director of the British School at Rome from 1909 to 1925 working with Director Thomas Ashby. Strong was the daughter of a wine merchant, educated in France and Spain who graduated in classics from Girton College Cambridge in 1882. She married Sandford Arthur Strong, the archivist of Chatsworth House Library, whom she succeeded in the post after his death. At one time a model for Pre-Raphaelite painters, she taught widely and published her research, including Roman Sculpture from Augustus to Constantine in 1907, which led in part to her appointment at the BSR. 

Her research interests were largely focused on Roman sculpture, Etruscan art and, later, Baroque art which she continued to pursue alongside her administrative duties at the BSR. Strong’s tenure was pivotal and she had an impressive influence on the social life, cultural production and intellectual development of the institution. The archive contains numerable materials from her administration as she worked tirelessly as a supporter of students at the School; we can find numerous letters of recommendation and reference penned by Strong. The archive also holds a sizeable image collection which she bequeathed to the BSR in her will.

Strong maintained throughout her life a highly connected social circle; she numbered several famous and powerful people in her set. Gilchrist Scholar from 1920-1921, Agnes Sandys, recalled: “Her personality filled the place. Social life at the British School revolved entirely around her. You never knew whom you might not meet at her parties. Scholars of all kinds and many nationalities, distinguished artists, cardinals, bishops, and humble and learned friars.” Her role at the BSR came to an end in 1925 when she came into conflict with the wife of Thomas Ashby, whose tenure as Director also ended. She stayed on in Rome and in her later years, to the detriment of her posthumous reputation, was known for her support of fascism and Mussolini, whom she admired for his interest in archaeology and the classics. 

Much of Strong’s archive remains understudied and unexplored. Her image and postcard collection and correspondence can be found in the BSR archive. Researcher Ben White has written blogs on what has begun to be unboxed here and here. See more about the postcard collection here.

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Sources and Further Reading

Beard, M. (2002). The Invention of Ellen Jane Harrison. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 

Dyson, S.L. (2004). Eugenie Sellers Strong: Portrait of an Archaeologist. London: Duckworth & Co. 

Wiseman, T.P. (1990). A Short History of the British School at Rome. Rome: BSR.

White, B. ‘Archival Windows into life at the BSR: The Case of Eugenie Sellers Strong and Alexandrina Makin’, Life at the BSR Blog, Part 1: https://britishschoolatrome.wordpress.com/2021/03/25/archival-windows-into-life-at-the-bsr-the-case-of-eugenie-sellers-strong-and-alexandrina-makin-part-1/ Part 2: https://britishschoolatrome.wordpress.com/2021/04/08/archival-windows-into-life-at-the-bsr-the-case-of-eugenie-sellers-strong-and-alexandrina-makin-part-2/

Wallace-Hadrill, A. (Ed). (2001). The British School at Rome: One Hundred Years. Rome: BSR.

For a full bibliography and further reading, see here.

Colin Gill is notable for being the first person to win the Rome Scholarship in Decorative Painting in 1913. A cousin of Eric Gill, he took up the scholarship in early 1914, but postponed his studies following the outbreak of the First World War. From 1915 to 1918 he joined the War effort, firstly as part of the artillery, and later as a camouflage officer with the Royal Engineers. After suffering from gas poisoning in 1918, he returned to England to recover. He later became an Official War Artist, and only returned to Rome in 1919 to continue his three-year scholarship. During his tenure as a War Artist he produced several portraits of soldiers, including those both ranked and private, which are now held at the Imperial War Museum, as well as depictions of the artillery guns and crews he had worked with himself. His return to Rome in 1919 allowed him to resume the classic tradition in which he had been trained during his time as a student at the Slade School of Art. He won the Rome Scholarship in 1913 for his painting Flora (Private Collection, 1912), a painting inspired by the classical tradition that suited the BSR’s ethos.

While in Rome, Gill painted what has gone on to be one of his best remembered works, and, indeed, arguably one of the most famous to be produced by Rome Scholars of the time. Allegro (1921), is an oil on canvas that depicts several figures in different poses and at varying stages of undress. It is a striking painting that was well-received at the time by art critics at its first exhibition in 1922. It aligned with the tradition of decorative painting with its absence of narrative content and deliberate pictorial effect. Its aesthetic qualities notwithstanding, one of its most striking features is the depiction of various other Rome Scholars. His models include Job Nixon, the Rome Scholar for engraving, Alfred Hardiman, who held the scholarship for sculpture, and the scholar who had followed Gill in decorative painting, Winifred Knights. Gill fell in love with Knights (he was, it seems, not the only one). He wrote that she held his heart “like a bird in a cage”. This metaphor is replicated in Allegro. Knights may well have reciprocated these feelings for a time, though she was engaged to Arnold Mason, a fellow artist. She broke off this engagement, not for Gill, but for another fellow Rome Scholar Walter Thomas Monnington.

Gill was the first of the Rome Scholars to live in Anticoli Corrado, a hill village in Lazio, which had a long-standing connection to the artists of Rome thanks to its picturesque scenery. He was joined by Nixon, and later Knights. There he sketched portraits of Knights as they enjoyed Italian village life.

Gill, in the broader tradition of the Slade and Rome scholars, satisfied a variety of public commissions. Like his contemporary, Tom Monnington, Gill painted murals for St Stephen’s Hall at Westminster and the Bank of England. The former depicted King Alfred’s longships defeating the Danes, recreating a battle from 877, while the latter showed figures moving gold in the Bank’s Old Vault. He painted another historical scene for Essex County Council that showed Boadicea seated after the destruction of Camulodunum (Colchester) in 61 AD. He also painted murals showing influential figures from Northampton’s history for the city’s Guildhall. As well as being an artist, Gill was also a novelist and photographer. He died in 1940 whilst in South Africa after a period of illness, where he had travelled to paint murals for the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Courts.

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For a full bibliography and further reading, see here.

The BSR has collected photographs of some of the major paintings Colin Gill (1892-1940) made while he was at the institution. The black and white photographs reveal as much about the process of documenting artwork, and its limitations, as it does about the art itself. There is also a substantial record of correspondence between Colin Gill and Sir Evelyn Shaw, the first Honorary Secretary General of the British School at Rome.

These letters reveal Gill’s excitement at being selected as the first Rome Scholar in Decorative Painting.

Other letters detail the suspension of his studies during World War One.

He even visited later in 1937, returning as an “old Scholar”.

The BSR kept several images as records of Gill’s work. This photograph shows several soldiers carrying steel beams and moving sandbags. This formed part of Gill’s post-War engagement as a War Artist. It is an earlier version of his work Canadian Observation Post (Canadian War Museum, 1920), which showed the figures in similar poses. The final version went on to depict representations of shell shock, and places soldiers amongst the ruins of the building they had occupied.

This is an image of Italian figures in a rural setting. It is a rough work, most likely done at Anticoli Corrado, where Gill stayed for much of his time as a Rome Scholar.

This is a photograph of one of Gill’s more famous pieces, Heavy Artillery (Imperial War Museum, 1919). This painting was intended for the Hall of Remembrance. It depicts teams of soldiers working artillery guns, with others sitting close by. The horrors of war are juxtaposed against bright colours, vivid contrasts which, because of the technology of the time, have not been captured in the black and white photograph.

Finally, this is an image of Gill’s most enduring piece which he created whilst at the BSR, Allegro (1921); (the work is also referred to at several different points in time as Allegory and Allegria). Several of his fellow Rome Scholars are depicted in this painting, including Alfred Hardiman and his wife, and, on the left holding the birdcage, Winifred Knights. The metaphor represents Gill’s infatuation with Knights, whom he once commented held his heart “like a bird in a cage”.

Where would you like to go next? Who would you like to meet?

Please click on an image to enlarge it.

For a full bibliography and further reading, see here.