PRESS RELEASE
25 July 2022
Hans Feibusch Murals Under Conservation at St John’s Waterloo
A vast mural of the Crucifixion and a smaller mural of the Adoration of the Shepherds adorning the east wall of St John’s, the imposing Grade II* Georgian church directly opposite Waterloo Station in London, currently among the most important 20th Century public works of art at risk in the UK, are being saved by urgent conservation work, due to complete at the end of July 2022.
They are by Hans Feibusch, a German Jewish refugee artist who fled to London in 1933 and ended up painting more murals for the Church of England than any other artist in the entire history of the Church. Feibusch’s work is now finally beginning to receive the recognition it deserves in artistic and religious circles – and conservators are at work to save these great works of public art before they further decay and yet more paint flakes to the floor.
The murals were commissioned in 1950-1951 when St John’s was restored after wartime bomb damage and reopened as the official church of the Festival of Britain. Today, St John’s is an inclusive broad church, known for its work with the homeless, as a popular arts and music venue and as home to the Waterloo Festival. Last July it closed for a £5.2m restoration by Eric Parry Architects. Saving the murals, the church’s outstanding artistic treasures, is central to the success of this major project and when the church reopens in September, they will be the focal point of the redecorated nave and the greatest publicly accessible artworks on the South Bank not in a museum.
We were deeply concerned about the state of the murals. Every time I went into the church, I could see more patches of paint loss. When we started researching Hans Feibusch, we realised how important he was. He and other Jewish refugee artists made a significant contribution to the way Anglicanism – and Judaism – was seen in the post-war years. Yet they are hardly known. Now, with so much more exile and suffering in the world and with refugees from a European war once again needing to find a welcome in the UK, it is even more urgent that we value Feibusch’s legacy. Cleaned and restored, these murals will be more beautiful, more relevant and more poignant than ever.
Restoration of Hans Feibusch murals at St John’s Waterloo, London SE1. Claudia Fiocchetti (top), ACR Conservator and Elisa Fascia, Conservator, retouching paint losses on Crucifixion (1951).
July 18, 2022. Photo Copyright: Eleanor Bentall Tel: +44 7768 377413.
ANY REPRODUCTION TO BE NEGOTIATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHER BEFORE USE
The Bishop became Feibusch’s friend and champion. He gave him his first Anglican commission for St Wilfrid’s, Brighton, which was followed by many others, including The Baptism of Christ at Chichester Cathedral.
In 1951, Thomas Ford, the architect of many restorations of war-damaged churches, was appointed to restore St John’s Waterloo and decided to commission murals from Feibusch instead of replacing the east window. Unfortunately, although Feibusch was confident of the paint he used, the large mural was done on a thin panel with little insulation from the outside wall, causing cracks when the panel contracted and expanded in changing weather. This came to light in a recent study commissioned from specialists Tobit Curteis Associates and changes have now been made to the window structure using technologies developed for the conservation of medieval stained glass in buildings such as Canterbury Cathedral.
The technique of Feibusch’s murals is distinctive. In the St John’s murals Feibusch probably used a combination of two techniques that he described in his book Mural Painting (1946): "One is a gum emulsion, called Stic B Paint, and to be bought under that name, which I have been using frequently for more than ten years. This preparation, which contains resin and a small amount of oil, is designed especially for covering cement but can be used on practically any surface provided it is thoroughly dry; the wall is to be coated first with a special priming. The colour, when dry, has a matt surface, the light bloom of tempera and great fire. It can be used in thin, semi-transparent washes or as a completely opaque paint; I have never seen it crack or flake. It grows very hard after a few days and is then impossible to detach from the ground… The second modern preparation is called Walpamur; it is a kind of distemper but more solid and washable. The colours are paler than those of Stic B and have all the pastel beauty of real distemper. Here, too, the wall has to be prepared with a special priming. I give both these mixtures as examples of modern intervention; there must be many more. Their greatest advantage lies in the fact that preparation of the work is cut down very much; the whole process must simplified and the artist left free to pursue his aim with more concentration on the actual drawing and painting..."
The Crucifixion is painted in a loose style, but only at first sight as Feibusch prepared his murals in his studio producing preparatory drawings and cartoons that were then traced onto the walls. In the Waterloo Crucifixion the initial charcoal sketching is still visible through the loose brush strokes as well as some alterations he made. It’s also characteristic of his use of light and shade, with a strong highlight on one side of his figures, contrasting with deep, richly coloured shadows on the other. In addition to the paint flaking and fine cracks, the painting surface appeared dull as it was affected by a thick layer of particulate dirt, due mainly to air pollution, which has been reduced by the cleaning phase of the current work.
Restoration of Hans Feibusch murals at St John’s Waterloo, London SE1. Claudia Fiocchetti, ACR Conservator, retouching paint losses on Crucifixion (1951). July 18, 2022.
Photo Copyright: Eleanor Bentall Tel: +44 7768 377413.
ANY REPRODUCTION TO BE NEGOTIATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHER BEFORE USE
“We’ve received a generous grant of £10,000 from the Heritage of London Trust, another from the Kirsch Foundation, and Paul Werth, Hans Feibusch's grandson, has sold works by Feibusch to add to our funds with support from Chiswick Auctions. But we have still got £19,000 to raise out of the total cost of £57,000 for this conservation project. These murals must be saved and they must be known. When St John’s reopens after the summer, we look forward to welcoming people from all over the world, people of all faiths and none.”
Hans Feibusch converted to Christianity in 1965 but reverted to Judaism in his final years. When he died, four weeks off his 100th birthday in 1998, he was the last surviving artist to have been included in Hitler’s Degenerates exhibition.
See more about Hans Feibusch here
To donate to the Feibusch mural conservation appeal – click here
For further information and images, please contact:
07388 381611
NOTE TO EDITORS
Claudia Fiocchetti is an accredited art conservator specialising in the conservation of Wall Paintings and Stone and has a deep knowledge of various media and materials, techniques and periods. Claudia trained in Painting Conservation in Rome, she has a degree and post-graduate degree in ‘Conservation of Cultural Heritage’. As well as undertaking practical conservation projects, she has taught both theoretical and practical topics in art conservation. In private practice since 1993, she has worked in Italy, the UK, France and Egypt in a freelance capacity in collaboration with highly respected conservation practices, as well as independently for private clients. www.claudiafiocchetti.com
At the outset of the project, a programme of research was carried out by Tobit Curteis Associates involving a study of the materials from which the painting was made, the environment in the building and the changes that had taken place over time. Based on the results of the historical research, materials analysis, thermal imaging and environmental monitoring, changes were made to the window structure using technologies developed for the conservation of medieval stained glass in buildings such as Canterbury Cathedral and a programme of conservation treatment developed.
Eric Parry Architects whose award-winning previous commissions include the renewal of St Martin’s-in-the-Fields among many other heritage projects, has designed and is overseeing the restoration of St John’s Waterloo. Buxton is the building contractor. Buxton has worked on Canterbury, Rochester and Guildford Cathedrals, the Imperial War Museum, numerous churches, and other listed buildings.
