Brangwyn was brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, his father having converted in about 1858, but he did not attend church regularly and his knowledge of the Bible was minimal. As he grew older he grew increasingly superstitious and started producing more religious work and inserting his self-portrait as if seeking redemption for past wrong-doings. He created a number of Stations of the Cross, the first being for Father Thomas Ryan’s Leper Mission (S3546) in Pretoria (1920-1922). In 1920 he was also commissioned to paint Stations for Arras Cathedral (S2545). This series was to be in oils and reproductions would be distributed to other churches in the area in memory of the devastation caused by the war. Unfortunately this series was unfinished. A woodcut series (S4163) was completed between 1930 and 1934 with the help of William de Belleroche. In 1934 Brangwyn started a lithograph series (S4163), completed 1935. Two editions were printed on sycamore – these are in the Monastery of St Andre, Zevenkerken and the Jesuit College, Campion Hall, Oxford. The lithograph series was also reproduced as The Way of the Cross. An Interpretation by Frank Brangwyn RA, with a commmentary by G K Chetserton, who termed Brangwyn ‘one of the most masculine of modern men of genius’. In 1946 Brangwyn sent drawings for Stations of the Cross to St Joseph’s church, Stokesley (S2990) which were interpreted by the Italian prisoners of war (the church and contents was later destroyed by fire). A further set of Stations was painted in oil on oak panels for the Marist College, Middlesbrough (S2989) between 1937 and 1938 – these are identical in size and design to the lithograph series and the colouring is rather brash – I am tempted to think that most of the work was completed by Brangwyn’s assistant E K Center.
4th Stationof the Cross from lithograph series
The woodcut and lithograph series are both included in Brangwyn’s Big Prints Book, published in 2023.