Charles Wheeler – you know the work, now discover the man

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Wheeler’s ‘very personal style, vigorous, graceful and modern’ is revealed in a new book

The Sculpture of Charles Wheeler by Sarah Crellin

In the 1950s the dominant figure in British sculpture was Henry Moore (1898–1986) and the dominant figure in writing the history of British sculpture was his friend, Herbert Read (1893–1968).  Read was a ruthless modernist.  At the time when George Orwell was unveiling the workings of the Ministry of Truth, and Stalin’s historians were deleting Trotsky and the old Bolsheviks from a role in the birth of the Soviet Union, Read was airbrushing out of history the majority of British sculptors from the interwar period; those that did not meet his or Henry Moore’s strict modernist criteria. This censored picture rapidly became the sole narrative. The Lund Humphries series of books on early-20th-century British sculpture has done much to correct this lopsided view, introducing us to the work of Charles Sargeant Jagger (1885–1934), Eric Kennington (1888–1960), and Gilbert Ledward (1888–1960) among others, and now Charles Wheeler (1892–1974), thus enriching our appreciation of what was a very productive and innovative period in British sculpture.

Everyone in Britain knows Wheeler’s work well, even if his name is unfamiliar. Every time there is any sort of crisis in the British economy, which seems like almost every day, the façade of the Bank of England and Wheeler’s sculpture on it appears on our TV screens. Wheeler’s work shows a very personal style, vigorous, graceful and modern, built on the British tradition but absorbing new influences from Europe. His early teachers were Robert Emerson (1878–1944) at the Wolverhampton Art School and Edouard Lanteri (1848–1917) at the Royal College of Art. Through these he would have learnt of the Arts and Crafts and New Sculpture traditions of the late 19th century, of George Frampton (1860–1928) and Alfred Gilbert (1854–1934), and of the powerful work of Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). Onto these he absorbed the influence of the Serbian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic (1883–1962), the Swede Carl Milles (1875–1955), and the Frenchman Aristide Maillol (1861–1944). All these artists were operating in the figurative tradition.

Wheeler’s career took flight when he formed a highly productive alliance with the architect Herbert Baker (1862–1946). The two men seemed to share a strong artistic sympathy, even though Baker was 30 years older than Wheeler. In a letter to Baker on his 82nd birthday Wheeler addressed the older man as ‘Dear Parent Oak’ and signed himself ‘Sapling’. It was Douglas St Leger (1890–1963), a young architect in Baker’s practice, who introduced them. Now Wheeler’s sculpture graces many of Baker’s important buildings, the Bank of England in the City of London, South Africa House in Trafalgar Square, Rhodes House in Oxford, India House in the Aldwych, buildings which helped confirm the British sense of Empire.

Like most young artists of ambition in the 1920s, Wheeler used the Royal Academy (RA) as a means to further his career, exhibiting at the Summer Exhibition whenever he could. He was also active in the Royal Society of British Sculptors (RBS). He was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1934 and a full Royal Academician in 1940. He became President of the RBS in 1944. Finally he was elected as the first full-time sculptor to be President of the RA (PRA) in 1956. Thus he was very clearly identified as part of the old guard when open war was declared between the traditionalists and the modernists in the late 1940s.

Who started the war is not clear. Wheeler was not helped by his immediate predecessors as PRA. Alfred Munnings (1878–1959) and Gerald Kelly (1879–1972) were vituperative opponents of modernism in all its forms. Herbert Read and Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) led the attack on the old guard. It all can seem very strange to us now. We can, after all, feel quite comfortable admiring both figurative and abstract sculpture. Wheeler was a charming man and a great diplomat. Although not an admirer of modernist art he tried to steer the RA towards a more tolerant stance with some success. There were good reasons. The RA was suffering financially from the battle. What Wheeler started in the 1960s has borne fruit some 60 years later. The RA is now a much more inclusive body: witness the election of Tracey Emin, for example, as an RA in 2007. The art world generally is more inclusive: witness also that we can read this fine book, supported by the Henry Moore Foundation, which puts Charles Wheeler in his rightful place in the history of British sculpture.

The book is a further and highly welcome addition to the Lund Humphries series of books on early-20th-century British sculpture, which have brought to the fore many neglected British sculptors. Among these Charles Wheeler was one of the most important. Wheeler’s works are beautifully illustrated and there is a detailed and well-illustrated catalogue. Sarah Crellin’s text gives a scholarly and thought-provoking description of Wheeler’s life and times.

The Sculpture of Charles Wheeler by Sarah Crellin is published by Lund Humphries, in association with the Henry Moore Foundation. 200 pp. 278 mono illus. ISBN 978-0-85331-986-3