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Frederick
L. Griggs R.A.,
R.E.
Hitchin 1876 – 1938 Chipping Campden
St
Botolph’s Bridge (No.1)
Comstock 19 iv/iv
147 x 115 mm
Etching,
1917. Signed and dated in the plate in reverse.
Also signed in pencil. Entitled in pencil by Griggs
at the foot of the sheet. Published state, the
plate reduced at the left and the birds added.
Edition of 50. On old laid paper. Palely light-stained.
Sold
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Additional
Information about the Print
Just
as Palmer created his convincing later romantic
landscapes from a mixture of diverse elements
he has observed in the Italian or English countryside,
the majority of Griggs’ architectural images
are invented but believable gothic buildings.
The
imaginary chapel of St Botolph astride the bridge,
is named for the East Anglian Benedictine abbot,
a patron saint of travellers in the Middle Ages.
Comstock describes it as symbolic of the Church
watching over the doings of mankind; Jerrold
Northop Moore as a metaphor of pilgrimage.
The
Latin inscription on the bridge is from the 11th
and 12th verses of the 91st Psalm, which translates
as “For he shall give his angels charge
over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They
shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou
dash thy foot against a stone.”
The
introductory text to the Samuel
Palmer Legacy exhibition includes further
information about Frederick
Griggs.
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