Julian Phelps Allan: Baptistry relief
Title: Baptistry relief
Artist: Julian Phelps Allan (1892–1996)
Location: Sutton Baptist Church, Sutton, London
Date: 1934
Sutton Baptist Church was the architect N. F. Cachemaille-Day’s only known non-conformist commission; with its imposing, fortress-like brick exterior and spacious interior it is referred to informally as the ‘Baptist Cathedral’. The interior echoes the churches of German Expressionism with full height pointed arches. The architectural and liturgical centre of the church is the baptistery, against the east wall, with a pool of Hopton Wood stone and a brick reredos under a large window by Christopher Webb of scenes from Pilgrim’s Progress. Presiding over the pool, framed by two dramatic twisted brick columns, is Julian Phelps Allan’s sculpted relief depicting the Baptism of the Ethiopian. Compared to the dynamism of Cachemaille-Day’s brick, the carved figures seem quiet and unshowy, commanding attention more through their placement and lighting than in the calm assurance of the scene. The Ethiopian provides a model for those being baptised in the pool below but does not eclipse them. Beneath the relief are the words GO YE THEREFORE AND TEACH/ALL NATIONS BAPTIZING THEM /IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER/AND OF THE SON AND OF THE/HOLY GHOST. MATT 25.19. The church has recently suffered water damage and is hoping to raise funds for improved guttering.
The sculptor Julian Phelps Allan (1892–1996), formerly Eva Dorothy Allen, was born in Southampton, and after serving in the First World War studied at Westminster School of Art, then at the Royal Academy Schools, where she won the gold medal in 1925. An early commission was the gravestone of Emmeline Pankhurst at Brompton Cemetery. Allan was a Roman Catholic and many of her works were for religious contexts, particularly convents and monasteries. As well as sculptures and reliefs she also designed memorial brasses. She was one of the first female members of the Royal (British) Society of Sculptors, of which she was elected a Fellow in 1947; she was awarded an OBE for military service, which she accepted reluctantly, but found professionally helpful.
Further Information
Medium: Hopton Wood Stone
Permanent display
See Allan’s relief on the Ecclesiart map here.
Other artworks in churches by Julian Allan: Large exterior crucifix, St Peter’s RC Church, Paisley; Madonna and Child, Carmelite Monastery, Wetherby.