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 Brian Sewell |
Critic Sewell backs fund for Constable's grave
Campaign launched to revamp dilapidated historic cemetery
LEADING art critic Brian Sewell, renowned for his acerbic style, is backing a fund-raising campaign to preserve the final resting place of one of Britain’s greatest artists.
Hampstead’s parish cemetery – where John Constable is buried – needs £250,000 to safeguard its future.
St John’s Parish church and Camden Council are now applying to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the money to refurbish the graveyard, in Church Row, which has been used as a burial ground since 986 when it was granted to Benedictine monks.
Constable is famous for his landscape paintings such as the Hay Wain, and painted many views from Hampstead Heath. Mr Sewell said he was saddened that the artist’s tomb has been allowed to fall into disrepair and told the New Journal it was important restoration work for Constable and other graves was completed as quickly as possible.
He said: “I am rather in favour of semi-dilapidated cemeteries, but you can have some order and disorder.”
And he said given Constable’s standing in the canon of British art, he would support the lottery bid.
He added: “Constable is as great a figure as John Turner – and I can’t see the Turner Society would have allowed his graveyard to have got in such a state.”
He added it would go some way to help mark constable’s contribution to British art – a contribution he believes is often not appreciated as it should be.
He continued: “There are so many monuments to Turner – he has his own wing at the National Gallery – but not Constable, and so many of Turner’s works are in public collections. We could at least make sure we kept his grave in good order. “That can’t cost too much to do.”
Hampstead historian Christopher Wade, who wrote a book called Buried In Hampstead which chronicles the history of the graveyard, added that the cemetery was unique in London. He said: “It is about the last remaining Medeavial graveyard in London. All the others, which were in the centre of the city, have been built over now.”
But as well as the historical interest, some of the monuments are becoming increasingly unstable.
Mr Wade added: “Some are totally dangerous and there is a real danger they may fall on a visitor.”
He added that as well as notables such as constable, the politician Hugh Gaitskell and theatre impresario Gerald Du Maurier, the graves told the story of every day Hampstead folk.
He said: “Although there are many famous people and some handsome monuments, what is also interesting are the other people buried there. There is lots of local history in the graveyard.”
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