Mark Lancelot Symons, English, 1887–1935, Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?, 1929–1930, Oil on canvas, Saint Vincent Archabbey Collection, 43 3/4 x 55 3/4 in. Gift of Otto Lucien Spaeth. Photo: Richard Stoner.
Mark Symons was both an eccentric and extremely gifted artist. Born into a staunch English Catholic family, Symons became a pupil of the Boston portrait painter John Singer Sargent before graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1909. After a short-lived attempt at joining the Carthusian Order, Symons worked for the Catholic Evidence Guild (1918–1924) frequently addressing passersby as a street preacher at Piccadilly and Leicester Squares in London. Encouraged to pursue painting by his wife, Constance Gerber, Symons often relied on his children to serve as models.
Most of Symons’ work reimagines religious subject matter within the context of his day. Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? depicts the three crosses of Calvary and their figures amid a horrifyingly compressed crowd of onlookers. First exhibited at London’s Royal Academy in 1930, this painting prompted outrage on behalf of Anglican clergy as well as British military officials who detested Symons’ contemporizing of Christ’s crucifixion. Incisive draftsmanship, bloodless color, and a penchant for the grotesque give this painting depth and power.
Symons’ work was gifted to Saint Vincent on behalf of Otto Lucien Spaeth in 1948. Revered patrons of the arts and avid collectors, Otto and his wife Eloise maintained a profound interest in contemporary religious art. Friends with a variety of significant avant-garde artists, the Spaeths were responsible for organizing Religious Art of Today at the Dayton Art Institute in 1944. Symon’s crucifixion was shown alongside work by dozens of artists and architects including Richard Barthe, Barry Byrne, Salvador Dalí, André Derain, Pablo Picasso, and Joseph Stella in what is believed to be the first comprehensive exhibition devoted exclusively to modern Christian art in the United States.
Most of Symons’ work reimagines religious subject matter within the context of his day. Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? depicts the three crosses of Calvary and their figures amid a horrifyingly compressed crowd of onlookers. First exhibited at London’s Royal Academy in 1930, this painting prompted outrage on behalf of Anglican clergy as well as British military officials who detested Symons’ contemporizing of Christ’s crucifixion. Incisive draftsmanship, bloodless color, and a penchant for the grotesque give this painting depth and power.
Symons’ work was gifted to Saint Vincent on behalf of Otto Lucien Spaeth in 1948. Revered patrons of the arts and avid collectors, Otto and his wife Eloise maintained a profound interest in contemporary religious art. Friends with a variety of significant avant-garde artists, the Spaeths were responsible for organizing Religious Art of Today at the Dayton Art Institute in 1944. Symon’s crucifixion was shown alongside work by dozens of artists and architects including Richard Barthe, Barry Byrne, Salvador Dalí, André Derain, Pablo Picasso, and Joseph Stella in what is believed to be the first comprehensive exhibition devoted exclusively to modern Christian art in the United States.
