The Piper family is an English artistic family of several generations. [1] [2]
The Piper family is an English artistic family of several generations. [1] [2]
The Piper family dynasty of artists started in the 20th century with John Piper [3] and his wife, the art critic Myfanwy Piper. Their sons Edward and Sebastian Piper were also artists. The sons of Edward and Pru Piper, Luke and Henry Piper, are a painter and sculptor respectively. To quote the art historian Frances Spalding: "In the course of their long partnership, John and Myfanwy Piper created what seems to many observers an ideal way of life, involving children, friends, ... and creativity." [1]
John and Myfanwy Piper lived with their family in the south Buckinghamshire village of Fawley Bottom most of their lives. They moved into a derelict farmhouse and outbuildings there in 1938, which they then restored into a family house and studio. [4] Both stayed there till they died, bringing up their family there. The potter Geoffrey Eastop was a family friend and collaborator, as described in his memoir, producing pottery at the family home in Fawley Bottom. [5] He also stayed in the family's holiday cottages at Garn Fawr on Strumble Head in Wales, often with the Piper children. The poet John Betjeman was also a family friend. [6] In the mid 20th century, John and Myfanwy Piper were at the centre of English cultural life. She transported her family around using a pony and trap.
In 2007, the extended Piper family exhibited jointly at the Messum's gallery in Cork Street, London. [7]
Charles Alfred Piper (1866–1927) was the father of John Piper and a solicitor. [8] His father, Charles Christmas Piper, had taken over the family bootmaking business, and was also a partner in a printing and stationery company. [9] [10]
John Egerton Christmas Piper [11] (1903–1992) was a leading British artist of the 20th century. [1] Piper used to make artistic expeditions to various parts of the United Kingdom with individual family members and family friends, including his wife Myfanwy, his son and fellow artist Edward Piper, poets John Betjeman and Geoffrey Grigson, and later on the family doctor and friend Alan Hartley. [12]
Mary Myfanwy Piper (1911–1997), John Piper's wife, was an opera librettist and art critic. [1]
Edward Blake Christmas Piper (1938–1990), the son of John and Myfanwy Piper, was a painter. [7]
Prue Piper (born 1938) was the wife of Edward Piper and a potter. [7] She studied biochemistry at University College London and later worked as a potter in the village of Marston Bigot. [13] She has exhibited at the Aldeburgh Festival, Messum's, Renishaw Hall, and Stonor Park, among other places.
Clarissa Piper (born 1942) was the second child of John and Myfanwy Piper. [14]
Suzannah Piper (born 1947, Henley-on-Thames) was the third child of John and Myfanwy Piper. [15]
Sebastian ("Seb") Piper (born 14 August 1950) is the son of John and Myfanwy Piper and the younger brother of Edward Piper. [16] He is a painter, musician, and photographer. [17] Sebastian Piper's paintings are abstract in style and he holds periodic exhibitions to sell his pictures, especially in Fawley Bottom near Henley-on-Thames. His music is based on synthesisers and he has produced a number of CDs including The Barn. He has collaborated with Gail Rosier [18] of the Acorn Music-Theatre. He has collaborated with the River and Rowing Museum in Henley. [19]
Luke Piper (born 1966) is the eldest son of Edward and Prue Piper, and is a painter, mainly a watercolourist. [7] [20]
Henry Piper (born 1969) is also the son of Edward and Prue Piper, the younger brother of Luke Piper, and is a sculptor. [7] [21] He studied Philosophy and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Sussex, UK. Most of Henry Piper's sculptures consist of assembled pieces of discarded metalwork and other objects, often in the form of faces [22] and figures. He has also undertaken some stone carving. He has exhibited at Beaux Arts (Bath), Messum's gallery [7] in Cork Street, the London Art Fair, the Affordable Art Fair (London), [23] and at venues such as the Henley Festival, [24] Renishaw Hall, [25] Stonor, and elsewhere.
John Egerton Christmas Piper CH was an English painter, printmaker and designer of stained-glass windows and both opera and theatre sets. His work often focused on the British landscape, especially churches and monuments, and included tapestry designs, book jackets, screen-prints, photography, fabrics and ceramics. He was educated at Epsom College and trained at the Richmond School of Art followed by the Royal College of Art in London. He turned from abstraction early in his career, concentrating on a more naturalistic but distinctive approach, but often worked in several different styles throughout his career.
Eckington is a village and civil parish in North East Derbyshire, England. It is 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Chesterfield and 9 miles (14 km) southeast of Sheffield city centre, on the border with South Yorkshire. It lies on the B6052 and B6056 roads close to the A6135 for Sheffield and Junction 30 of the M1. It had a 2001 population of 11,152, increasing to 11,855 at the 2011 Census.
The River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, is located on a site at Mill Meadows by the River Thames. It has three main themes represented by major permanent galleries, the non-tidal River Thames, the international sport of rowing and the local town of Henley-on-Thames.
Geoffrey Eastop was an English potter.
Fawley Court is a country house, with large mixed-use grounds standing on the west bank of the River Thames at Fawley in the English county of Buckinghamshire. Its former deer park extended east into the Henley Park area of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire that abuts it to the south. Following World War II, it was run as Divine Mercy College by the Polish Congregation of Marian Fathers, with its associated library, museum and was one of the cultural centres for the Polish minority in the United Kingdom until its closure and sale in 2009. It is listed at Grade I for its architecture.
Edward Blake Christmas Piper (1938–1990) was an English painter.
Mary Myfanwy Piper was a British art critic and opera librettist.
Fawley Bottom is a small village in south Buckinghamshire, England, north of Henley-on-Thames. It is in the civil parish of Fawley.
Luke Piper is an English landscape painter, especially in watercolours. The Guardian newspaper has described him as "arts establishment aristocracy".
Julian Otto Trevelyan was an English artist and poet.
Messum's is an art gallery in Bury Street, St. James's, London, with a branch in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
Nicholas Patrick Reyntiens OBE was a British stained-glass artist, described as "the leading practitioner of stained glass in this country."
Frances Spalding is a British art historian, writer and a former editor of The Burlington Magazine.
Margaret MacGregor Angus was a British painter, designer and teacher. Born in Chile, she spent her career in Britain.
Sambrooke Freeman FRSA was a member of the prominent Freeman family of Fawley Court near Henley-on-Thames, England. He was a Member of Parliament, for Pontefract in Yorkshire from 1754–61 and Bridport in Dorset from 1768–74.
Roy Petley is a British painter.
Piper is a surname of German, English, French and Scandinavian origin, derived from the Old English "pipere" and the Old Norse "pipari", meaning "flute" or "fluteplayer", originating from long pepper in Indo-Aryan languages. People with the surname include:
Patrick Ferguson Millard (1902–1972) was an English artist, lecturer and writer.
Katharine "Kitty" Duff Church was a British neo-romantic painter.
The Poets' Fountain was a public fountain with sculptures that was installed on a traffic island in Park Lane, London, in 1875. It was removed in 1948 and it is thought to have been destroyed. One sculpture, an allegorical figure of Fame, is known to have survived and is displayed in the gardens at Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire.
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