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I.eonardo. Veil. 16. No I. pp. 56-59. 1983 Printed in Great Britain 0024-094X/83/0 10056-04$03.OO/O Pergamon Press Ltd. JOCELYN CHEWETT, CANADIAN SCULPTOR (1906-1979) Stephen Gilbert" Jocelyn Chewett was fortunate in her early life and education. Both were unusual, and. I think. helped her to develop her understanding and adjustment to other people. and finally to express herself in her work as fully and precisely as possible. Her mother had a lasting influence upon her. both while she lived. and after. I shall explain briefly what I know ofthis first part o f Jocelyn Chewett's life. as it seems to have a bearing on her development a s an artist. Her mother was the !oungest of five children. and was born in Western Central England. near Ludlow. in 1884.She came from an English county family. in a closed and conventional societ!. which. during her adolescence. was beginning to lose its meaning. Many of the younger generation wished for a different sort of life. and some thought of Canada. One of the sons from this family emigrated t o Vancouver Island. He constructed a log house in the forest, cleared the land round it. and lived the life in the woods in which Thoreau. who had helped to influence his thoughts. believed. Jocelyn Chewett's mother wished to join him, and was able to do so when she came of age. While there she met her future husband. a Canadian, who had come from the East Coast. Jocelyn Chcwctt was born in the east of Canada. o n a farm. beside the Hudson River. where she remained till she was eight years old. I t was in the country. but near t o l'oronto. She remembered uell the severe winters. and sudden spring, with carpets of patica flowers. In 1913, the Chewett family. with their three daughters. crossed the Atlantic. o n a visit to England. The farm at Weston. near Toronto. was temporarily managed by friends. However. the outbreak of. war in 1914 forced the famil! to remain in England. .loccl>n's father died in the course ofthis war, and her mother in 1924. While in England. the parents of Jocelyn C'hewett continued to live simpl!. as they had first done in Canada. The family joined a self-supporting community in Berkshire. called the School of Silence. of neo-platonic tendenc!. which included farming. and where a certain time each da! was passed in meditation. T-hechildren participated, and also helped with the crops. Jocelyn C'hewett always kept this habit of reflection. in particular before the work of another artist. Jocelyn Chewett and her sisters were brought bq their mother to sx exhibitions in London. such as those of William Morris or Wyndham Lewis: or to visit the National Gallery. She tried to understand how pictures were composed, and spent more time than the rcst of thr family on this. She completed her general studies up to matriculation and. in 1929. went to we Henrb Tonks, and was accepted by him as a student at the Slade School. At this time. having lost both parents. she lived in London with one of her sisters. and the next year with a friend she met at the Slade. Ithel Colquhoun. who is now known as an English surrealist. At the Slade School Jocelyn Chewett soon decided to concentrate on sculpture. *Sculptor. I ? Rue Rambuteau. 75004 Paris. Francc. 56 At this point I shall finish speaking of the influences antecedent to her life as an artist. They undoubtedly aided her to develop a part of herself with which she was born. which was a complete acceptance of human nature. These qualities are manifest in her creative work. Gerard. professor of Sculpture at the Slade School, expected the students to reduce the human form t o a schema made from multiple measurements, in a precise structure of wire and wood. The work was completed by gradually building up the form with small pellets otcla?. This rather laborious process of modelling suited Jocelbn Chewett. and enabled her at once to feel that she could simplif! radicall!. and vet keep the maximum...

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