Page 3 - tmp

www.ilkestonlife.com ILKESTON LIFE October 2021 3
Banned canvas becomes the star exhibit CARE VACANCY

Female Personal
Erewash Museum is hosting a celebration of a pitman painter whose pictures were considered Care Assistant/
to be too titillating for boys at Heanor Technical School Story and picture by Rod Malcolm Support Worker

miner artist’s biggest work has “Bissill destroyed most of them be- (minimum age 18)
A emerged nearly a century after cause he was so upset by the fact that
it was damned as being too rude to they were not acceptable.” Location: Kirk Hallam,
display in a boys’ school. Retired teacher Mrs Pattinson got to
George Bissill was thought to have de- know him through her grandfather, Ilkeston.
stroyed the four panels because he was Arthur Smith, a member of Ilkeston Rate of Pay: £10.50 per
so miffed at the rejection - but a draw- Arts Club. Her parents then cared for hour
ing of one has finally come to light. Bissill until he died aged 77 in 1973.
It is now on display in Ilkeston but A drawing of one of the panels was Hours per Week: 16 hours
remains the most controversial painting among dozens of artwork at his home per week
by Bissill, who worked down the mines in a Hampshire village.
at Langley Mill aged 13. Now the missing link is on display at Saturday 7pm to Sunday
He became a pavement artist in Lon- the Erewash Museum, as part of “From 11am which includes the
don’s The Strand and was later feted the Pits to Paris.” The exhibition lasts Saturday 10pm to Sunday
in Paris in the 1920s, with a reputation until 19th November. 7am sleep-in.
largely built on depictions of miners Historian Robert Mee, who has studied
working in cramped conditions. the controversy, said: “I didn’t know Job Reference:
But he became known away from art that anything survived of those four DER1446436TDP1C
circles after he painted four panels on panels.
the themes of music, art, science and “It was thought that all four had been Expires: 14th October 2021
literature. destroyed by Bissill. It is so strange Female Personal Assistant
These were commissioned by Ralph because the headmaster tried again with
Stoddard, head of Heanor Technical another commission but that seemed to (EQUALITY ACT 2010 SCHED-
School, where Bissill was briefly a have been turned down.” ULE 9, PART 1 APPLIES)
pupil. But the school governors refused Bissill married a dressmaker Gladys If you are interested in
to allow them to be shown. Swann in 1935 and said it would enable this post and would like
Kate Pattinson, who has written him to concentrate on art rather than
Bissill’s biography, said: “They show “cooking and cleaning.” more information,
ladies ankles, ladies in very short skirts, Mrs Pattinson said: “He would come to please ring:
the outline of breasts. our house with his wife. I was a teen- 0115 875 7085
“It was thought it might inflame the ager and he was a really grumpy old
boys and were not suitable for a boys’ man. He used to sit on our front porch
school. The head was a great believer smoking a pipe.”
and Bissill was a famous artist. Mrs Pattinson with the surviving panel