The Society’s objective is to increase awareness of Petit, and his achievements both as an artist and as an architectural commentator.

This is being done through activities such as research and publications, speaking, and promoting exhibitions and public collections.

Research and Publications

The Rev John Louis Petit was a famous figure in the world of ecclesiastical art and architecture in his time. Until recently he was considered a minor figure even by those acquainted with the period and was unheard of by non-specialists. This came about because Petit never sold his art, practically all of it was closely held until most, thousands of pieces, were sold in bulk lots, at auction, in the mid 1990s. Good works mixed with unfinished sketches and many works by his sisters not separately identified. Similarly his important architectural contributions were deliberately downplayed by his opponents who outlived him.

Nothing worthwhile had been published about Petit until recent times. The November 2017 (volume 18, no2) article in the British Art Journal (http://www.britishartjournal.co.uk) is the first serious overview of his artistic achievements and illustrates how his style developed over his career. This website follows the categorization in that article. Secondly, concerning his architectural writing, Ecclesiology Today, journal of the Ecclesiological Society (http://ecclsoc.org) recently published and article in their July 2018 vol 55-56 issue. This assesses his contribution to architectural thought and especially his emphasis on preservation, originality, and beauty through form and proportion.

The first book on his art in Staffordshire came out in March 2019 see details and ordering information here. 

Correcting Inaccuracies
The second publications objective is to correct ‘fake news’.

Earlier biographies all contained both significant factual inaccuracies, omissions and, in our opinion, over hasty judgments. Those on art dealer websites, or wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Louis_Petit) have been corrected. Ebay dealers still carry some old material.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography  (http://www.oxforddnb.com), is the major remaining problem. having agreed to publish corrections and review the balance of its entry, two years ago, it has still not actually done so, and their 10 year old inaccurate and incomplete entry, not using any recent research, is still their latest.

Correcting mis-attributions of artwork is harder. The key London watercolour dealers (Abbott and Holder, Chris Beetles, Guy Peppiatt) do not mis-attribute Petit watercolours; however those advertised by traders on ebay are sometimes not right and occasionally resist correction. Auctions are not reliable.

We are working on new publications and also provide images and text for magazine articles (10 press articles/book reviews in 2019).

Speaking

During 2019 we gave about ten talks on the following subjects:

• • Introduction to J L Petit
  • Petit’s Art
  • Petit’s Architectural Writing
  • Petit The Pioneer of Preservation and The Battle for St Mary’s

Should you be interested in a talk please contact us at enquiries@revpetit.com

Exhibitions
The third objective aims to promote exhibitions of his work, either singly as part of other exhibitions, or more importantly large exhibitions of his work only. Petit’s work and achievement can best be appreciated when viewing many examples alongside each other. In this way it is possible to appreciate the incredible range and beauty of our architectural heritage, from across Europe, and begin to see what he was trying to communicate.

The Society has collected examples of his finest work, held by the Society or by ourselves individually, to support such exhibitions. Few works are held in public collections, and even fewer good ones.

The first exhibition for 150 years, albeit limited in scope will be at Lichfield on June 27-28th 2020

Public Collections
Finally, we aimed to place reference collections of his work in museums. By reference collections we mean covering all his different styles, which varied over his lifetime, and including architectural sketches and work of his sisters for comparison, and so that these are no longer a source of confusion. The biggest public collection at present is at the National Library of Wales. It is not representative, not very accessible for most of the population, and nothing is on display; so in the longer term we plan for something larger, more central, and more visible.

The Society has been acquiring and will continue to acquire Petit’s work for these purposes. Together with its members it now has the largest collection worldwide covering all Petit’s career.

We do sell works occasionally, either to divert money to a better use or where the picture is not central to the main collection.

Other activities

We support and work with others who are also promoting Petit. Most especially:

• • the Friends of Friendless Churches, http://friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk who have taken over Petit’s one completed church at Caerdeon in North Wales, and are raising funds for remedial work.
  • St Michael’s Church, Lichfield in looking after his family’s burial vault and putting up an interpretation board
  • Lichfield District and City Councils in efforts they are making or may make to commemorate Petit
  • The Society of Antiquaries, since Petit was an FSA