| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
| Contents | ||
Ralph Chubb was born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. His family moved to the historic town of St Albans before his first birthday. Chubb attended St Albans School and Selwyn College Cambridge before becoming an officer in the First World War. He served with distinction but developed neurastheniaNeurasthenia was a term first coined by Beard in 1880 to describe a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety and pessimism. It was explained as being a result of exhaustion of the central nervous system's energy reserves which Beard attributed to civil, and he was invalided out in 1918. From 1919 to 1922 Chubb studied at the Slade School of ArtPart of the University College London, the Slade School of Art was founded in 1868 as the result of an endowment by Felix Slade. Many of the most accomplished British artists since have studied at the Slade, which offers both graduate and post-graduate qu in London. It was there that he met Leon UnderwoodLeon Underwood (born 25 December 1890 in London October 9 1975) was a British sculptor, painter, and engraver. He attended the Slade School of Art and founded the magazine The Island in 1931. His work was influenced by African and Cycladic designs. His pa and other influential artists. He went on to contribute several articles and poems for Underwood's magazine, The Island. Although his work was displayed at such venues as the Goupil Gallery and the Royal Academy of ArtThe Royal Academy is an art institution based in London, England. History It was formed to rival the Society of Artists after an unseemly leadership dispute between two leading architects, Sir William Chambers and James Paine). Paine won, but Chambers vow, his paintings did not sell. He moved with his family to the village of Curridge , near NewburyNewbury is the name of several places: Canada Newbury, Ontario (village) Newbury Station, Ontario ( Southwest Middlesex Township, Middlesex County, Ontario) England Newbury, Berkshire United States of America Newbury, Massachusetts Newbury, New Hampshire in BerkshireFor other places named Berkshire, see: Berkshire (disambiguation Berkshire (pronounced Barkshe(e)r sometimes abbreviated to Berks is a county in the south of England, to the west of London and also bordering on Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Greater London. He began to devote his artistic talents to the printed works which would remain his chief labor in life.
His books were created in several chief phases. His typeset books of the twenties were a humble offering, exhibiting Chubb's talent for woodcutting and his quaint, visually inspired poetry. Even at this early stage, Chubb's lifelong obsession with adolescent males was beginning to become apparent. He expands upon this theme more explicitly in An Appendix, a homosexual and spiritualist manifesto duplicated from a cursive manuscript. An Appendix was the first of his printed works to be printed in his own hand; he soon followed this with the first of his opulent lithographicLithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface, as well as a method of manufacturing semiconductor and MEMS devices. Printing The Principle Lithography as a manual process is based on the repulsion of oil and water. The image is placed on the su books, The Sun Spirit. Throughout the nineteen-thirties, Chubb's books became more elaborate and appealing. Water Cherubs crystallizes Chubb's aesthetic of the youthful male form, and The Secret Country unfolds like an illuminated manuscript, recounting stories of Chubb's family and his journeys among the Romani of the New Forest in Hampshire. Chubb's printing press was interrupted by the war, but in 1948 he entered into the third period of career with two massive volumes: The Child Of Dawn and Flames of Sunrise. Each page of these two volumes is crowded with obscure digressions on Chubb's mythology and drawings of symbolic significance. Briefly summarized, Chubb's vision was a prophecy of the redemption of ' Albion', or England, by the boy-god Ra-el-phaos, of whom Ralph claimed himself to be the prophet and herald. This echoes an earlier announcement to be found in The Heavenly Cupid:
Other themes run through all of Chubb's work. He was forever haunted by the memory of a young chorister at St Albans who disappeared from Chubb's life just as he had summoned up the courage to speak to him. Similarly, a brief sexual relationship with another boy when Ralph was 19 seemed to serve as a template for future visions of paradise. Chubb's books become progressively more self-involved and paranoid. Seeking to justify his homosexual lusts, he created a personal mythology which explained everything in terms only he could understand. Nonetheless, Chubb's work is of fascinating psychological significance; each of the various angels, knights, seers, and boy-gods in his dream world represents an aspect of his introspective and persecuted self.
Chubb, like many other artists of his generation, resented science for its intrusion into his imagination. He disparaged the scientists, orthodox theologians, and politicians of world, accusing them of squelching his personal thirst for liberty. In 1927 he wrote:
Chubb sought to persuade his readers in An Appendix of the verity of his solipsism by illustrating some examples of serendipitous events from his life. His aim is more on the mark when he excoriates the taboos and frustrations of modern life.
Failing in health and facing continuing legal and financial difficulties, Ralph Chubb abandoned his controversial works in the mid-fifties, and began to collect and reprint his early poems and childhood memories. Treasure Trove and The Golden City (published posthumously) are devoid of the usual profusion of naked, lissome youths, but instead offer a glimpse into his youthful imagination, and some of his most charming poetry. In the final years of his life he donated his remaining volumes to the national libraries of Britain. He died peacefully at Fair Oak Cottage in Hampshire and was buried next to his parents at the Kingsclere Woodland Church .
Chubb's own assessment of his work conforms to the general critical reaction: