Josephina Who?

Then let us introduce you to one of the world’s greatest sculptors, who lived for most of her life at The Bield, a delightful traditional Lakeland farmhouse just a few yards up the valley from the Three Shires Inn.

Josephina de Vasconcellos was born in 1904 to a Brazilian diplomat father and an English mother. A member of the Quaker movement, her mother was doubtless responsible for ensuring the young Josephina was encouraged to pursue and develop her artistic and creative abilities.

At the tender age of 17 she won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Art, and two years later gained a place at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris where she studied under one of Rodin’s assistants.

She married German born artist Delmar Banner in 1930 and they made their lifelong home in Little Langdale, with her studio in a converted barn adjacent to the house.

Whilst the war years didn’t do much for the prosperity of artists or sculptors, the aftermath was a different story, as Josephina was commissioned to create quite a number of war memorials including the Prince of Peace in Aldershot, The Hand at St. Bees School, and The Last Chimera which sits in the Canongate Church in Edinburgh.

Shortly afterwards she created a piece called Mary and Child, which sits in no less a prestigious location than the crypt in St Pauls Cathedral in London. Also in London, beginning in the late 1950’s, she regularly created the annual Christmas nativity scene for display in Trafalgar Square.

Arguably her best known work, however, is the beautiful statue of two figures, kneeling and embracing, which she created in 1977 and named Reunion. The work was restored in 1994 and renamed Reconciliation, and to mark the 50th anniversary of the Second World War bronze casts of the original were made for display in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral and the Hiroshima Peace Park.

A third cast was created to sit at Stormont Castle in Belfast, and in 1999 a fourth followed to become part of the Berlin Wall memorial.

Aside of her artistic work, de Vasconcellos contributed a great deal to establishing two residential centres which allowed both disabled and disadvantaged youngsters to benefit from holidays in the great outdoors; and these efforts contributed to her being awarded an OBE in 1985.

Her failing health forced her to leave Little Langdale in the late 1980’s, although she continued to work for many more years until she died in 2005, and the lasting legacy of her life’s work remains for all to see in many corners of the world, as well as the gardens of quite a few of her neighbours in the Little Langdale valley.

(photo courtesy of Joseph Haran of trekearth.com)