Philip Hagreen - Natus Est (He is Born)

Luke 1: 39-56 2: 1-16   Matthew 1: 16, 18-25, 2: 1–2, 11

These beautifully simple woodcuts illustrate the birth of Jesus and are supplemented with liturgical texts and a quotation (top left) from Psalm 8. There are various views of the holy family, one with the shepherds worshipping at the stable. At the top left is Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth, the future mother of John the Baptist. Hagreen was a member of the Guild of St. Joseph and St. Dominic, a community of Roman Catholic artists and craftspeople committed to high quality work and design, offered to the glory of God. The style chosen is part of a desire to recover traditional Christian craftsmanship using the designs of the early Middle Ages and ancient devotional practice. 

Commentary based on A Guide to the Methodist Art Collection.

Born: Crowthorne, Berkshire, 1890

Died: Ifield Green, West Sussex, 1988

Early life and education

Philip Hagreen was an only child, the son of Henry Hagreen, a drawing master at Wellington College, Berkshire. Hagreen was initially a pupil there, but his studies were interrupted by ill health. He studied as a painter in Cornwall with Norman Garstin, and Harold and Laura Knight before attending. He then studied at New Cross Art School and the Heatherly School of Fine Art in London. He enlisted and served in the army in World War 1I, but was a reluctant soldier. In 1915 Hhe became a Roman Catholic in 1915 . Heand married Aileen Clegg in 1918. They had three children together.

Life and career

Hagreen is renowned as a wood engraver. After the war he assembled a group of artists who together formed the Society of Wood Engravers in 1920. In 1923 Hagreen, with his wife and children, moved to Ditchling in Sussex where he joined the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, a community of Roman Catholic artists and craftspeople committed to high quality work and design offered to the glory of God. They chose to work in a style that drew on the Christian craftsmanship of the early Middle Ages and on ancient devotional practice. The communal life included regular services in the chapel. Hagreen said “‘All that matters to me is that I did my best with each job. It was a way of life as a man and a Christian. Work done rightly is wholesome and I have found it jolly good fun.”’

Hagreen met Eric Gill (also represented in the Methodist Modern Art Collection) at Ditchling and learnt the art of lettering from him, temporarily ceasing wood engraving to focus on it. He shared a workshop with David Jones (another artist represented in the Collection). Soon after the move to Ditchling, he and family followed Eric Gill to Capel-y-ffin. This was not a success and the climate did not suit Hagreen. After a period living in Lourdes, where he produced three -dimensional ivory and wood carvings, the family returned to Ditchling in 1932. Hagreen spent the rest of his working life there, focusing on woodcuts and wood engraving. His distinct style of lettering and imagery played a key role in the St Dominic’s Press at Ditchling.

Hagreen was a social campaigner, including following the Distributist movement that championed individual land ownership in rural communities. In both his work and his campaigning, his sharp wit and humour often lightened serious subject matters.

As well as producing wood engravings Hagreen established a reputation as a painter, letter-cutter and cartoonist. The six wood engravings in the Methodist Modern Art Collection, including Natus Est (He is Born), are fine examples of his wood engraving and lettering and were gifted to the Collection from the estate of his son. However, his work did not receive the critical acclaim of some of his contemporaries. Fellow artist Edgar Holloway said that Hagreen was “‘probably the most unappreciated engraver of the century.”’

Hagreen retired from the Guild in 1955 after 25 years’ membership. He and his wife moved to Surrey until 1975 when they returned to Sussex to live in a nursing home. They were frequently visited by surviving Guild members. Hagreen lived to the age of 97. His son John became a priest in South East England.

Hagreen was commissioned to produce a series of carved Stations of the Cross for St Cuthberts’s Church in Bradford. Eric Gill helped him with the carving. Hagreen produced illustrations for Nursery Lyrics & other Verses for Children by Lady Jane Strachey, and for The Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius and the The Devil on Two Sticks by Rene Le sage. He produced a poster for London Underground in 1923 and for 15 years from 1934 he produced amusing cartoons for The Cross and the Plough, the magazine of the Catholic Land Federation.

David Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945: Volume 1 A to L. 2 vols, (Bristol: Art Dictionaries Ltd, 2006), p. 659. The text is also available on the Art UK website: artuk.org/discover/artists/hagreen-philip-18901988 (accessed 30 April 2025)

Ditchling Museum website: ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk/2017/02/19/philip-hagreen/

William J Fletcher, Philip Hagreen: The Artist and his Work (Rochester NY: At The Sign of the Arrow, 1975)

Guild of St Joseph and Saint Dominic website: guildjosephdominic.org.uk/index.php/philip-hagreen/

Lottie Hoare, Philip Hagreen: A Sceptic and a Craftsman (Winchester: Ritchie Press, 2009). Available here: guildjosephdominic.org.uk/index.php/philip-hagreen/

Seeing the Spiritual: A Guide to the Methodist Modern Art Collection, (Oxford: Methodist Modern Art Collection, 2018), pp. 46–47.