Christ Walking on the Water, 2009
Peter Howson (b.1958)
Charcoal on paper, 25 x 18 cm. Methodist Modern Art Collection, MCMAC: 024
Image Copyright © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. The Methodist Church Registered Charity no. 1132208
Biblical commentary
John 6:18-21
The piece is simple, even minimalistic, featuring Howson’s trademark sculptural shapes built up by dense crosshatching. A loosely composed, almost monstrous figure emerges from the background, and appears to be walking into the story. He is framed by the larger, more detailed figure in the foreground who points and looks, but not directly at the other. Mouth open and head tilted, it is almost as if he is gesturing to the viewer to look and see who is coming. We may read it as Peter gesturing to the other disciples, and by extension to us, to see this mysterious figure walking through wind and over wave. In the biblical story, the moment of fear gives way to encounter with Jesus – and to a confession that he is the Son of God.
Commentary based on A Guide to the Methodist Art Collection.
Artist biography
Born: London, UK, 1958
Early life and education
Peter Howson was born in London but moved to Glasgow as a small boy. He has remained in Scotland ever since. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1975-77. After a short career break when he joined the Army and travelled to Europe, he resumed his studies and graduated in 1981.
Life and career
Howson’s first public commission was a series of wall murals in Feltham, London. In 1985 he took up the post of artist-in-residence at the University of St Andrew and in 1986 he won the Arthur Andersen Purchase Award at Compass Gallery in Glasgow.
Howson experienced significant periods of mental distress and alcohol and drug addiction, particularly after his experiences as a war artist in Bosnia. He underwent the AA 12-step programme and subsequently converted to Christianity. He turned to religious paintings in the first decade of this century. His series The Stations of the Cross were exhibited in Flowers East and in St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow in 2004-2005, and a series of religious paintings Christos Aneste were displayed in Flowers Gallery, New York in 2005. These religious paintings are often in contemporary settings and, like many of his other works, contain an apocalyptic vision, often depicting crowds of writhing, muscular, aggressive-looking men.
Howson grapples vividly with the dark side of human nature and warns against the dangers to humanity should violence comes to dominate society. This is seen vividly in The Stations of the Cross and Christos Aneste. It was also seen in the 2023 exhibition in the City Art Centre, Edinburgh, When the Apple Ripens: Peter Howson at 65: A Retrospective. The art critic and blogger the Revd Jonathan Evens suggests that to be fully understood and appreciated, his work needs to be set within the Northern Romantic Tradition, and specifically the Expressionism and Magical Realism of Germany between the world wars.
Notable commissions include his role as Britain’s official war artist in the 1993 Bosnian Civil War, and the portrait of Saint John Ogilvie for St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow in 2012. Howson has won a series of honours and awards for his contributions to the visual arts including his appointment as an Officer of the British Empire in 2009 and the widespread reproduction of his images on a 1998 British postage stamp.
Exhibitions and collections
Howson has consistently exhibited internationally and in the United Kingdom, with frequent shows in Flowers East, London and Flowers Central London and Flowers West (Los Angeles).
His work is held in a range of collections including: The British Council; Tate Gallery; Victoria and Albert Museum; Imperial War Museum, London; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Sources and further reading
Artist’s website: peterhowson.co.uk
David Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945: Volume 1 A to L, Vol. 1 of 2 volumes, (Bristol: Art Dictionaries Ltd, 2006), p. 778. The text is also available on the Art UK website: artuk.org/discover/artists/howson-peter-b-1958
Jonathan Evens, ‘When the Apple Ripens: Peter Howson at 65 (City Art Centre, Edinburgh)’, Church Times. 21 July 2023: churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/21-july/books-arts/visual-arts/art-review-when-the-apple-ripens-peter-howson-at-65-city-art-centre-edinburgh
Seeing the Spiritual: A Guide to the Methodist Modern Art Collection, Oxford: Methodist Modern Art Collection, 2018), p. 62-63.