Philanthropy of Phoebe

PHOEBE Anna Traquair was one of Scotland's most prolific and versatile artists and craftworkers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But ''Phoebe'' - as the small but tenacious band of followers affectionately refer to her - had faded into almost total obscurity, in much the same way as the colours of her murals had dulled with dirt, damp, and

general neglect.

As the mural she made of St Mary's in Edinburgh is now being revealed in all its original glory, so is she being rediscovered.

''She was in her mid-30s and there right at the start of the Arts and Crafts Movement, in the 1880s, a person of tremendous energy and prodigious output,'' says Dr Elizabeth Cumming, lecturer in the Humanities Department, Edinburgh College of Art. Dr Cumming stumbled on Phoebe Traquair's work in the late 1970s, when Keeper of Edinburgh's Art Collections. She found the initials P.A.T. in the corner of a silk

embroidery, while cataloguing paintings in the basement of the City Art Centre.

The Victoria and Albert Museum, she learnt, had just acquired a collection of Phoebe Traquair enamels. The V & A put Dr Cumming in touch with Phoebe's three grandchildren who had some of her embroideries, paintings, drawings, manuscript illuminations, and book-bindings. Inquiries with the National Gallery in Edinburgh turned up Phoebe Traquair's three murals in the city, the Mortuary Chapel at the Sick Children's Hospital, the Song School attached to St Mary's Cathedral, and the Catholic Apostolic Church.

''It is quite obvious she wanted a professional life, to ''go out to work''. Most women of the period involved in the arts and crafts tended to pursue them as hobbies. She seems to have worked a fairly full week from the 1880s onwards, managing to bring up a family at the same time.

''Phoebe Traquair was one of the first to take art out of the

rarefied, hot-house world of

private collections, to make it more democratic.

''She was friends with Patrick Geddes, who had the idea of taking art to the people through decorating public buildings such as hospitals, schools, and mission halls, of creating a better environment, of taking care of people's spiritual as well as their everyday needs. It was a kind of philanthropic socialism.''

Geddes was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Social Union. Phoebe Traquair's decoration of the mortuary chapel of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children was among the earliest schemes of the union's programme of mural decoration, initiated in 1885 as a response to William Morris's call for an art that would transform the everyday lives of the working classes. It marked her debut as a professional artist.

The St Mary's Cathedral Song School murals, on four walls, were begun in 1888 and completed in 1892, in three stages and styles. They immediately attracted the attention of London critics. Though in many ways she may have been referring back stylistically to the Pre-Raphaelites, ''fresh'' and ''modern'' were the words repeatedly used to describe the paintings' colour and patterns.

''It is staggering how well she used colour on quite large areas,'' says Dr Cumming. ''Its intensity was very deliberate. She wanted the murals to have an immediate impact on anyone visiting the room.''

She first applied several coats of zinc-white to the plasterwork, as a ground. She painted in oils, mixed with turpentine and melted beeswax. The white would shine through the colours and give them a luminous quality, a technique used by the later Pre-Raphaelites. The beeswax was intended to protect the murals against the dampness of the Scottish climate. Gold gave an added richness to the walls. The murals illustrate the canticle Benedicite Omnia Opera, All the Works of the Lord, Praise the Lord, a popular creation text with arts and crafts artists. Phoebe Traquair was herself a committed member of the Episcopal Church.

''They are an incredible mix of natural detail - many different types of flowers, birds, portraits, as well as landscapes - and what art historians call symbolism, the expression of spiritual and emotional values,'' says Dr Cumming.

In her compositions, angels mingle with real people, cathedral clergy and choristers, artists and poets she admired, such as the Pre-Raphaelites Rossetti and Holman Hunt, the nineteenth-century Edinburgh artist Sir Joseph Noel Paton and poets Tennyson and Browning. The spiritual becomes part of the earthly world.

For Traquair the priority in art was ''to give consideration to every detail . . . details can't be too delicate or beautiful . . .'' Much of the Song School murals' detail and vitality had been lost or obscured over the years. The building's broken windows had allowed thick layers of black, sooty dirt to collect. There was water penetration from outside and salts just below and on the surface of the painting had migrated, causing loss of paint.

The accidental banging of choirboys' books and bags against some parts of the painting had over the years resulted in plaster and paint loss.

Without the varnish the surface damage overall might have been worse, but it had eventu-ally discoloured.

Some sections of the east wall had been replastered and painted by Phoebe Traquair, in 1923, and subsequently cleaned, possibly with a scrubbing brush. ''The panel containing the figure of Christ was brutally overcleaned and large areas of paint are lost,'' says Mrs Linda Fleming, Historic Scotland's conservator. ''The figure has an amorphous ghost-like appearance, the form of the face and hands has completely gone and the folds in the drapery are non-existent.''

The restoration, including re-roofing, new windows, re-plumbing, and a complete overhaul of the organ, as well as the work to the paintings themselves has cost #300,000. Historic Scotland has met two-thirds of the bill. The Dunard Fund offered #20,000 to start the cathedral's own fund-raising. The Foundation for Sport and the Arts also responded generously. There remains a shortfall of #30,000.

In The Steps of Phoebe Traquair, an exhibition and sale of works by some 50 contemporary Scottish women artists held during the International Festival two years ago, raised more than #10,000. A similar event is being held this year.

Restore an Angel has been another way for people to contribute: #10 would pay to do a flower, up to #250 for an angel. A commemorative book will soon be published, with the names of people who have given money and dedications.

At the east end of Edinburgh an equally determined effort is being made to save the Catholic Apostolic Church, in Mansfield Place. The building was until this year used as a club during the Festival Fringe. The Mansfield Traquair Trust bought the building and is carrying out temporary repairs, to ensure survival through the winter. Design work is already underway for the full restoration, due to start next year. The total cost of the project including purchase is #4m. The trust has an offer of lottery funding, the city council has committed money, but #1m still has to be raised.

n September 26: for the first time, all three of Edinburgh's Traquair murals will be open to the public as part of Edinburgh's Doors Open Day. The Song School Murals can be seen by booking through St Mary's Cathedral.