19. An Addict of Illicit Behavior
Eric Gill was obsessed with “intimate relations”, and could not resist working it into just about everything. Nor did his obsession revolve around normal intercourse: he was into incest, bestiality, and pedophilia, was addicted to prostitutes, and liked to abuse his maids. One of his most famous sculptures, Ecstasy, depicts a couple passionately entwined. The model was his sister, with whom he had a lifelong incestuous relationship, and her husband. Some of his most celebrated artwork used his own prepubescent daughters as models, whom he liked to draw nude in semi-erotic poses.
In his diary, he described his perversions with great relish and in exhaustive detail: extramarital affairs, decades of inappropriate relations with his sisters, incest with two of his daughters, and bestiality with his dog. In short, Britain’s most celebrated sculptor, and one of her greatest modern artists, was the kind of person who would probably be in jail or on an offender registry if he was alive today.
Read More: Historical Incest Cases.