Lewis Frederick Lupton, oldest son of 7 children, was born in 1909 in Fulham, London. He once said ‘from the age of 5 I had made up my mind that I must be an artist’. We’re grateful to Stephen Foster of Foster Books for alerting us to his story.
In the 1960s Lewis Lupton engaged in a labour of love – of biblical proportions. ‘He transformed his home in Chiswick with a series of murals with a religious theme, a vast panorama illustrating biblical scenes from Genesis to Revelation. The 30ft by 20ft painting covered the ceiling of the living-room, and took 10 years to complete.’ It was completed in 1970. He became something of a local celebrity, with frequent visits from local secondary school students to view the ceiling. See ‘Artist Profile’ on Lewis Lupton website.
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From the ‘Virginia is for Huguenots’ blog – ‘The Michaelangelo of Chiswick’:
Best known as the author of the 25-volume A History of the Geneva Bible (London: Fauconberg Press; The Olive Tree, 1966-1994), his magnum opus, Lewis Lupton was not only a church historian and writer, but also an artist, storyteller, theologian and loving husband and father. As David Martyn Lloyd-Jones once put it, “Mr. Lupton has not only the eye of an artist but also the nose of the true historian, and above all the understanding of one well versed in the Reformed faith.” In the words of J.I. Packer, Mr. Lupton was “[a]n artist with brush and pen as well as words and wisdom.” The story of his life and legacy is one that deserves to be more widely known.
It was also in the 1960’s that Mr. Lupton set up (with others) The Fauconberg Press (named for Lady Mary, daughter of Oliver Cromwell, known as Countess Fauconberg), the publishing arm of the Strict Baptist Historical Society.
Books he illustrated for TFP include:
– J.H. Alexander, More Than Notion (1964) (a story of revival);
– Lewis Lupton, Red Indian Peril: The Story of John Eliot, the Apostle of the Red Indians, Translator of the Bible no-one can read and the First Protestant English Missionary (1965);
– Lewis Lupton, Captured: Being the Adventures of a Puritan Boy, Sandy Williams, of Deerfield in Massachusetts, New England, in the year 1704. How he was Captured by the Abenaki Indians; his residence in Canada and Acquaintance with Mademoiselle Carignan and other of the French Nobility, with all that he suffered at the hands of the Governor and Priests; together with an Account of the Remarkable Sequel now set forth by Lewis Lupton (1965); and
– Lewis Lupton, Behind Mr. Bunyan (1968) (a true story of Agnes Beaumont, who belonged to John Bunyan’s Meeting).
These stories engage not only younger but older readers as well (Captured has “A Preface for Young Older Folk,” “Another Preface, For Younger Young Folk,” and “An Introduction, For Nobody”). The prominent theme in these works is a desire on the part of the writer/illustrator to bring church history alive and make Puritan Christianity relevant to our day.