Eric Gill was a writer, architect, calligrapher, monumental
mason, engraver, and sculptor who was born in 1882 in Brighton. His
family moved to Chichester in 1897 where Gill studied art and spent
many hours drawing in the Cathedral. He was apprenticed to an
ecclesiastical architect in London in 1900 and eventually supported
himself as a professional stonecutter.
In the summer and autumn of 1910 Gill and Epstein became close
friends, collaborating in a scheme to create a new religion with
artist Augustus John. Together they intended to carve an immense
temple, a modern Stonehenge, containing colossal figures in a
six-acre plot near Asheham House in Sussex. They dreamed of
sculpting monumental works of art that integrated themes of
sexuality, birth and religion, to be placed in a temple where they
could be worshiped. The project was never fulfilled and Epstein and
Gill parted acrimoniously in 1911.