Helen Bruton’s “Nativity"

Nativity (detail) by Helen Bruton

       

Christmas is right around the corner, and it seems like an appropriate time to discuss Helen Bruton's beautiful mosaic nativity scene, which has an interesting story of its own. In fact, Helen's connection to this mosaic was almost lost to the whims of history.

Although the Bruton sisters were not devoutly religious -- Esther once described the family as “backsliding Episcopalians” -- some of their artwork took on distinctly religious themes during the 1950s. One example is Helen's nativity scene, a large mosaic made of ceramic and glass. When Helen first began making mosaics in the early 1930s, she constructed them using terra-cotta tiles. In the 1950s, however, she began to experiment with glass. She considered it “the most challenging medium available, both for color and texture.” Many of her later works feature colored glass pieces which reflect the light more dramatically than ceramic, giving her mosaics an exciting new brightness and dimension. The Holy Family is a good example of this development in her artwork.

I first learned about Helen's nativity scene from a 1956 article in the Monterey Peninsula Herald:

Monterey Peninsula Herald, 22 December 1956, p. 4.

When I read the article, I wondered if the church still had the piece, so I contacted Father Jeff Kohn of the Saint James Episcopal Church in Monterey. Father Jeff welcomed me into his church and showed me the nativity scene mosaic. Surprisingly, the label for the work identified the artist as Louisa Jenkins (1898-1989), a Big Sur mosaicist who was a contemporary of the Brutons; in fact she was born the same year as Helen Bruton. Jenkins and the Brutons knew each other. Jenkins clearly admired the Brutons' work and wrote a glowing review of their 1949 exhibit of mosaics and terrazzo in San Francisco.

Jenkins was known for her liturgical mosaics, so it made sense that the piece had been attributed to her. Yet as soon as I saw Nativity, I was fairly confident that the unsigned work was by Helen Bruton.

Nativity by Helen Bruton
Saint James Episcopal Church, Monterey, CA

I discovered a few newspaper clippings that confirmed my hunch. This 1953 article about the Brutons shows a picture of the mosaic and mentions that it was displayed in a 1952 exhibit of liturgical art at the de Young Museum in San Francisco:

Monterey Peninsula Herald, 2 Nov. 1953, p. A15.

The piece shows up again in an article from 1977:

Monterey Peninsula Herald, 18 Dec. 1977

These articles confirm that the mosaic had been misattributed to Louisa Jenkins and was actually the work of Helen Bruton. When I showed the articles to Father Jeff, he was delighted that I had uncovered the true history of the piece and invited me to write an updated label for the work.

Nativity (detail) by Helen Bruton

Warmest wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Bruton Sisters' blog. See you in 2020 for more exciting Bruton stories!

Photographs by the author.