Dom Gregory de Wit, OSB: The Infamous Life-loving Monk in South Louisiana
A Essay by Edward M. C. Begnaud, Jr.
It was once prophesied of the monk, priest, and artist Gregory de Wit, OSB, “You may not do great things, but you will do beautiful things.” Those words would fulfill the prophecy: I Will Never Be Famous. While greatness and beauty may admit subjective standards of judgment, fame is more readily measured To this day, the Benedictine artist has yet to acquire the fame he desired. There is one thing that nearly everyone who made the acquaintance of the eccentric monk did agree upon: his was a difficult personality. That fact alone made Dom Gregory infamous rather than famous.
Johannes Aloysius de Wit was born June 9, 1892, in Hilversum, The Netherlands, to a bourgeois carpet manufacturing family. He was given the name Gregory when he entered the Order of Saint Benedict at the monastery of Mont César in Leuven, Belgium, March 1914. Early in his monastic life, Gregory experienced two substantial emotional challenges. First came the onslaught of World War I. When the Germans invaded Leuven, they occupied the monastery. Soon after the horrors of the “war to end all wars” came to a close, Gregory was dealt a personal emotional blow. In March 1919, his beloved spiritual director, Anselm Isaac, OSB, died. As he lay dying, Dom Anselm enjoined Gregory to promise that he would pursue art. Gregory agreed. The demands of prayer and work required of monastic life, however, precluded fulfillment of the promise, and de Wit’s anxiety mounted until, in 1920, he suffered a nervous breakdown and spent the following summer in therapy, recuperating at a clinic in the country. Upon his return to the monastery, Gregory was granted permission by the Abbot to pursue his talent for art.
Dom Gregory’s first exhibition came quickly. In November 1923, Gregory presented forty-five works with positive reviews — even if tempered by some mixed commentary. One such example comes from an anonymous critic. The unnamed source wrote:
Here the painter shows himself too clearly in his weakness. I do not deny its noble disposition, but life is lacking. An involuntary intellectuality arises. Some are strictly symbolic, ritually kept; others held in a more naive atmosphere. The ritual does not impress; the naïveté is not moving. The work does not make us happy, not sad, not serious. The symbolism involuntarily lapses into the gracefully decorative, into a sweet line of beauty without tension, without a living spirit, without true profundity.
It may well be, however, that the unknown observer missed the point entirely regarding the “passionless” tenor of Dom Gregory’s art. Another critic of the inaugural solo exhibit, the well respected Hendrik Caymen, wrote: “The essence of the art of Dom Gregory de Wit is … the serene contemplative experience of God, the almost passionless, because now completely surrendering communion in and with the divine idea.” One year later, Gregory went to Munich to study. A year after that, he mounted an exhibit at the Munich Gallery for Christian Art. Over the next ten years, Gregory was able to paint, study, travel, and mount more exhibits. In June 1934, Gregory returned to his monastic home for the first time since departing for studies. Ecclesial commissions then began to emerge. It was not until his arrival to the United States in 1938, however, that the now established artist was given scope to exploit his talents.
People in the United States who have come to know the work of de Wit likely first encountered his monumental murals at one of a short list of places: Saint Meinrad Archabbey (Saint Meinrad, IN); Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church (Baton Rouge, LA); Saint Joseph Abbey (Saint Benedict, LA); and Saint Brigid Catholic Church (San Diego, CA). Without question, these works leave an overwhelming impression on all who see them. The sheer scope of the works, which cover large rooms from floor to ceiling, is impressive. Whether they are judged favorably or not, the art humbles all who are privileged to experience them. The transcendence portrayed in the sacred murals of Dom Gregory bespeaks the humility from which they came.
The vast majority of most any artist’s corpus is composed of smaller works. Even those who are best known for, and excelled in, magnificent scale fill the space around those with contributions of a more modest size. Unfortunately, a great majority of those works often go uncatalogued and are lost to posterity by way of various misfortunes. Hand of the Master, the exhibition mounted by the Saint Tammany Art Association in Covington, LA, in December of 2019 and January of 2020 and curated by Jaclyn Warren, presented a remnant of such small scale free standing work by de Wit. All of the works in the exhibit were collected from southeast Louisiana. Many other small unfixed works are also known to exist in the region. Some are in private collections while others are in accessible Catholic churches. And while more works are likely hidden away in places where Gregory worked or merely visited across the United States, it is safe to estimate that no region on the earth has more works by de Wit than south Louisiana.
As presented in the documentary Hand of the Master: The Art and Life of Dom Gregory de Wit by David Warren (Stella Maris Films, 2018), de Wit delivered a sermon to the monks and students of Saint Joseph Abbey and Seminary College on April 17, 1955. In that talk, he stressed the great Latin adage, nemo dat quod non habet (No one gives what one does not have); or as he explained it: “If you don’t live it you cannot give it.” “Art,” Gregory explained further, “is the most intimate expression of your most intimate life.” What Gregory gives is a manifestation of the intimate life he had with God. The innermost expression of a most intimate life can sometimes be distorted in the large scale works for which Gregory is best known. Intimacy frequently gives itself most freely to the personal, the private, the object that can be addressed face-to-face. Intimacy can also lead artists to a saccharine sentimentality regarded as kitsch. Gregory was an ardent critic of this pitfall. Still, on many occasions, he fell to the constant tug of emotional heartstrings.
The issue of kitsch ultimately revolves around the concept of balance or moderation. In terms of Benedictine spirituality, kitsch rests in the position of the slothful, those who need to be roused from sleep to become the “strong kind of monk” prescribed by the great leader and law-giver (RB P:2, 8; 1:13). Kitsch lies outside the parameters staked out by Benedict that while “nothing harsh, nothing burdensome” is required, “a little strictness” is necessary “in order to amend faults and safeguard love” (RB P:46-47). There must always be a sense of moderation so that “the strong have something to yearn for and the weak nothing to run from” (RB 64:19). This concern moved Gregory away from a style of Catholic art prominent at the time of his formation. Beuronese art was developed by the Benedictine community at Beuron, Germany, in the late nineteenth century under the direction of Dom Desiderius Lenz, OSB. Modeled on the ultra-rigid style of ancient Egyptian art, the style lacks a sense of emotion. It projects a rather cold, impersonal ethos. While traces of the style are detectable in some of de Wit’s monumental work — especially in angels — it is not discernible in his intimate pieces. After a 1934 lecture to the monastic community at Maria Laach, Dom Ildefons Herwegen, OSB said: “Father Gregory, I can only congratulate you. Your art is alive compared to [our Beuronese art], which is dead.” This comment can be counted among the most flattering and perhaps influential critiques of Dom Gregory’s paintings. The insight to the generative power of art is undoubtedly the most complimentary critique a Christian artist could possibly receive. To bring life is, after all, the very mission of Christ and his Church. It is that life which de Wit is able to propagate in his small scale works in a manner which eludes the monumental.
A primary contributing factor to the generative power of de Wit’s art is rooted in his optimism. On the occasion of his eighty-fifth birthday, he was asked by a reporter: “How is it that at your age you still enjoy so much vitality?” The response was quick: “It is because I love life.” The same answer and more was offered to another reporter. In the astute estimation of that journalist, the one thing that placed the “esoteric monk” so far above most people was a continual meditation on life and death. De Wit was formed by the ancient admonition promoted by Benedict: “Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die” (RB 4:47). The reporter also observed that de Wit had titles on his bookshelf that some would find questionable for a monk and priest. Dom Gregory seized the opportunity to share the advice of Saint Paul: “test everything and retain what is good” (1Thes 5:21). The reporter concluded by noting that this humble man exhibited in his very being what he strove to express in art and what he proclaimed in word: “I am excessively happy!”
Contrary to what many may have thought while he was alive, it has been said of Dom Gregory that he was a humble monk. He was not, however, a modest man, as Fr. Ælred Kavanaugh, OSB, is quick to add in Warren’s documentary. Kavanaugh explains that Gregory believed he was gifted but fully acknowledged that the gift was from God. The range of work from the hand of the master, Gregory de Wit, is as varied as the eccentric personality that revealed it to the world. While looking to the past for assurance and to the future for hope, de Wit’s work is rooted in the persistent present of his time and yet, it remains a faithful witness to the power of beauty.
The vast majority of small scale works by de Wit are in private collections and so inaccessible to public viewing. A number of works may be seen in churches across south Louisiana, however. Most notably, there are six sets of Stations of the Cross. There are also Biblical scenes. A visit to each of the venues will prove to be edifying. It may also put the prophecy of Dom Anselm to the test. Dom Gregory did in fact accomplish both beautiful and great things. At the same time, his self-fulfilling prophecy appears to have stood. Dom Gregory de Wit remains infamous rather than famous.
Edward Begnaud is the author of Living in Salvation, a monograph about the artwork of Dom Gregory de Wit, which is available in the Saint Joseph Abbey gift shop.
Christus dilexit ecclesiam, Oil on wood panel, 84” x 120”October 6, 1954
Saint Anselm, Madisonville
List of Small Scale de Wit Works in Churches of South Louisiana:
1. Sacred Heart of Jesus, Baton Rouge: Stations, in addition to the expansive murals.
2. Transfiguration of the Lord, New Orleans: Stations.
3. Saint Gertrude, Des Allemands (currently closed due to storm damage): Stations.
4. Our Lady of Fatima, Lafayette: Stations.
5. Saint John the Baptist, New Orleans: Stations; Life of John the Baptist (Nativity of John; Baptism of the Lord; Beheading of John; Presentation of John’s Head).
6. Saint Pius X, New Orleans: Stations.
7. Saint James, Esther: Springs of Living Water altarpiece (the titular center section was removed).
8. Saint Anselm, Madisonville: Christus dilexit ecclesiam et seipsum tradidit pro ea (Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her (Eph 5:25)); Pictured below]. NB: This painting was originally at Saint John the Baptist. It was moved to Saint Anselm in 2009. Saint Anselm also has a copy (not executed by de Wit) of the Stations at Saint John the Baptist.
