Brian Clarke R.I.P.

Renowned stained-glass artist, Brian Clarke, died on July 1, 2025 at the age of 71. In my Church Times review of “Brian Clarke: A Great Light” at Newport Street Gallery in 2023, I wrote that: 

'I FIRST encountered the work of Brian Clarke at the Swiss Museum of Stained Glass at Romont. I visited the Museum as part of my Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage and discovered that work by Clarke and another stained-glass artist, Yoki — neither of whom was previously known to me — could be seen in the town, as well as at the Museum.

The Cistercian Abbaye de la Fille-Dieu on the edge of Romont commissioned Clarke in 1996 to create windows for its renovated and reordered chapel. Clarke says that stained glass “can transform the way you feel when you enter a building in a way that nothing else can”. I would concur, especially after arriving at l’Abbaye de la Fille Dieu in time for a memorable service of vespers, followed by silent contemplation in the still onset of darkness falling. Clarke’s modern, abstract windows were designed to unify fragments retained from previous phases of the building’s life and offer both nuns and visitors a “warm and vibrant atmosphere”, which is “conducive to meditation and prayer”.'

Church commissions helped establish Clarke as a stained-glass artist in the early stages of his career, and later works, such as those at Abbaye de la Fille-Dieu and Linköping Cathedral, Sweden, confirmed his ability to bring together technical skill, creative vision and sensitivity to place. His engagement with aspects of spirituality and contemplation also appeared in his work for secular spaces.

He said: "I think there is an extremely powerful argument to be made today for art to actually bring beauty and something of the sublime into the banality of mundane experience. So often now, art is limiting of that kind of encounter. I believe people respond to beauty both in nature and in art. When it involves the passage of light, it is uplifting in a way that is incomparable".

Read my review here and my visit report to Abbaye de la Fille-Dieu here.

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The Trees Community - Psalm 45.

Rosemary Rutherford: East Window at St Peter's Nevendon

On Sunday I led my first service at St Peter's Nevendon, which has a significant - being her first - stained glass window by Rosemary Rutherford. My sermon from this service on the Good Samaritan can be read here.

The East Window at St Peter’s Nevendon is an important stained glass window by Rosemary Rutherford. It illustrates the Transfiguration with the central figure being Christ flanked by Moses on the left and Elijah on the right. St Peter kneels in the centre with St John to the left and his brother St James to the right.

Rutherford studied art in Chelmsford and at the Slade in London in the 1930s. She also trained in the art of true fresco. She was a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Red Cross nurse during the second world war and created a large portfolio of sketches and paintings of all she observed in hospitals, both at home and in Sri Lanka.

She learnt stained glass making and created 40 windows, including four in Broomfield church, where her father was Rector, to replace those shattered by bombing. She was deeply religious and her spirituality guided her artworks. Her fresco at Broomfield church shows ‘Christ Stilling the Storm’ and was surely intended to give people hope during the frightening turmoil of wartime.

Rutherford is perhaps most widely known for her stained glass windows, mostly in churches, throughout East Anglia and further afield from Yorkshire to Sussex and even in New Zealand. The exhibition features a montage of many of her windows showing her versatility of style and subject. Her love of bright, bold colours is evident both in the east window of Broomfield church, in her earlier figurative designs and in the more abstract compositions at Boxford and in windows made posthumously to her designs at Hinderclay in Suffolk.

Project Rutherford at St Mary with St Leonard Broomfield centres on the preservation and conservation of Rutherford’s special mural in the Norman round tower, St Mary’s unique 20th century fresco. Its protection within the tower and its promotion has involved replacement of the spire shingles, repair of the spire’s wooden framework, repointing of the round tower, conservation of the fresco itself and outreach to all church users and to the wider community in bringing the fresco, and Rosemary Rutherford, ‘out into the open’.

To bring the life and works of this remarkable but largely forgotten artist to the attention of the wider community, a permanent exhibition was opened in 2023. This exhibition summarises Rosemary’s life and extraordinary artistic achievements. Models reveal how fresco and stained glass are made. Some of her remarkable range of drawings and paintings are shown, including wartime artwork and flower paintings. Her spiritual, caring nature and brilliant artistry shine through.

This permanent exhibition can be viewed during church opening times, currently Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30 to 12:30 and after Sunday services.

Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. My poem 'Broomfield', part of my 'Five Trios' series, reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.

For more on the artists of Broomfield, all of whom are commemorated there with blue plaques, see here, here, here, here and here.

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Benjamin Britten - A Boy Was Born.

Dublin - Evie Hone and Patrick Pye

I'm in Dublin to see and review Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone. The Art of Friendship at National Gallery of Ireland. Coming to Dublin has provided an opportunity to see other work by Evie Hone elsewhere in the city, plus some work by the artist Patrick Pye.

Evie Hone was an Irish painter and stained glass artist. She is considered to be an early pioneer of cubism, although her best known works are stained glass. Her most notable pieces are the East Window in the Chapel at Eton College, which depicts the Crucifixion, and My Four Green Fields, which is now in the Government Building in Dublin.

Patrick Pye was a sculptor, painter and stained glass artist, resident in County Dublin. Major commissions can be seen across Ireland. In 1999 a retrospective of his work was exhibited by the Royal Hibernian Academy. He was a founding member of Aosdána and has been described as "the most important creative artist in the sphere of religious thought in Ireland in our time".

For more on Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone see here, here, here, here, and here; for more on Patrick Pye see here and here.

Five Evie Hone stained glass windows are to be found in the Ignatian Room at St. Francis Xavier Church having been relocated from the former student residency University Hall. Frank Rogers, author and historian says the windows are some of the best examples in Ireland of religious icons in stained glass. Hone's great gift was in illustrating a Bible story so simply and clearly that it could be understood by anyone who saw it. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the five symbolical windows from University Hall, representing the Lamb the Fish, the Pelican ,the Dove and the Alpha and Omega, all symbols of the persons of the Trinity.

St. Michael Dun Laoghaire was destroyed by a disastrous fire in 1965 and rebuilt in 1973 to a design by Pierce McKenna, with Sean Rothery and Naois O’Dowd. The great tower and spire, which survived the fire, now stands alongside the new Church, thus amalgamating the old with the new (as also at Coventry Cathedral). Responding to changes in the liturgy dictated by Vatican II, the sanctuary of the new church was also in the centre of the church, surrounded by the congregation. The design was strikingly modern for its day. The large glass here is by the Murphy Devitt Studios, Patrick Pye also contributed several stained glass windows, while Yvonne Jammet carved the wooden stations. Michael Biggs, the leading stone sculptor of the time, created sinuous and monumental granite blocks shaped as baptismal font, altar, lectern and tabernacle column (these remind one of the Henry Moore altar at St Stephen Walbrook). The extraordinary tabernacle is the work of Richard Enda King, who also made the crucifix.

At St John the Baptist, Blackrock, in 1925, Harry Clarke Studio was commissioned to create two stained glass windows. These can be seen as the third stained glass windows on both the west and east aisles.The windows portray, on the left hand side of the nave, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, St Sebastian and St Hubert, and, on the right hand side of the nave, the Crucifiction and St Francis. 1932 saw new stained glass windows installed in the Chapel dedicated to St. Anne, by Earley & Company, a Dublin-based stained glass studio. Scenes from the Life of St Anne, is one of William E. Earley's finest stained glass commissions. In 1955, stained glass windows by Evie Hone were presented by the McGuire family in memory of Brigid Patricia McGuire. These windows depicting Bridget, Mary and Jesus, and Patrick were among the last produced by Hone.

The Triptych of Pentecostal Windows for the Castle oratory of Blackrock College was commissioned from Evie Hone in 1941 by the Past Pupils Union in honour of former college President J.C. McQuaid's appointment as Archbishop of Dublin. It was at Blackrock College that Hone was received into the Catholic Church by McQuaid, when Head of College. The College Chapel has stained glass by William Dowling, Michael Healy, Evie Hone, and Hubert McGoldrick. Hone's Chapel Foyer windows exhibit the geometric abstract style associated with modernism. She also has a lunette above an entrance to the Chapel. The College also has a window on the theme of Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit from the Harry Clarke Studios. For more on Harry Clarke see here and here.

The windows in the Manresa Jesuit Centre of Spirituality prayer room were Evie Hone’s first independent commission, executed in 1945 and 1946. The first windows she worked on depict the Nativity and the Sacred Heart (the windows on the left and right respectively in the current arrangement) and, in 1946, the Sermon on the Mount/Beatitudes, the Last Supper and Pentecost. The windows were made for the chapel of the Jesuit College, Rahan, Tullamore, County Offaly and, when that building was sold in 1991, they were removed and installed in the purpose-built room in Manresa in 1992. The art to be seen at Manresa also includes stations of the cross by Richard Enda King and images by Hone, Mainie Jellet, Patrick Pye and Georges Rouault.

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Van Morrison - Haunts Of Ancient Peace.

Oxford: Ervin Bossányi, Nicholas Mynheer, Roger Wagner, James MacMillan

Yesterday, I was in Oxford to see the transformational refurbishment of the ground and lower-ground public areas at Modern Art Oxford and their first exhibition on reopening Belkis Ayón: Sikán Illuminations. While in Oxford, I also visited St Peter's College Chapel, St John's College Chapel, and St Mary the Virgin, Iffley, before attending the Oakeshott Lecture given by Sir James MacMillan at The Sheldonian Theatre.
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Ervin Bossányi (1891-1975) now best known for his stained glass, was an immensely productive and versatile artist. His work, expressed in a language of strong colour and skilful draughtsmanship, speaks of harmony, serenity, and human dignity which tells much about a sensitive artist who shunned publicity and was happiest in the sanctuary of his studio. His life and career were closely interwoven with major upheavals and events in European and world history of the 20th century. Born in Hungary, Bossányi was twice exiled, first in Germany, and then after the rise of National Socialism, in England. The influences upon him crossed cultural divides and continents and were blended into an unmistakable personal style. His artistic achievements range from small personal ornaments, interior decoration and textile designs, to paintings, friezes and stained glass windows in prestigious buildings such as Canterbury Cathedral and Washington National Cathedral in the USA.

At the west end of the south wall of the nave in St Peter's College Chapel is a wonderful window by Bossányi on the theme of ‘In his hands a seed will grow’. It was created as a personal project in 1943 and installed in 1997 as a memorial to the artist and his wife. It sits at eye level, so affording a rare opportunity to get a close-up view of a window by Bossányi executed in his unique style. St Peters College Chapel also has designs Bossányi made for several of his most significant windows including Canterbury Cathedral and Washington National Cathedral. The Ervin Bossányi collection was generously gifted to St Peter’s College by the artist’s estate in 1996. The East window at St Peter's College Chapel is a superb example of John Hayward’s distinctive style with close, cross-hatched leading, brilliant colours, and witty details. Hayward (1929-2007) was one of the foremost stained glass artists of the post-war period.

St John's College Chapel also houses significant pieces of contemporary art. To the right of the altar is a small triptych of The Life of John the Baptist by local artist Nicholas Mynheer, while in the Baylie Chapel is a modern Coptic icon of The Baptism of Jesus, made in Egypt. In the main body of the Chapel are two windows by Bossányi, donated by his son Jo, depicting scenes from the life of St Francis of Assisi.

St. Mary the Virgin in Iffley is a fine example of late Romanesque architecture built in the 1160s by the Clinton family whose castle was at Kenilworth. The complexity of the symbolism throughout the church, including the geometry of the design, suggests educated and pious patrons. The sumptuous sculpted decoration and the quality of the materials brought to the site for the building, including Tournai marble shafts from present day Belgium, demonstrate that the building was designed to make a statement in this world as well as to God. Apart from the early thirteenth century extension at the east end, the church is substantially as originally built. During the last twenty five years, two magnificent windows have been installed in the baptistery, one by John Piper related to Christ’s birth, and the other by Roger Wagner depicting the ‘Flowering Tree’. Wagner and Nicholas Mynheer designed the new font cover and Mynheer also designed the new aumbry to the south of the altar.

 
In the third Oakeshott (formerly Scruton) Lecture of 2024, world-renowned composer and conductor James MacMillan spoke about music and the idea of the sacred, contrasting antiquity with the modern world, reflecting on the relationship between faith and the arts. Following his lecture, Macmillan was joined on stage by the composer and Prior of Blackfriars Dominic White, for a wider discussion.

MacMillan spoke about his appreciation for the writings and ideas of Roger Scruton after whom this series of Lectures was originally named. He spoke about the music that Jesus would have sung at the Last Supper and the links between that style of singing and Gregorian chant. He noted that Gregorian chant has been widely appreciated and studied by composers throughout history, including modern and contemporary composers. He also noted that, although churches in the Western have experienced declining numbers in the modern and contemporary period, composers have, in large numbers, continued to be inspired by religions and the music of religion. Although, as a post-War reaction, many composers eschewed the stirring up of emotions through music, opting for a more abstract style, increasingly composers, including MacMillan himself, have re-embraced emotion in more recent years.

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James MacMillan - Who Shall Separate Us.