Dec 24, 2024
Dec 06,2024
Analysis: The sheer volume of Clarke's work due to his impressive productivity has ensured he continues to be widely celebrated and admired
Harry Clarke found fame as an artist through his stunningly original stained-glass windows and innovative illustrations. He had a profound impact Irish art and is considered one of Ireland's best loved artists. Born in Dublin on St Patrick’s Day in 1889, Clarke came of age in an era of great change in Ireland with revolution, war and the flourishing of the arts and crafts sector. The new Irish Free State was emerging as he was finding his feet with his artistic practice. As such, he saw art as a means of responding to his nation’s need for cultural representation.
Clarke left school at 14 after the death of his mother to help in his father’s stained-glass and church decorating business where he became an apprentice and learned the principles of stained-glass techniques. He attended night classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and won a scholarship to study stained glass full time under the tuition of master craftsman Albert Ernest Child. It was there that he encountered other young artists who would have a strong presence throughout his life, including his future wife Margaret Crilley and painter Seán Keating, who became a life-long friend.
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He briefly studied at the Royal College of Art in London and travelled to France, where he studied medieval stained glass. He created ripples of interest in his work by developing his own distinctive style, which was influenced by Art Nouveau, European Symbolist art and Celtic art.
Clarke’s earliest known stained glass panels illustrate scenes from Christian stories and reflect the importance of religious subjects in early 20th century Ireland when most commissions were ecclesiastical. These early artworks are now in the care of two national cultural institutions – Crawford Art Gallery, Cork and the National Museum of Ireland.
He won numerous awards at the annual RDS exhibitions and Board of Education National Competition, which was open to all art students in Great Britain, Ireland, Isle of Man and New Zealand. Clarke’s prize-winning works were exhibited in the garden courtyard of what is now the V&A Museum and judges described the works as "a very remarkable effort in the highest class of art, full of vigour and character, earnest feeling, richness of conception and great resource in design and detail". It was at this point that he decided to devote himself to stained glass.
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A breakthrough for Clarke came in 1915 when he obtained his first public commission in stained glass, for 11 windows for the Honan Chapel at University College Cork. It was a process that he undertook over three years at his studio with the windows depicting various Irish saints, with particular focus on those from Munster. It was Clarke’s use of colour, careful aciding and leading techniques and tiny figurative details that caused a sensation when the windows were unveiled in 1918. Clarke’s biographer Nicola Gordon Bowe wrote about the rapturous reception: 'All who saw them marvelled at their beauty, intricacy, mystery and symbolism’.
The Honan Chapel proved instrumental in creating an enduring image of Clarke’s distinct style in the public imagination. Thanks to the pioneering work of An Túr Gloine co-operative and stained glass artist Michael Healy, as well as artists Wilhelmina Geddes and Evie Hone taking daring risks in their designs, Ireland entered a golden age of stained glass art in the early 20th century and Clarke was at the very heart of it.
Clarke always exhibited each window he made for a day or so in his studios on North Frederick Street before it was sent off to its permanent location. He believed each window should be ‘publicised, criticised, approved and be seen by an interested public before being relegated forever to a place where few might see it’.
Famously, one of his works The Geneva Window, which was commissioned by WT Cosgrave's Cumann na nGaedhal government, was rejected due to it’s overt sensuality and nudity. The artwork, which is one of Clarke’s last masterpieces completed before he died, is permanently displayed in the Wolfsonian Museum in Florida and is somewhat of a blunder by the Irish Government let the artwork slip out of their hands due to fears of adverse public opinion.
Nevertheless, Clarke’s stained windows remain in both Protestant and Catholic churches, galleries, museums and Bewley's café in Dublin. The presence of his works in spaces that are free for the public to visit and the expanse of his stained glass panels to 16 counties across Ireland have popularised Clarke’s work. Clarke also made works for display in private homes including the Australian ambassador's residence in Killiney, Áras an Uachtarain and Jane French’s home on Lower Pembroke Street (the piece, A Meeting (1918), is now in the National Museum of Ireland’s collection).
Clarke did not restrict himself to stained glass. He illustrated books by Hans Christian Andersen and Edgar Allen Poe, which benefited his development and prominence as an artist. Clarke became known for his wonderfully grotesque and intense macabre drawings. He also created an impressive body of graphic art by designing theatre programmes, handkerchiefs, certificates and catalogues, which testifies to Clarke’s unique style and talent.
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Never robust in health, Clarke suffered continually from tuberculosis over his last few years. He attended a sanatorium in Switzerland and while travelling home from treatment, he died in Coire, Switzerland on January 6th 1931. His premature death at the age of 41 was described at the time as ‘a calamity to his country’ and there were many appreciations and tributes published in newspapers.
In November 1979, The Douglas Hyde Gallery at Trinity College Dublin held a comprehensive exhibition of Clarke’s work. The exhibition featured over 200 artworks and illustrations, and an accompanying publication stands as a permanent reference to the exhibition. It later toured to Belfast and Cork, which further spread Clarke’s fame and appreciation for his talent.
Ever since, Clarke’s work has been widely acclaimed, eagerly sought by collectors and continues to excite the public imagination. His unique sense of design and groundbreaking ability has ensured that even his works that are confined to their permanent church settings have transcended their religious purpose to become acclaimed artworks beloved by many a century on from their creation. The sheer volume of Clarke’s work due to his impressive productivity, the spread of his artworks across the country and the dedication to safeguarding his work and archives by various institutions has ensured that Clarke continues to be celebrated, studied and admired.
Harry Clarke's Stained Glass exhibition is now open at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin.
