Lucy Costigan - Dark Beauty: Hidden Detail in Harry Clarke’s Stained Glass

DARK BEAUTY

HIDDEN DETAIL IN HARRY CLARKES STAINED GLASS

DARK BEAUTY

HIDDEN DETAIL IN HARRY CLARKES STAINED GLASS

LUCY COSTIGAN AND MICHAEL CULLEN

F irst published in 2019 by

Merrion Press

An imprint of Irish Academic Press

10 Georges Street

Newbridge

Co. Kildare

Ireland

www.merrionpress.ie

Lucy Costigan and Michael Cullen, 2019

w ww.harryclarke.net

781785372339 (Cloth)

9781785372346 (Kindle)

9781785372353 (Epub)

781785372360 (PDF)

B ritish Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A n entry can be found on request

L ibrary of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

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i ntroduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

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F ront jacket:

D etail of St Elizabeth from Madonna and Child with St Elizabeth of Hungary and St Barbara (1921),
St Marys Church of England, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, England.

P hotograph by Michael Cullen.

B ack jacket:

D etail of angel from The Angel of Peace and Hope (1919),

H oly Trinity Church of Ireland, Killiney, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

P hotograph by Michael Cullen.

P age vi:

C larkes signature extracted from lower first light border of St Peter and St Paul (1927),

C hurch of Ireland, Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6. Photograph by Michael Cullen.

T o Michael and Kathleen Costigan

A lways part of every celebration,

S till scattering your light and colour,

W herever we go.

CLARKE
DUBLIN

C ONTENTS

A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

W e wish, at the outset , to honour the memory of Nicola Gordon Bowe (19482018) who did so much to bring the work of Harry Clarke back into the full glare of Irish and indeed International focus. Her ground-breaking biography, The Life and Work of Harry Clarke (Irish Academic Press, 1989 and 1994; The History Press, 2012) has been the basis of further research into Clarkes work by countless academics, writers and admirers. Dark Beauty also owes a great deal to Ms Bowes pioneering research and insightful interpretation of Clarkes work.

Also, in fond memory of Phil Keeling and Jerome Hynes of the Wexford Festival Opera who always offered great encouragement and support to Michael when he began his photography career; and in special memory of Margaret (Mairead) Reidy, a lifelong promoter of Harry Clarkes work and a generous supporter of Strangest Genius .

An enormous thank you to our friends and family who have worked very closely with us on all aspects of our Harry Clarke projects to date: to Theresa Cullen, Anthony Costigan, Raymond McGovern and Tony Walsh The Harry Clarke Team for researching and helping with image selection and for their monumental support. Thank you also to Sharon Costigan niece and cousin for always being an inspiration; and to Kathleen, Lisa and Antoinette for their valued friendship.

Special thanks to Lea for her constant support and companionship.

A special thank you to Theresa Cullen for the many weeks of tireless research she undertook to troll through Trinitys Digital Collection (TCD) to unearth orders, receipts and correspondence from Joshua, Harry and Walter Clarke. This has greatly added to the overall picture of how the Clarkes ran their day-to-day business and to the authenticity of our recording of Harry Clarkes work.

Also special thanks to Tony Walsh for editing and for constructive criticism throughout the writing of the book. Thanks to Raymond McGovern, Dublin Historian, for sharing his vast knowledge of Dublin from the 1880s to the 1930s that added so much depth and colour to Strangest Genius , to our documentary, A Revel in Blue , and also to Dark Beauty.

Thanks a million to Priscilla Ege, Church Archivist, and to Peter Brien, Photographer, from St Vincent de Pauls Church in Bayonne, New Jersey, for their wonderfully informative and evocative foreword.

A special thank you to all the administrators in churches and private establishments who gave us permission to photograph Harry Clarkes windows throughout Ireland, England, in the USA and Australia. Our gratitude is also given to the Church of St John the Baptist, in Knock, Co. Mayo for allowing us to photograph the two Harry Clarke windows on the East wall. Thanks also to St Josephs Catholic Church, Valleymount, Co. Wicklow, for permission to photograph The Little Flower (1924) located on the North wall.

Our heartfelt gratitude to Amy Silverman, Assistant Registrar with The Wolfsonian, Miami, Florida, for allowing us to reproduce images from The Geneva Window (1930) and to Ronan ODonnell, Dublin City Council and the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, for allowing us to reproduce images from The Eve of St Agnes (1924). Our thanks also go to the National Library of Ireland for permission to reproduce photos from the Harry Clarke collection.

Thanks to Helena Bergin, Architectural Conservation Officer, Fingal County Council, Dublin for sharing research findings of the Harry Clarke windows located in Naul, Old Town and Belcamp.

Thanks to Paul Gleeson and Fr Michael Sheedy for correspondence regarding the Harry Clarke and Studio windows in St Senans Catholic Church, Kilrush, Co. Clare.

The authors were informed about the Lawrence study by Tony Monaghan, Tullamore Parish, Co. Offaly. Tony was also instrumental in ascertaining that the lancets installed in Tullamore in 1987 were St Patrick, St Ignatius (1928), St Peter, St Paul (1928) and St Brendan (1928). The St Ignatius lancet had been incorrectly identified as St Beningus .

The authors also wish to acknowledge correspondence received from Geoffrey M.H. Carter, dated 15 August 2011, informing us of the title of the piece of music from which the musical notation in Clarkes window, St Cecilia and a Listening Angel (1929) derives.

F OREWORD

I ts said that a fine wine ages to perfection and so it is with the art of Harry Clarke. Since his death in 1931, appreciation for his talent has only increased.

In 2010, Lucy Costigan and Michael Cullen took on the task of bringing Clarkes work to the world, with Strangest Genius: The Stained Glass of Harry Clarke . They have returned with their latest exploration of Clarkes work in Dark Beauty: Hidden Detail in Harry Clarkes Stained Glass .

We have always appreciated the fact that the only original stained-glass windows by Clarke in the Americas can be found in our church, St Vincent de Paul in Bayonne, New Jersey. Our story begins in 2007 when Michael visited our church to photograph Clarkes windows for Strangest Genius . Coincidentally, around that time, in a rusty filing cabinet in a dusty rectory attic, we found a treasure trove of original documents ( c . 1920) for the church and stained-glass windows. From them, we learned that our church was a result of a collaboration of three great creative minds: Charles Maginnis, well-known ecclesiastical Boston architect; Pastor Revd Joseph Dolan and Harry Clarke.