ART & ARTISTS: Harry Clarke

Monday, 24 July 2017

Harry Clarke - part 6

Artist Harry Clarke was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 17th March 1889. He was a leading artist of the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement, as well as the Golden Age of Illustration.
He was a children's book illustrator and a well-known designer of stained glass.

For full biographical notes see part 1, and for earlier works by Clarke, see parts 1 - 5 also.

This is part 6 of a 7-part series on the works of Harry Clarke.

1928 Selected Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne:

Front cover
Selected Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne

Spine

Title page

"Felise"

"The Leper"

"St. Dorothy"

"Hymn to Proserpine"

"Hesperia"

Stained Glass:

During the 1910s, 1920s and 1930 Clarke directed much of his attention to stained glass designs, producing more than 160 windows. Alongside his brother Walter, Clarke took over their father’s artist studio. They undertook religious and commercial commissions throughout Ireland and England, and as far a field as the USA and Australia. Clarke is known as Ireland's greatest ever stained glass artist.

The remainder of posts in this series on Harry Clarke is devoted to his stained glass designs.

1914 The Saint Gobnait window in Honan Chapel, Cork, Ireland

1914 Clarke's design drawing for the Saint Gobnait window in Honan Chapel, Cork, Ireland

1921 Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Mary's Church, Sturminster Newton, Dorset

1924 Agony in the Garden now in Díseart Institute of Education and Celtic Culture, Dingle:

Agony in the Garden
Díseart Institute of Education and Celtic Culture, Dingle

1924 The Eve of St Agnes:

1924 The Eve of St Agnes
Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane

1925 St. Michael's Church, Ballinasloe depicting St. Patrick

1927-28 Detail from The Apparition of the Sacred Heart, Phibsborough Church, Dublin

1930 The Geneva Window:
In June 1925 a representative of the Irish Department of Industry and Commerce asked Clarke if he would be interested in designing a window for the International Labour Court in Geneva. By May 1927 Clarke had submitted his proposal and subjects to the Minister. In March 1929 his health deteriorated and he was forced to travel to a Swiss sanatorium. He left two of the studio staff to complete the final processes on the Geneva Window.