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.
The son of a craftsman (Joshua Clarke), Harry
Clarke was exposed to art (and in particular Art Nouveau) at an early age. He
went to school at Belvedere College, and by his late teens was studying stained
glass at the Dublin Art School. While there, his The Consecration of St Mel,
Bishop of Longford, by St Patrick won the gold medal for stained glass work in
the 1910 Board of Education National Competition.
After completing his education, Clarke moved to London
to seek work as an artist. He won commissions to work on illustrations for new
editions of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock,” but completed
neither of them. As it turned out, his first completed work was illustrating Hans Christian
Andersen’s Fairy Tales (1916).
Clarke’s next endeavour was a series of illustrations for an edition of
Edgar Allan Poe’s “ Tales of Mystery and Imagination” (1916). This
work sealed his reputation as a skilled illustrator, and was followed by
editions of “The Years at the
Spring” (1920), containing twelve colour plates and more than
fourteen monotone images, Charles Perrault’s “Fairy Tales of Perrault” (1922),
and Goethe’s “Faust” (1927),
containing eight colour plates and more than seventy monotone and duotone
images. The last of these is considered his masterwork – and largely prefigures
the disturbing yet colourful imagery of 1960s psychedelia.
Clarke’s timing could not have been more perfect, as he was working as
an illustrator just as the golden-age of gift-book illustration was taking off
(in the first quarter of the twentieth century). His work can be compared to
other masters of the craft such as Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen and Virginia
Frances Sterrett.
Two of his most sought-after titles include
promotional booklets for Jameson Irish Whiskey: “A
History of a Great House” (1924) and “Elixir of Life” (1925), which was
written by Geoffrey Warren. Clarke’s final book was the “Selected Poems of Algernon by Charles
Swinburne,” published in 1928.
During the 1920s, he also directed much of his
attention at stained glass, producing more than 130 windows. Alongside his
brother Walter, Clarke took over their father’s artist studio. (Their father
had died in 1921). His glass is distinguished by the finesse of its drawing,
unusual in the medium, his use of rich colours (inspired by an early visit to
see the stained glass of the Cathedral of Chartres, he was especially fond of
deep blues), and an innovative integration of the window leading as part of the
overall design (his use of heavy lines in his black and white book
illustrations is probably derived from his glass techniques).
Clarke’s best-known stained-glass works are the
windows of the Honan Chapel in University College Cork, the windows of Bewley’s
Café on Dublin’s Grafton Street, and the window illustrating John Keats’ The
Eve of St. Agnes in the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery in Dublin
Clarke died of tuberculosis on 6th January 1931
(while attempting to convalesce in Switzerland). Ill health had plagued both
brothers, and his younger sibling died a year previous. Influenced by both Art
Nouveau and Art Deco, Clarke’s illustrations and stained glass work remain
highly sought after and appreciated in the present-day.
Harry created over 160 stained glass
windows for 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.
This is part 1 of a 7-part series on the works of Harry Clarke:
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1913 "The Dream"
from The Rape of Lock by Pope |
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1913 "The Silver Apples of the Moon, The Golden Apples of the Sun"
The Irish Review July 1913 |
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1913 De Profundis ( Oscar Wilde )
watercolour and gouache 57.5 x 25.7 cm |
1913 Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
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| 1913 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner |
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1913 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Ah! Well a-day! What evil looks had I from old and young! Instead of the cross, the albatross around my neck was hung |
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1913 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The souls did from their body fly, — they fled to bliss or woe! And every soul, it passed by me, like the whizz of my cross-bow! |
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1914 Hibernia
calendar design for an insurance company |
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1914 Mephisto
pencil, pen and black ink and watercolour on paper 19 x 15.9 cm |
1916 Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales:
