DOI Artikel:
Raguin, Virginia Chieffo: Old imagery for a new century
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51154#0020
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9. R.T. Giles and Co., Boy Jesus in the Temple, Minneapolis (Min-
nesota), 1905, after Heinrich Hofmann, Salt Lake City (Utah), First
Presbyterian Church, Photo: M.M. Raguin
popular. Following the widespread distribution of the im-
age for Sunday School room inspiration, books for youth,
Catholic Holy Name Society banners, and even postcards
advocating Evangelical Protestant revival meetings, it was
one of the most easily recognized depictions of the youth-
ful Christ. R.T. Giles and Co. of Minneapolis produced
a window for the First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake
City, Utah, in 1905 [Fig. 9]. Bernard Plockhorsts illustra-
tions were almost as popular as Hofmanns. The Flight into
Egypt, used in the Stanford University ensemble, was re-
prised in the First Presbyterian Church, Orange, Texas, by
the J & R Lamb Studios [Figs. 10,11].
The conflux of patron, artist, and shared views of past
models operated even for the most prestigious commis-
sion. The long-admired west window of Trinity Church
in Boston designed by John La Farge exemplifies this is-
sue [Fig. 12]. In 1893 Samuel Bing, visiting America to
survey for France the state of the arts at the Worlds Co-
lumbian Exposition, observed that all marveled at the
large stained-glass window whose astonishing brilliance
surpassed in its magic, anything of its kind created in
modern times’.24 La Farge had been awarded the com-
mission in 1880. His original multilevel design included
24 This is one of the rare instances when Bing referred to a specif-
ic installation. S. Bing, La Culture artistique en Amérique, transi,
by В. Eisler as ‘Artistic America’, in Artistic America, Tiffany Glass
and Art Nouveau, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970 [1895], p. 132.
10. J & R Lamb Studios, Flight into Egypt (after Stanford Univer-
sitycartoon), 1908-1910, after Bernard Plockhorst, Orange (Texas),
First Presbyterian Church, Photo: J & R Lamb
two narrow Gothic arches that housed figures. His pen-
cil notes next to the image, ‘Perhaps better empty without
figures’, suggests that he wanted them removed.25 Phillips
Brooks, Trinity’s charismatic rector, presumably did not.
Biographers of the artist have assumed that Brooks sug-
gested the sculpture of the Christ of Amiens as the basis
for the window. La Farge then replaced the multilevel de-
sign and set the Beau Dieu image of Christ in the central
lancet and sections of an arcade at the sides. Whether it
was Brooks or La Farge who initiated the use of the image
is less important than the fact that an accepted model was
known to both patron and artist, one of the near universal
references for its late nineteenth-century audience. Its sta-
tus reflects the context of the era’s canon of great works of
art, communicated through photograph, engraving, and
literary description.
25 Sketch for West Windows of Nave, Trinity Church, Boston 1883,
Private collection, Henry La Farge in John La Farge, exh. cat. The
Carnegie Museum of Art and the National Museum of Ameri-
can Art, Smithsonian Institution, New York, 1987, pp. 208-210,
figs-153-154.
9. R.T. Giles and Co., Boy Jesus in the Temple, Minneapolis (Min-
nesota), 1905, after Heinrich Hofmann, Salt Lake City (Utah), First
Presbyterian Church, Photo: M.M. Raguin
popular. Following the widespread distribution of the im-
age for Sunday School room inspiration, books for youth,
Catholic Holy Name Society banners, and even postcards
advocating Evangelical Protestant revival meetings, it was
one of the most easily recognized depictions of the youth-
ful Christ. R.T. Giles and Co. of Minneapolis produced
a window for the First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake
City, Utah, in 1905 [Fig. 9]. Bernard Plockhorsts illustra-
tions were almost as popular as Hofmanns. The Flight into
Egypt, used in the Stanford University ensemble, was re-
prised in the First Presbyterian Church, Orange, Texas, by
the J & R Lamb Studios [Figs. 10,11].
The conflux of patron, artist, and shared views of past
models operated even for the most prestigious commis-
sion. The long-admired west window of Trinity Church
in Boston designed by John La Farge exemplifies this is-
sue [Fig. 12]. In 1893 Samuel Bing, visiting America to
survey for France the state of the arts at the Worlds Co-
lumbian Exposition, observed that all marveled at the
large stained-glass window whose astonishing brilliance
surpassed in its magic, anything of its kind created in
modern times’.24 La Farge had been awarded the com-
mission in 1880. His original multilevel design included
24 This is one of the rare instances when Bing referred to a specif-
ic installation. S. Bing, La Culture artistique en Amérique, transi,
by В. Eisler as ‘Artistic America’, in Artistic America, Tiffany Glass
and Art Nouveau, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970 [1895], p. 132.
10. J & R Lamb Studios, Flight into Egypt (after Stanford Univer-
sitycartoon), 1908-1910, after Bernard Plockhorst, Orange (Texas),
First Presbyterian Church, Photo: J & R Lamb
two narrow Gothic arches that housed figures. His pen-
cil notes next to the image, ‘Perhaps better empty without
figures’, suggests that he wanted them removed.25 Phillips
Brooks, Trinity’s charismatic rector, presumably did not.
Biographers of the artist have assumed that Brooks sug-
gested the sculpture of the Christ of Amiens as the basis
for the window. La Farge then replaced the multilevel de-
sign and set the Beau Dieu image of Christ in the central
lancet and sections of an arcade at the sides. Whether it
was Brooks or La Farge who initiated the use of the image
is less important than the fact that an accepted model was
known to both patron and artist, one of the near universal
references for its late nineteenth-century audience. Its sta-
tus reflects the context of the era’s canon of great works of
art, communicated through photograph, engraving, and
literary description.
25 Sketch for West Windows of Nave, Trinity Church, Boston 1883,
Private collection, Henry La Farge in John La Farge, exh. cat. The
Carnegie Museum of Art and the National Museum of Ameri-
can Art, Smithsonian Institution, New York, 1987, pp. 208-210,
figs-153-154.