DOI issue:
No. 295 (October 1917)
DOI article:Reeves, P. Oswald: Irish arts and crafts
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21264#0037
Irish Arts and Crafts
His drawing for re-
production in black
and white and co-
lour is already very
well known. It is
in his stained glass,
however, that the
full scope of his un-
doubted genius is
to be seen, and his
best efforts, so far,
now enrich the
chapel attached to
the Honan Hostel
in connexion with
the University Col-
enamel lege, Cork, in the
by margaret o’keefe building and fur-
nishing of which
the varied work of the best Irish craftsmen of
to-day has been brought together under the
direction of Sir John O’Connell. Writing about
the stained glass, Mr. Thomas Bodkin has well
said:
“ The windows which Mr. Harry Clarke has
designed and executed for the Collegiate Chapel
of the Honan Hostel at Cork are a very notable
achievement. Nothing like them has been
produced before in Ireland. The sustained
magnificence of colour, the beautiful and most
intricate drawing, the lavish and mysterious
symbolism, combine to produce an effect of
splendour which is overpowering. . . . The
wide-eyed Bridget with her lamp and spray of
oak, and the timid red calf that cowers beside
her, and the saints and angels, all so individual,
that throng the background and the borders,
leave me groping for adequate words with which
to describe the wonder.” And he adds, “ The
Honan Hostel will become a place of pilgrimage,
for lovers of great art at least.”
A craftsman, however, is equally impressed by
other and just as admirable qualities. These
windows reveal a conception of stained glass
that stands quite alone. The remarkable power
of expressing the subject is not greater than that
shown in solving all the problems of design and
application to a window, nor greater than the
extraordinary command of all the technical
resources of the art. There has never been
before such mastery of technique, nor' such
application of it to the ends of exceeding beauty,
significance, and wondrousness. No one has
ENAMEL PLAQUE: “THE RESPONSE OF THE ROSE*’
BY P. OSWALD REEVES
ever before shown the great beauty that can be
obtained by the leads alone, nor the mysterious
beauty and " liveness ” that each piece of glass
receives at the hands of this artist, nor the
jewelled gorgeousness of “ pattern ” that may
be given to a window that teems with subject-
interest and meaning. These windows accept
their “ architectural place ” to a fine degree,
with an ease and certainty that would suggest
that rendering of subject held no temptations to
pictorial excess. They are windows essentially,
but in no small sense, and their qualities are not
to be found on looking into the glass. The
light as it passes through them is marvellously
transformed, not alone by the colour, etc., but by
ingenuity of individual craftsmanship, and it is
this transformed, glorified, and vitalized light
21
His drawing for re-
production in black
and white and co-
lour is already very
well known. It is
in his stained glass,
however, that the
full scope of his un-
doubted genius is
to be seen, and his
best efforts, so far,
now enrich the
chapel attached to
the Honan Hostel
in connexion with
the University Col-
enamel lege, Cork, in the
by margaret o’keefe building and fur-
nishing of which
the varied work of the best Irish craftsmen of
to-day has been brought together under the
direction of Sir John O’Connell. Writing about
the stained glass, Mr. Thomas Bodkin has well
said:
“ The windows which Mr. Harry Clarke has
designed and executed for the Collegiate Chapel
of the Honan Hostel at Cork are a very notable
achievement. Nothing like them has been
produced before in Ireland. The sustained
magnificence of colour, the beautiful and most
intricate drawing, the lavish and mysterious
symbolism, combine to produce an effect of
splendour which is overpowering. . . . The
wide-eyed Bridget with her lamp and spray of
oak, and the timid red calf that cowers beside
her, and the saints and angels, all so individual,
that throng the background and the borders,
leave me groping for adequate words with which
to describe the wonder.” And he adds, “ The
Honan Hostel will become a place of pilgrimage,
for lovers of great art at least.”
A craftsman, however, is equally impressed by
other and just as admirable qualities. These
windows reveal a conception of stained glass
that stands quite alone. The remarkable power
of expressing the subject is not greater than that
shown in solving all the problems of design and
application to a window, nor greater than the
extraordinary command of all the technical
resources of the art. There has never been
before such mastery of technique, nor' such
application of it to the ends of exceeding beauty,
significance, and wondrousness. No one has
ENAMEL PLAQUE: “THE RESPONSE OF THE ROSE*’
BY P. OSWALD REEVES
ever before shown the great beauty that can be
obtained by the leads alone, nor the mysterious
beauty and " liveness ” that each piece of glass
receives at the hands of this artist, nor the
jewelled gorgeousness of “ pattern ” that may
be given to a window that teems with subject-
interest and meaning. These windows accept
their “ architectural place ” to a fine degree,
with an ease and certainty that would suggest
that rendering of subject held no temptations to
pictorial excess. They are windows essentially,
but in no small sense, and their qualities are not
to be found on looking into the glass. The
light as it passes through them is marvellously
transformed, not alone by the colour, etc., but by
ingenuity of individual craftsmanship, and it is
this transformed, glorified, and vitalized light
21