Studio: international art (84.1922)

THE ART OF MISS W. M. GEDDES

earlier work one found (as in the window
of Charity at St. Anne's) half a dozen
charming panels related in subject yet
scarcely linked in design, she now con-
trives to harmonise into one large composi-
tion all these side growths of her fancy.
And however good her colour, design and
drawing will be with her the master gift.
She uses, I think, the cut-line of the lead
with increasing effect, and leaves even less
than before to be done by her always
sparing brush. a a a 0
Yet how hard it is to judge. Some of
her work is in New Zealand—some not
so far off, but I have not seen it, in Belfast.
The Duke of Connaught's window was
shown here in the studio complete, but
the windows for St. Luke's, Wallsend,
were too tall to be set up completely. To
see stained glass in a studio is like seeing
a picture unframed—and what painter

' down in yonder
garden green "
linoleum print
by w. m. geddes

seen, that she is all the time moving away
from half tones to pure and primitive
colour. In three small windows under
the gallery of St. Anne's in Dawson Street,
which are the best examples of her latest
that Dublin has to show, there are some
adorable little panels : one in particular,
representing St. Martin of Tours : the
naked beggar is already winding about him
one end of the gorgeous cloak which the
mounted saint divides with a sword stroke.
A child might have devised the colour
scheme, so simple and emphatic is it;
and a child's conception of the action
could not be simpler. The story is told
in a few outlines. That is, I think, the
ideal method of drawing for stained glass ;
but with Miss Geddes it implies no
rigidity. There is movement everywhere
in her design ; it has none of the finished
poise of Greek art, its dignity is not that
of repose but of large simple gesture. It
is mediaeval, not classic, and it has all the
exuberant invention of detail which belongs

, .... _ , . b bookplate. designed

to the middle ages. But where in her BY w. m. geddes

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