Hone, Evie
Eva Sydney ‘Evie’ Hone (1894-1955) was born into a life of privilege and comfort, though one not without tragedy and misfortune; her mother died two days after Evie’s birth, much of her childhood was solitary, and she contracted polio aged 12 followed by periods of hospitalisation. As a young adult she travelled to France annually with her close friend Mainie Jellett to study cubism, initially under André Lhote, and then with Albert Gleizes.
By the early 1930s Hone, then an accomplished painter, began to explore the possibility of working in stained glass and approached Sarah Purser about joining An Túr Gloine. She was initially rebuffed but later admitted subsequent to studying briefly under Wilhelmina Geddes in London and Richard Ronald Holst in Amsterdam. At An Túr Gloine, Hone’s fresh, modernist approach was recognized by the new Irish state and commissions for two army barrack chapels were followed by her large My Four Green Fields for the Irish pavilion in the New York World Fair of 1939.
When An Túr Gloine was being dissolved as a cooperative in 1944 Hone opted to establish her own studio at Marlay, Rathfarnham, County Dublin. In addition to many commissions for religious settings, Hone made approximately 150 small panels. Her largest single order, which took her three years to complete, was The Crucifixion and Last Supper for Eton College’s chapel.
Source:
Joseph McBrinn’s biographical note on Hone in the Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass (Irish Academic Press, 2021)
Ken Ryan writes on Evie Hone
An article on the life of Evie Hone by Ken Ryan is available here. It was first published in the February 2021 issue of Intercom, a pastoral and liturgical resource magazine published by Veritas Group, an agency of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
For 30 years Ken Ryan was the managing director of Abbey Stained Glass Studios in Kilmainham, Dublin – a family business founded in 1944 by his great-uncle, Tom Ryan and then run by his father, Frank. The company is involved in the conservation and restoration of church stained glass windows both in Ireland and overseas.
