Pugin, A. W. N.
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-52) was an architect, designer, artist and critic, and pioneer in the Gothic Revival. In stained glass that meant an emphatic rejection of enamel-painted pictorial windows and a return to medieval styles and methods.
From the late 1830s and until early 1841 Pugin worked with William Warrington, before switching to Thomas Willement and William Wailes. Despite working harmoniously with the latter for a number of years, by 1845 Pugin had become restless at his limited involvement in the whole manufacturing process. The solution was to persuade his friend, John Hardman Jnr., with whom he was already working on metalwork designs, to set up a stained glass studio. The collaboration with John Hardman & Co was a great success. John Hardman’s nephew John Hardman Powell would become Pugin’s only apprentice, marry his daughter, Anne, and work closely with Pugin for the rest of his life.
Stanley Shepherd succinctly sums up Pugin’s contribution. “He realised the importance of restoring the medieval qualities of texture and colour to the glass itself. He had an understanding of the medieval principles and practices involved in drawing and painting, and of the use of white glass and leads to enhance a design. Allied to his considerable talents as a draughtsman, designer and colourist, these factors ensured that the windows for which he was responsible were of very high quality, harmonious in colour and composition, and redolent of the glass of the old Christian artists that he was so anxious to emulate.”
Sources:
God’s Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain by Rosemary Hill (Yale University Press, 2007)
The Stained Glass of A. W. N. Pugin by Stanley A Shepherd (Seraphim Press, 2022)
