Church of St Giles, Matlock, Derbyshire
Address
Church of St Giles, 116 Church St, Matlock, Derbyshire DE4 3BZTheme
Overview
Lawrence Lee (1909 – 2011) was one of the most distinguished stained glass artists of the 20th century. It is not surprising therefore that a number of contributors chose to include one of his windows in their selections. But there is much more to say and to celebrate about this wonderful artist.
A Theme has therefore been dedicated to the work of Lawrence Lee. The windows highlighted within the Theme have been chosen in conjunction with his son, Stephen Lee, to highlight some of his father’s best work.
A full list of the windows chosen can be found by following the link above or here. There you will also find two papers written by one of his former assistants, Philippa Martin, covering his life and his most famous achievement, the masterminding of the ten nave windows of Coventry Cathedral.
Highlight
East windowArtist, maker and date
Lawrence Lee, 1969Reason for highlighting
As noted above, this window is one of a selection made in conjunction with Lawrence Lee’s son, Stephen Lee.
The following description of the window is by Lawrence Lee
In general the design is an attempt to express the central doctrine of Christianity – the Incarnation – by means of symbolism rather than figures. The first sketches were based on very primitive signs to represent concepts of Man and God.
The signs are an earth-coloured Y figure (man reaching out to God) and the blue inverted Y figure (God reaching down to man); the ascending and descending branches interlocking to enclose a diamond shaped space. The Christian apologist might argue that this space remained unfilled until the coming of Christ. In the present case the fulfilment is expressed by the threefold circle: the inner shape – the spirit of man; the purple circle – the human intellect; the outer green circle – the body.
Descending from the top tracery is a form to suggest the richness of God available to man, entering the sphere of man at a narrow point where the only recognisable figure in the window is seen as the Christ crucified. (The image has a formal function as a means of linking the tracery with the main lights and overcoming the heavy blackness of the stonework.) The Incarnation is thus seen as the deliberate limitation of God to the scale of human tragedy.
In the outer lights the rich green and red bands form an earthly frame on which the complex but rich patterns of man’s activities are imposed at intervals until they reach the other-wordly forms in the tracery.
Stephen Lee adds that “The basic design of the interlocking Y figures was further developed in the window made for the Church of St Andrew at Sutton-in-the-Isle.”
Artist/maker notes
Lawrence Stanley Lee FMGP (1909 – 2011) trained at Kingston Art School and the Royal College of Art before the war. After the war he worked for Martin Travers, and it was Travers’ unexpected death in 1948, which led to Lee forming his own studio. A wide range of commissions followed, including his famous windows at Coventry Cathedral, with Keith New and Geoffrey Clarke, which established his reputation. Lee was also a teacher both formally at the Royal College of Art, and in his studio to a succession of assistants. He was notable in acknowledging the contribution of his assistants by including their initials on windows, along with his own.
Other comments
Lawrence Lee was assisted in the making of the window by Janet Christopherson.