Church of St John the Apostle, Torquay, Devon
Address
Church of St John the Apostle, Montpellier Road, Torquay, Devon TQ1 1BJRecommended by
Highlight
West windowArtist, maker and date
Designed by Edward Burne-Jones and made by Morris & Co, 1890Reason for highlighting
Who doesn’t love a Burne-Jones window? This is a glorious example showcasing his elegant angels clothed in generous swathes of drapery and framed with dramatic wings alternating red and blue across the five lights in a wonderful wall of glass. The central figure of St John the Evangelist stands out in dark red robes against the silvery light background of Morris foliage.
The window is based on Burne-Jones’ Nine Choirs of Angels in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge. Who cares if the cartoons were recycled? The artistry of the composition and the restrained yet glowing pallet of blues, reds and pinks offset by the silvery-grey background makes this window highly pleasing on the eye.
Artist/maker notes
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898) was born in Birmingham and studied at Exeter College, Oxford where he met William Morris, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship. Together they created hundreds of stained glass windows that collectively stand as one of the finest artistic achievements of their time. The stature of this formidable artist and designer was recognised after his death when he became the first artist to be given a Memorial Service at Westminster Abbey.
Morris & Co. (1875-1940) was the successor to original business of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. William Morris had always been the driving force behind the Firm and he finally determined to remove his earlier partners and to take the business into his own hands, with Burne-Jones as principal designer. The business flourished and continued after Morris’s death, when it also continued to use Burne-Jones’s designs. It finally closed in 1940.
Sources:
For a brief overview of the two Morris companies see Morris & Co on Wikipedia
The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination by Fiona McCarthy, Faber & Faber, 2011.
William Morris: A Life for Our Time by Fiona MacCarthy (Faber & Faber, 1994)
Burne-Jones Special Issue, The Journal of Stained Glass, Vol. XXXV, 2011
Damozels & Deities Pre-Raphaelite Stained Glass 1870-1898 by William Waters and Alastair Carew-Cox (Seraphim Press Ltd, 2017)
Other comments
In complete contrast to the rich colours of the west window are the coolish colours of the great east window of 1865. It was all designed by Burne-Jones except for the towers and turrets at the top of the lights, which are by Philip Webb. It was made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. It is a fine example of the early work of the ‘Firm’, on the Church Triumphant in the Heavenly Jerusalem.
The church also has an exceptionally rich set of furnishings, in this mid-Victorian church by G. E. Street, and reflects its status as a centre of Devon Anglo-Catholicism.