Church of St Mary, Downe, Orpington, London (Kent)
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Church of St Mary, 25 High Street Downe, Downe, Orpington BR6 7USRecommended by
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East window - The Crucifixion, with the Blessed Virgin Mary and St JohnArtist, maker and date
Evie Hone, 1950Reason for highlighting
In 2008 I was researching the work of Evie Hone after being intrigued as to why her ‘muddy’ painting was so atmospheric. This window is a quiet, strong, intimate example of her work set in a beautiful church. It has echoes of her greater works such as the Crucifixion at Eton College including the beautiful use of neutral tones and tints of colour for ‘clear areas’ and ‘flesh’ that help to add such richness to the effect. This, coupled with the visual links to early medieval art and commitment to a two-dimensional approach make this, for me, a compelling and inspirational work of art.
A painter who studied under Walter Sickert, André Lhote and Albert Gleizes, Hone turned to stained glass in 1932 and trained with Wilhelmina Geddes before becoming a member of An Túr Gloine in 1935. Influenced by Georges Rouault, mediaeval Irish carvings and Byzantine mosaics, she wrote that she sought ‘not to represent something but to arrange forms and colours in such a way as will produce an effect of beauty, a living organism with rhythm and balance and not a chaotic juxtaposition of brilliant scintillating colour’ Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass, revised new edition, edited by Nicola Gordon Bowe, David Caron & Michael Wynne (Irish Academic Press, 2021), p165
Artist/maker notes
Eva Sydney ‘Evie’ Hone (1894-1955) was one of the leading stained glass artists of the twentieth century, yet she only turned to glass in the 1930s. By this time, her study of painting had given her a deep understanding of colour and design, that allowed her works to have an exceptionally powerful and direct dialogue with the viewer. She initially worked at An Túr Gloine before setting up her own studio, also in Dublin.
Other comments
Also in the church are two windows by Keith Coleborn. One at the east end of the south wall of the chancel (1973) was given by the parents of Robin Knox-Johnston in thanksgiving for his safe return after making the first solo circumnavigation of the world under sail without touching land. A second in the south wall of the nave (1986) was given by Mary Knox-Johnston in memory of her husband.