Church of St Mary, Sturminster Newton, Dorset
Address
Church of St Mary, Church Lane, Sturminster Newton, Dorset DT10 1DGRecommended by
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Madonna and Child with St Elizabeth of Hungary and St Barbara – south aisle of the naveArtist, maker and date
Designed by Harry Clarke and made by Joshua Clarke & Sons, Dublin, 1921Reason for highlighting
When I first started looking at stained glass I was drawn to the work of Harry Clarke. This was in the 1970s and I was a teenager who collected fairy tale books, so it’s easy to see why I liked his style. I found his work as interesting and intricate as the medieval glass I loved, without falling into the trap of trying to copy it. This Harry Clarke window is worth going a long way to see. It is better in real life than you could imagine, a reminder of all the best things about stained glass – the intricacy, the jewels, and the web of patterns that entwine the figures .
Artist/maker notes
Henry Patrick ‘Harry’ Clarke (1889-1931) was born in Dublin and apprenticed in his father’s stained glass business. He also studied at the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, as well as travelling to London and France. In the process he absorbed the qualities of the medieval glaziers, along with contemporary artistic themes to create windows that are some of the most distinctive examples of the art. His studio continued after his death as Clarke Studios Ltd.
Joshua Clarke & Sons / Harry Clarke Stained Glass Ltd The firm was established by Harry Clarke’s father, Joshua, in 1886 as a church decorating business. In 1892 the firm extended its activities into stained glass, acting as agent for Mayer & Co, Munich. Harry and his brother took over the business on the death of their father in 1921, by which time it had a thriving business in Ireland, along with overseas sales to Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
In 1930 the business was split, with the church decoration business continuing to use the old name, while the stained glass activities continued as Harry Clarke Stained Glass Ltd. That business continued after Harry Clarke’s death, initially under the management of Charles B Simmons and Richard King, and finally William J Dowling from 1940 until the studio closed in 1973.
Sources:
Harry Clarke: The Life & Work by Nicola Gordon Bowe (The History Press Ltd, Revised, Updated Edition, 2012)
Harry Clarke and Artistic Visions of the New Irish State, Edited by Angela Griffiths, Marguerite Helmers & Róisín Kennedy (Irish Academic Press, 2019)
Other comments
Amongst the churches other windows are two by Mary Lowndes, one of the founders of Lowndes & Drury. The earliest is a Nativity window in the tower (1886-87), which is said to be her first window. While successful in her own right, Mary Lowndes’ work could be enhanced by collaborations, as here, where she worked with Isabel Gloag on the Resurrection window in the south chapel (1901).