Richard Stubington, The Annunciation and Scenes from the Gospels (1926), Church of St Mary's Church, Denbigh, Clwyd.

Photo: Martin Crampin, Stained Glass in Wales

Richard Stubington, detail of The Annunciation and Scenes from the Gospels (1926), Church of St Mary's Church, Denbigh, Clwyd.

Photo: Martin Crampin - Stained Glass in Wales

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Denbigh, Denbighshire

Address

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Denbigh, Denbighshire LL16 3LG

Recommended by

Rachel Phillips (10)

Highlight

Annunciation and Gospel scenes, 2 light window, north wall of the nave

Artist, maker and date

Richard Stubington, 1926

Reason for highlighting

I saw this window on a British Society of Master Glass Painters conference and was struck by its unfamiliar combination of antiquity and modernity- a moody byzantine styled Gabriel sits in a glowing diapered sapphire and ruby sea of pattern opposite a Mary adorned an astonishing range of ruby hued glasses.

Wide bands of scintillating Romanesque-esque borders surround the scene and I was intrigued by the textures in the glass itself that help create a brooding power through the window. Whilst there I was told that he used to fire the glass over sand to introduce even more texture. An artist I would like to see a lot more of based on this window!

Other comments

There’s a tasty Veronica Whall window (1933) opposite this one too.

Further reading: Stained Glass in Wales – St Mary the Virgin, Denbigh, Denbighshire

Artist/maker notes

Richard John Stubington (1885-1966) was a student at Birmingham School of Art, where he was an assistant to his teacher, Henry Payne. He succeeded Payne as a teacher of stained glass at the School when Payne left in 1909, inspiring a generation of students to take up stained glass work.

Sources:
Stained Glass Window Makers of Birmingham School of Art by Roy Albutt, 2013
Arts and Crafts Stained Glass by Peter Cormack (Yale University Press, 2015)