Church of St Michael & All Angels, Brighton, East Sussex
Address
Church of St Michael & All Angels, Victoria Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 3FURecommended by
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West window of the ‘old church’, now the west window of the south aisleArtist, maker and date
Designed by Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Ford Madox Brown, Peter Paul Marshal, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Philip Webb, and made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co, 1862Reason for highlighting
A beautiful example of the early work of William Morris’s company at what was only their second commission after All Saints, Selsley, Gloucestershire. It is supported by other fine windows in the east window, south chancel aisle (now the Lady Chapel); south window, south chancel aisle; and baptistry of the ‘old church’.
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.
William Morris (1834-96) was a man of exceptional talents. As well as being the greatest artist-craftsman of his age, who ran a successful manufacturing and decorating businesses, he was one of the best known and most prolific Victorian poets, a passionate social reformer, an early environmentalist, an educationalist and would-be feminist.
Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893) was a leading artist in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who designed over a hundred windows for ‘the Firm’.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82) was a poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He was a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He designed a number of stained glass windows for ‘the Firm’.
Peter Paul Marshall (1830-1900) was a professional surveyor and sanitary engineer, and a part-time painter with many Pre-Raphaelite connections. He was a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. and produced a dozen or so minor stained glass windows for ‘the Firm’.
Philip Speakman Webb (1831-1915) was one of the most influential architects of the Arts & Crafts movement. He joined the office of George Edmund Street in 1852 and was joined there by William Morris in 1856. He became one of the founding partners of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. Ltd, and with Morris founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877. He built the Red House (National Trust) for Morris in 1859 and the Church of St Martin, Brampton, 1878, which is filled with stained glass by Morris & Co.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (1861-75) or ‘the Firm’, as it was colloquially referred to, was founded in 1861 by William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, Philip Webb, Peter Paul Marshall and Charles J Faulkner. The Firm started out with no lack of confidence. As Rossetti wrote in January 1862, ‘Our stained glass…may challenge any other firm to approach it’. It was succeeded in 1875 by Morris & Co.
Sources:
For a brief overview of the two 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
St Michael & All Angels, the finest Victorian church in Sussex, consists of two churches, which now form one. The ‘old church’ was built to a design by the famous architect, G.F. Bodley, in 1860-61. However, it soon proved too small leading to the design of a ‘new church’ by another great Victorian architect, William Burges. Although the designs were completed in the 1860s, the work was not undertaken until 1893-95.
The ‘new church’ includes a fine west window cartooned by H. W. Lonsdale and made by William Worrall in 1895. Lonsdale was born in Mexico to British parents and had a long working relationship with William Burges. Burges’s biographer, J Mordaunt Crook, described him as “a draftsman of exceptional precision, his best work was all for Burges”.
The west window is a triumph of design, crammed with figures by a significant, if lesser-known artist. Although the window was cartoon by Lonsdale in 1895, there is a suggestion that its origin lies in 1868 when Lonsdale was working with William Burges.