Rosslyn Chapel, Midlothian
Address
Rosslyn Chapel, Chapel Loan, Roslin, Midlothian, EH25 9PURecommended by
Highlight
The Transfiguration windowArtist, maker and date
Patrick Pollen, 1954Reason for highlighting
Rosslyn Chapel, formerly known as the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, was built in the 15th century and is one of Scotland’s treasures. The Sacristy beneath the main body of the Chapel is believed to be of an earlier date and is of a relatively plain construction, compared to the flamboyance of the main Chapel. However, it holds a treasure in the form of the only window in Scotland by Patrick Pollen. The window, which is a memorial to the fifth Earl of Rosslyn, was also the first to bring Pollen public attention.
Artist/maker notes
Patrick La Primaudaye Pollen (1928-2010) was a distinctive artist who worked in several media, including drawing and mosaic, but principally in stained glass.
Pollen was born in London into an artistic family. His father was a sculptor and his great-grand-father, John Hungerford Pollen, was a renowned architect, artist and author. His mother was a distinguished artist, whose family had a home in north County Dublin.
After military service Pollen studied art at the Slade School in London and the Académie Julian in Paris, where he first saw the stained glass in Notre Dame that so impressed him and set him on his path as an artist. Fascinated by Evie Hone’s stained glass east window in Eton College Chapel, Pollen moved to Ireland to study with her before renting premises at the old An Tur Gloine co-operative studio in Dublin.
Pollen’s work has many influences including his family, his Catholic faith and especially, Evie Hone, and through her Georges Rouault.
Pollen leaves are large body of work, especially in Ireland, where his largest commission was for 26 windows for Galway Cathedral.
Sources:
Patrick Pollen’s obituary by Louis Jebb, The Independent
Patrick Pollen by William Earley in The Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass, revised new edition, edited by Nicola Gordon Bowe, David Caron & Michael Wynne (Irish Academic Press, 2021
Other comments
The Chapel is in the care of the Rosslyn Chapel Trust was founded in 1995 to oversee the Chapel’s conservation. In 2021, to mark its 25th anniversary, the Trust commissioned a new stained glass window by Joe Tilson RA, one of the leading figures associated with the British Pop Art movement in the 1960s.