The success of the stained glass industry led to stained glass being mass produced without the designer or artist being recognised. Henry Holiday (1839-1927) was particularly scathing, characterising the stained glass artists of the Gothic Revival as “mere tradesmen” who ‘defiled nearly all of our cathedrals with their stained glass’. [1]
Designers were concerned that the process was no longer an art or indeed a craft. Inevitably this resulted in debates about the boundaries between art, craft, industry, and business and eventually resulted in the critiques of the Victorian stained glass era by the emerging Arts and Crafts Movement. [1]
There is a discussion of this period: V&A · Stained Glass: The Gothic Revival And Beyond (vam.ac.uk)
“The status of stained glass as an art was questioned by those that perceived it as an industrial process, and the sheer quantity that was produced inevitably bowed to commercial constraints."
"Trade rushed in where artists scorned to tread," Iamented Henry Holiday in 1896.
Supply was soon equal to the demand.
"Ninety-nine per cent of stained glass, he claimed, was not art. It was conventional and repetitive, being produced for the profit of company proprietors, and to the detriment of artists and workers alike . [2]
Four years later, in 1900, Constance Glasby also criticised the lack of individuality in mass produced glass work, making a case for commissions from William Glasby that would be an individual bespoke art work. [3]
Henry Holiday became so dissatisfied with the manner in which Powell executed his designs that, in 1891, after twenty-five years of being associated with Powell & Sons, he established his own studio and workshop in a house in Church Row, Hampstead (formerly occupied by the architect Thomas Garner), that was convenient for his own home in Branch Hill. [4]
William Glasby was engaged as foreman and chief glass painter. Church Row also offered accommodation for the Glasby family as a tied house. For the next 15 years some of Holiday's most attractive windows were produced during this period, with their quality owing much to Glasby's craftsmanship. Holiday experimented with opus sectile, and also with panels of raised enamel work producing stained glass, mosaics, enamels and sacerdotal objects.
Holiday made a major impression on Glasby and this continued when Glasby became an independent artist. Glasby was encouraged by Holiday to enter design competitions for stained glass windows. In 1897 Glasby received an 'Honourable Mention' in a competition in The Studio for designs of two panels of stained -glass depicting Day and Night. These were sold at Christies Auction House in July 2017. [5] The Windows were made between 1897-1900 and are now in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, described as a gift of J. Pierpoint Morgan in 1987. [6]
The Windows were in the Permanent Gallery of Decorative Arts, South Kensington, 1899. This was the predecessor to the V & A which was revamped in 1899. It seems very early to have the Windows displayed in a museum.
We are conducting further research on whether J P Morgan knew Holiday and Glasby. A Wikipedia entry states:
J. P. Morgan spent three months of every year in London and owned two houses there. His 'town' house, 13 Prince's Gate was inherited from his father and was later expanded by the acquisition of the neighbouring Number 14 to house his growing art collection. After his death the merged houses were offered to the US government for use as the residence of the US Ambassador, from 1929 to 1955. His other property was Dover House, Putney, which was later demolished and developed into the Dover House Estate.[citation needed]
Working through the records we found exhibits in 1900, 1902, 1903, 1906, 1908, 1909, 1913 and 1923
The Royal Academy[1] has the following Glasby Exhibitions listed:
GLASBY, William. Stained Glass Painter. 20, Church Row , Hampstead.
1900. 1707 Design for stained glass: "Christus Consolatus."
1902. 1455 Design for stained glass. 1584 do. do. "Four corners to my bed." [Log 271]. Glasby’s address is listed in the 1902 catalogue as: 20 Church Row, Hampstead, N.W..
1903. 1 5 16 Design for stained glass: "Angel appearing to shepherd."
The Victoria and Albert Museum has a sketch for a design for St Mary's Church Stebbing.
Stained Glass design described as: "design for a lancet window . The Angel Gabriel appearing to the shepherds. Signed by William Glasby. On the back 'Exhibited at the RA 1903. To be returned to William Glasby, 12 Edwardes Square Kensington W.8.' and very faint and scored out '7 Clarendon Road, Putney'.
Log 236 is a sketch for St Mary's Church Stebbing for a different Window and is located at the Henfield Museum. It has a different address: 29 Carlton Road.
The 1900 Exhibit, Christus Consolatus, shown in a roundel depicting Four Angels Round My Bed, was immediately made into a stained-glass panel which appeared on the market several years ago and has since been used as the design for greetings cards. [7]
In 1906 there is an exhibit, 1905, “Worthy is the Lamb” design for stained glass. [8]
In 1908 there are two exhibits. 1654, “Lead Kindly Light” window for Wath Church, Yorkshire and 1653 “there shall be no night there”: design for a stained glass window. [10]
The address is: 23 Clarendon Road, Putney, SW.
In 1909 1417 "The Nativity" is displayed. Glasby's address is given as: 7 Clarendon Road, Putney, SW.
There appears to be gap in exhibitions until 1913 when a design for a stained glass window “The Transfiguration” is shown (1724). [11] Glasby provides: Domus" Clarendon Road, Putney, SW
There seems to be no record of exhibits after 1913 until 1923 when 1186 "St Agnes" is shown. The address is: Studio, 7 Clarendon Road, Putney, SW
And after 1923 no further exhibits.
There were additionally illustrated catalogues published, in which around 20% of the exhibited works were illustrated.
The dimensions of the works exhibited are not recorded, and so we do not know if these were larger cartoons, or the smaller sketches that are in the Collins' archive.
The RA annual exhibition is a selling exhibition. When the show finishes, the works are returned to the artists or to the purchaser. As the sales were negotiated between the artists and the buyers, the RA Library or Archive does not have a record as to where the works in the exhibitions went after the show closed.
In 1907, a design for Seremban Church, Straits Settlement, Malaysia, was mentioned in The Studio, and described as:
"In some recent work by Mr William Glasby may perhaps be discerned traces of the influence of Mr Henry Holiday, with whom he was for a period associated; at the same time, they are by no means wanting in original feeling. Mr Glasby pays special attention to the quality of colour, avoiding both the crudity and timidity ofen seen in modern windows; and while using the richest clourings he contrives to blend them in such a way that the power and joyous of the colour is maintained." [9]
In 2021 we were informed by David Low that the church burned down in 1967. Only small parts of the bottom of the original Windows survived. These were re-installed at the Altar when the church was rebuilt. The Windows were donated by Justice Coates. In the John Collins’ archive there is a cartoon for another Window, dated 1910. We do not know if this new commission was taken up, because the church records were lost in a fire of 1967.
In the 2008 Article by Donald Green el al, it is mentioned that this design was exhibited at the Royal Academu in 1907, but we cannot find an entry. Neither could the RA Librarion.
From at least 1897 Glasby was involved in work carried out by the Merton Abbey Workshop, for William Morris and his painting is attributed, along with other artists, on individual Windows.
See for example: "The names of Morris’s glass painters were: Evangelists, curtains and emblems by Glasby, Good Shepherd by Titcombe, tree and sky backgrounds by Glasby and Titcombe.
Some of Glasby's work is analysed in Morris & Co. (London, England), Peter Cormack, William Morris, Edward Coley Burne-Jones, An Exhibition of Morris & Company's Stained Glass for the Chapel of Cheadle Royal Hospital: An Illustrated Catalogue, Haslam & Whiteway Limited, 2008 - Cheadle Hulme (England)
Notes
[2] Henry Holiday, Stained Glass as an Art (London: Macmillan, 1896), p. 2.
[3] International Art Notes, November 1900, “Stained Glass. HOW TO MAKE A WINDOW" by Constance Glasby. A copy of the magazine is in the Collins' archive.
[4] Baldry, A. L. Henry Holiday, London: 1930, Walker’s Galleries, Cormack, P. Henry Holiday, Walthamstow: 1989, William Morris Gallery. Hadley, D. and Hadley, J. 1989. Henry Holiday 1839-1927. Journal of Stained Glass (1989) 21, pp.48-75. In an Article by Helen Dunstan-Smith "Highlights from the auction rooms" (2008) Journal of Stained Glass 32 182, mention is made of the sale of Holiday Windows at Hartley's Christmas auction in Ilkley, West Yorkshire in 2007 of Windows from a redundant church, St Paul's, Denholme, Bradford, The Windows were designed by Holiday for Powell & Sons. Dunstan-Smith writes: "The panels were typical, but not particularly good examples of the firm's executions of Holiday's cartoons. Indeed it was Holiday's disassatisfaction with the interpretation of his work that ultimately led him in 1891 to set up his own workshop at Hampstead.".
[5] https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6089756The Details read: William Glasby (1863-1941). Designs for stained glass: Day and Night both signed 'William Glasby' (lower left) and inscribed with titles (lower centre, in cartouches), Day signed again (lower right), both further inscribed 'PSEUDM 'MULLION.' (on the reverse) pencil and watercolour heightened with white on paper each 19 ¼ x 13 1/8 in. (48.9 x 33.3 cm.).
[7] The Royal Academy of Arts A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904 BY ALGERNON GRAVES, F.S.A., at page 298
https://ia802705.us.archive.org/34/items/royalacademyofar03grav/royalacademyofar03grav.pdf. With thanks to Adam Waterton, Librarian at the Royal Academy
[9] There is a copy of the journal in the Collins' archive, The Studio An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art, Vol 41, No 171, June 15, 1907. at page 64 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/The_International_studio_%28IA_internationalstu3212unse%29.pdf
The Reference is at page 136.
[10] The exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1908. The 140th. | Exhibition Catalogues | RA Collection | Royal Academy of Arts
Reading
Henry Holiday. (1839-1927) : Stained Glass in Wales (llgc.org.uk)
William Waters, Angels & Icons: Pre-Raphaelite Stained Glass 1850–1870 (Abbots Morton: Serapim Press, 2012), pp. 142–4, 218–19, 254–7,
Peter Cormack, Arts and Crafts Stained Glass (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015), pp. 11–14
William Waters, Damozels and Deities: Pre-Raphaelite Stained Glass 1870–1898 (Abbots Morton: Seraphim, 2017), pp. 168–221, 372–85 and further references.
Dennis Hadley and Joan Hadley, 'Henry Holiday, 1839–1927' The Journal of Stained Glass, vol. xix, no. 1 (1989–90), 48–69.
Peter Cormack, 'Holiday, Henry George Alexander (1839–1927)' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007
'Obituary: Henry Holiday (1839–1927)' Journal of the British Society of Master Glass-Painters, vol. ii, no. 2 (1927), 105–6.
Henry Holiday, Stained Glass as an Art (London: Macmillan, 1896).
Martin Crampin, Stained Glass from Welsh Churches (Talybont: Y Lolfa, 2014), pp 167-72.
Martin Harrison, Victorian Stained Glass (London: 1980), pp. 44–6, 52–5, 79–80
George B. Bryant, "Frank Furness and Henry Holiday: A Study of Patronage, Architecture and Art" Architectural History, Vol. 56 (2013), pp. 169-211.
(c) Erika Szyszczak 22 June 2021
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