€4,200
Harry Clarke Studios-
Richard King (1907-1974)
"For a St. Francis of Assisi Window, c 1945," ink, watercolour and gouache on paper, 59" X 94" high (150 x 238cms). (1)
In this large ink and watercolour study for a stained glass window, a decorative pattern of flowers and leaves, birds and animals, has been interwoven into a complex design that centres on the figure of St. Francis. A celebrated 12th century mendicant, famed for his penitential lifestyle and love of nature, St. Francis is shown standing, arms upraised, ready to receive the ‘stigmata’, or wounds to his hands. At the base of the drawing, gathered close to the robes of the saint, are a wolf and a lamb, while swallows, kingfishers, thrushes and other birds cluster on the ground near St. Francis’s bare feet, or fly, wings outspread, in a spiral pattern around his figure. The background is heavily patterned, with curving branches of foliage and flowers forming stylised elements. The circle is divided into small panels, many of which have sunburst or abstract motifs. Beside the saint’s head hovers a dove, while on the lower right is a shield or crest bearing the image of a Cross, with crossed arms and hands. The whole design is framed with a decorative border composed of small squares, some tinted red and yellow.
The design is one of the most accomplished to have been produced by the Harry Clarke Studios, which continued to operate after the death of Harry Clarke. Born in Dublin in 1889, Clarke came from a family of talented artists. Like the artisan family from Yorkshire who founded the Watson Studios in Youghal, Harry’s father Joshua Clark had migrated from England to Ireland in the latter half of the nineteenth century, to obtain work in church-building in Ireland; Harry’s mother was Brigid MacGonigal. Educated at Belvedere College, Harry then attended the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin where, between the years 1911 and 1913, he won several prizes for stained glass designs. In 1915-17 he produced stained glass windows for the Honan Chapel at UCC and over the following two decades created brilliant stained glass for churches and private residences, as well as extraordinary watercolour and ink illustrations. In 1931, after Clarke’s death from TB in Switzerland, the workshop was taken over by his son Terence and his niece Ann. Initially the business prospered but with changes in fashion and decrees minimising church decoration, the studio finally closed in the early 1970’s. While inspired by the designs of Harry Clarke himself—many of which were in the workshop at the time of his death—the design for St. Francis of Assisi was produced by the artistic team that took over the studios after his death. Led by Charles B Simmonds, that team included Richard King, William Dowling and other artists. The St. Francis of Assisi design can be compared to work carried out in the churches such as St. Charles at Gosforth, St. John the Baptist at Knock, St. Thomas’s in Callow (a window made in 1943), and St. Patrick’s in Newport.
Dr. Peter Murray, 2022
No obvious damage
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