MORRIS & COMPANY’S STAINED GLASS for THE CHAPEL OF
CHEADLE ROYAL HOSPITAL
From designs by
WILLIAM MORRIS & EDWARD BURNE-JONES HASLAM & WHITEWAY LTD.
An Exhibition of
MORRIS & COMPANY’S STAINED GLASS for
THE CHAPEL OF CHEADLE ROYAL HOSPITAL
William Morris
Edward Burne-Jones
An Illustrated Catalogue with text by Peter Cormack F.S.A.
Published in 2008 by Haslam & Whiteway Ltd 105 Kensington Church Street · London W8 7LN t: 0207 229 1145 e:
[email protected] w: www. haslamandwhiteway.com
MORRIS & COMPANY’S STAINED GLASS
showing three figures – Solomon, David and Jonathan – which were not used in the final scheme (not illustrated). The overall design conception for the twelve windows was developed by John Henry Dearle (1859-1932), Morris & Co.’s Art Director and the manager of its Merton Abbey workshops, in consultation with the clients at Cheadle, who no doubt stipulated the biblical figures to be depicted. Advised by Dearle, they would then have chosen the specific cartoons (almost all by Burne-Jones) to be used for the glass. This selection process was facilitated by photographic albums of the firm’s past work, which by the 1900s encompassed several hundred windows. The Burne-Jones cartoons used for the Cheadle windows date from between 1866 and 1895, spanning nearly thirty years of the artist’s prolific career in stained glass and representing some of his most significant and prestigious commissions, including windows for Jesus and Peterhouse Colleges, Cambridge, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, the Chapel at Castle Howard, and St Giles’s Cathedral, Edinburgh.
for THE CHAPEL OF
CHEADLE ROYAL HOSPITAL
‘Our stained glass, at any rate, may challenge any other firm to
approach it’ wrote Dante Gabriel Rossetti in January 1862, just ten months after the founding of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company. More recently, in her 1994 biography of William Morris, Fiona MacCarthy has concluded that ‘the glorious sequence of Morris & Co. stained-glass windows surpasses’ all his other artistic achievements. Historians of 19th-century stained glass have generally agreed that the contribution to the medium made by William Morris (1834-1896) and his principal collaborator, Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), marked an epoch in its postmedieval development. In Morris & Company’s later history, following the deaths of both Morris and Burne-Jones, the firm remained faithful to the artistic standards they had established, producing work of artistic distinction and superb technical skill.
The surviving sketch designs represent the next stage of the Cheadle commission, when the treatment of the patterned glazing around the figures was decided. In one of the designs at the Huntington (fig 40), this ‘background’ glass takes the form of scrolling foliage in a greenish ‘grisaille’, a motif first devised by William Morris in the 1870s and subsequently used for many windows. However, perhaps for reasons of cost, this suggested treatment was rejected in favour of simpler, lozenge-shaped quarries, each decorated with sprigs of daisies and other flowers based on designs by Morris. All the windows have this quarryglazing apart from the west, in which the more elaborate scenes are set within a stylised landscape and against a sky of denselyleaded, deep blue glass, the latter a motif typical of Burne-Jones’s designs from the 1880s onwards. In all but the west window, each figure was identified by a simple scroll above or below bearing his or her name. Throughout the series, there are no ornamental borders, only a simple ‘fillet’ of greenish-white glass around each light.
The reputation gained by Morris & Co.’s stained glass was such that, by the 1890s and 1900s, a number of their patrons, in churches or in educational and other institutions, determined to ensure the visual unity of their buildings by commissioning windows exclusively from the firm. This was the decision of the authorities at Cheadle Royal Hospital, near Manchester, when they asked Morris & Co. to glaze all the windows of their new Chapel, built in 1904. A relatively simple brick building in Perpendicular Gothic style, the Chapel had five three-light windows on each of its north and south sides, with a four-light east window and another, larger, three-light window at the west end. The glass in the east window was installed in 1906, then the aisles were glazed in 1909 and 1911, and finally the west window was completed in 1915. Following the closure of the Hospital Chapel some years ago, all the stained glass, apart from that in the east window, was removed and sold.
Notwithstanding the deaths of Morris and Burne-Jones in the 1890s, the firm of Morris & Company continued in business – with its shop in central London and studio-workshops at Merton Abbey, Surrey – until its voluntary dissolution in 1940. Although it was reorganised in 1905 and registered as ‘Morris & Company, Decorators Ltd.’, a large measure of continuity was maintained through Dearle’s role as chief designer. Having joined the firm as a teenager, and having worked with Morris in almost all branches of its production, Dearle identified closely with its stylistic ethos and tradition of workmanship. In stained glass he revered the later collaborative work of Morris and Burne-Jones, and it is clear that under his supervision the Merton Abbey workshop rarely deviated in any significant way from the style and technique of the windows made during their lifetimes.
The Chapel’s glazing scheme consisted of full-length Old and New Testament figures (one per light) occupying most of the windows, along with a pair of narrative scenes flanking a figure in one of the side windows and three more elaborate scenes in the west window. The important Morris archive at the Huntington Library and Art Collections at San Marino, California, includes some of the visual documentation for the commission: there are six watercolour sketch designs by Morris & Co., one for the west window, showing the glass substantially as executed (fig. 42), and five for the side windows (figs. 38 - 41), including one
The stylistic and technical characteristics highlighted in Morris’s and Burne-Jones’s comments are conspicuous in the Cheadle windows. Even those figures whose cartoons date from earlier phases of Morris & Co.’s work, such as Melchisedek (fig. 27), designed in 1866, and Timothy (fig. 2), dating from 1872, are treated in the later manner, with plenty of emphatic leading to create the desired ‘jewel-like’ effect. Consistency of treatment was, of course, essential to create a unified appearance for the glazing scheme, regardless of the date of origin of individual cartoons; but above all, it is in the windows’ sumptuous coloured glass that one sees the continuing spirit of Morris and Burne-Jones.
In effect this was an implicit acceptance that, in its last stylistic phase of the 1880s and 1890s, Morris & Co.’s stained glass had reached its apogee, and that this would therefore be the idiom employed for all subsequent work in the twentieth century. Thus the Cheadle windows, although they date from 1906-1915, share in all their essentials very much the same character as those previously made – often in fact by exactly the same craftsmen – at Merton during the latter days of Morris and Burne-Jones. William E. Stokes, for example, who was a glass-painter for all but one of the Cheadle windows, worked for Morris & Co. from 1880 until 1915.
Morris & Co. bought their glass from James Powell & Sons and W. E. Chance, sometimes having pot-metals specially made to achieve particular colours. In the later 1880s, Morris had even planned to follow his success in textile manufacture by making his own pot-metal glass at Merton Abbey, a venture only prevented by restrictive covenants on the lease of his workshop premises. Although dependent on outside suppliers, Morris & Co.’s choice of glass – ‘colour, pure and sweet’, as described in the firm’s brochure for its 1883 exhibition at Boston – remained one of its superlative hallmarks. The Cheadle windows include some magnificent examples: deep or smoky blues in the Mary Virgin (fig. 5), St Peter (fig. 8), Enoch (fig. 21) and Ruth (fig. 14) windows; ruby-reds and pinks in the Miriam (fig. 1), Timothy (fig. 2) and St John (fig. 4); amber, gold and bronze in the St Matthew (fig. 3), Jeremiah (fig. 16) and St Thomas (fig. 7); and lush grass- and emerald-greens in the Isaiah (fig. 10), Noah (fig. 13) and St Elizabeth (fig. 18).
This long-lasting (as it transpired) final evolution of the firm’s stained glass happens to be the only one for which there is some written evidence for both Morris’s and Burne-Jones’s aesthetic and technical approach to the medium. In 1883, both artists expounded their views in a series of letters to John Ruskin concerning the firm’s windows for Whitelands College Chapel in Chelsea. Subsequently, Morris combined a summary history of stained glass with a characteristically robust statement of his own practice in an article written for the 1890 edition of Chambers Encyclopaedia. Burne-Jones commented further on several major stained glass commissions in letters written to clients in the later 1890s. A few excerpts from these sources provide a useful way of appreciating the guiding principles which would have governed the manufacture of the Cheadle windows. Writing to Ruskin, Morris explained that: in some of the pot-metals [coloured glasses], notably the blues, the difference between one part of a sheet and another is very great. This variety is very useful to us in getting a jewel-like quality which is the chief charm of painted glass […]. You will understand that we rely almost entirely for our colour on the actual colour of the glass; and the more the design will enable us to break up the pieces, and the more mosaic-like it, the better we like it. His 1890 article likewise stresses clarity of design and colour: The qualities needed in the design […] are beauty and character of outline; exquisite, clear, precise drawing of incident, such especially as the folds of drapery. [… ] Whatever key of colour may be chosen, [it] should always be clear, bright and emphatic. Any artist who has no liking for bright colour had better hold his hand from stained-glass designing. Not surprisingly, Burne-Jones’s words, written in 1897, closely echo Morris’s while also emphasising the particular role of the lead-work in a design: figures must be simply read at a great distance […] the leads are part of the beauty of the work and as interesting as the lines of masonry in a wall – the more of them, the deeper the colour looks. […] It is a very limited art and its limitations are its strength.
It is a happy coincidence that just as Burne-Jones’s monumental painting The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon, normally resident in Puerto Rico’s Museo de Arte de Ponce, temporarily returns to London, these Cheadle windows, richly representing his genius in stained glass, will also be on view. PETER CORMACK April 2008
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fig. 1
Miriam
fig. 2
Fig. 1 ~ MIRIAM (part of a three-light window, with figures of Joshua and Ruth) ~ 1911 H.146 W.45 cm ~ H.57 W.18 in
For this figure of Miriam, Morris & Co. used Burne-Jones’s cartoon (‘BJ WB71’ in the Morris & Co. listings) for the figure of Deborah, drawn in 1896 for Albion Congregational Church, Ashton-under-Lyne. The sensitive glass-painting is the work of William Glasby (1863-1941), who began his career with James Powell & Sons, then became principal glass-painter for Henry Holiday (1839-1927) in the 1890s. By the 1900s, while still working for Holiday and, as here, for Morris & Co., he was also designing and making his own independent stained glass commissions.
Fig. 2 ~ TIMOTHY (part of a three-light window, with figures of St James and St Mark) ~ 1911 H.145 W.45 cm ~ H.57 W.18 in
Burne-Jones’s original cartoon for this figure (now in the Art Institute of Chicago) was drawn in 1872 for a window in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. His account book records a charge of £12 for ‘Big Timothy’ (to distinguish it from a smaller design of Timothy and Eunice for the same Oxford window). The cartoon, numbered ‘BJ 23’ by Morris & Co., was used for a number of windows in schools, including: William Morris’s own school, Marlborough College (1877); Forest School, Walthamstow, where Morris’s brothers had been pupils (1881); and Maidstone Grammar School (1897).
Fig. 3 ~ ST MATTHEW (part of a three-light window, with figures of St Andrew and St Peter) ~ 1909 H. 122 W.44 cm ~ H.48 W.17 in
This and the companion figures of the other three Evangelists were designed by Burne-Jones for the major scheme of Morris & Co. windows at Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge, in 1872-73. The artist charged £15 for his cartoon (listed as ‘BJ 18’ in the firm’s inventory), which he described as ‘hastily executed I admit but altogether a bold conception’. There were many subsequent re-uses, including windows for churches at Speldhurst (1875) and Frome (1885).
Fig. 4 ~ ST JOHN part of a three-light window, with figures of St Mary Virgin and St Elizabeth) ~ 1911 H.122 W.46 cm ~ H.48 W.18 in
The original cartoon of St John (listed as ‘BJ 422’ by Morris & Co.) was drawn by Burne-Jones in 1876 for a window in St Mark’s, New Ferry. It was re-used for several later windows, including one at Coddington (1882) and the large east window of Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea (1894-95).
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Fig. 5 ~ ST MARY VIRGIN (part of a three-light window, with figures of St Elizabeth and St John) ~ 1911 H.145 W.44 cm ~ H.57 W.17 in
Fig. 6 ~ ELIJAH (part of a three-light window, with figures of Melchisedek and Samuel) ~1911
Like the Cheadle St Elizabeth, this figure of St Mary Virgin was originally drawn by Burne-Jones for a window at Speldhurst church in 1874. Numbered ‘BJ 213’ in the Morris firm’s listing, it proved to be one of Burne-Jones’s most popular designs, with versions in windows at All Saints’, Putney, and Welburn (both 1878) and at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea (1894-95).
H.155 W.44 cm ~ H.61 W.17 in
Burne-Jones’s Elijah cartoon (numbered ‘BJ 144’ by Morris & Co.) was originally drawn for part of the west window of Calcutta Cathedral in 1874. The firm re-used it for one of their windows (now at Birmingham City Art Gallery) displayed at the 1883 ‘Foreign Fair’ at Boston, USA, and again for windows at All Saints’, Putney (1884) and at Manchester College Chapel, Oxford (1897).
Fig. 8 ~
ST PETER
(part of a three-light window, with figures of St Andrew and St Matthew) ~ 1909 H.122 W.44 cm ~ H.48 W.17 in
Although depicting a saint, Burne-Jones’s cartoon for this figure was originally drawn in 1871 for a secular building, the Dining Hall of Peterhouse College in Cambridge. Morris & Co. later used the same cartoon, numbered ‘BJ 24’ in their listing, for windows at Waterford (1876), Clay Cross (1879) and Brampton (1881).
Fig. 7 ~ ST THOMAS (part of a three-light window, with figures of St Luke and St Paul) ~ 1911 H.122 W.44 cm ~ H.48 W.17 in
The cartoon for St Thomas (Morris & Co. number ‘BJ 135’) was originally drawn by Burne-Jones for the west window of Calcutta Cathedral in 1874. There are several later re-uses of the cartoon, including windows at All Saints’, Putney (1883) and Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea (1894-95).
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Fig. 9 ~ DANIEL
Fig. 10 ~
(part of a three-light window, with figures of Jeremiah and Isaiah) ~ 1911
ISAIAH
(part of a three-light window, with figures of Jeremiah and Daniel) ~ 1911
H.122 W.44 cm ~ H.48 W.17 in
H.122 W.44 cm ~ H.48 W.17 in
Listed by Morris & Co. as ‘BJ 269’, Burne-Jones’s cartoon for this figure was originally drawn in 1875 for a memorial window in Tavistock church. It was subsequently used for windows at Allerton, Liverpool (1876), Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge (1878) and Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea (1894-95).
Drawn originally for a window at Tavistock, the cartoons for this figure of Isaiah (‘BJ 266’ in Morris & Co.’s listing) and three other Old Testament figures were charged at only £5 each in Burne-Jones’s account book. His self-deprecating entry – ‘4 Major Prophets on a minor scale designed I regret to say with the minimum of ability’ – may actually denote that his original drawings were less than full-size and were intended to be enlarged by a draughtsman in the Morris & Co. workshop. The cartoon was adapted for use in later windows at Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge (1877), King’s College Chapel, Aberdeen (1897) and Crescent Street Church, Montreal, Canada (1901).
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Fig. 11 ~ TWO MINSTREL ANGELS (pair of tracery lights from above the Nativity scene in the Chapel’s west window) ~ 1915 H.121 W.25 cm ~ H.48 W.10 in (each)
Listed as ‘WM 270’ and ‘WM 101a’ by Morris & Co., these two Angel figures, one playing a dulcimer and the other double-pipes, were originally designed by William Morris in 1864 for part of the large east window of Bradford Cathedral. They were often used for subsequent commissions, including windows at Llandaff Cathedral and Bloxham church (both 1869) and at Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge (1874). Fig. 12 ~ TWO ANGELS
WITH LONG TRUMPETS
(tracery light from above the Ascension scene in the Chapel’s west window) ~ 1915 H.121 W.25 cm ~ H.47 W.10 in (each)
Although used here as tracery lights, these Angel figures were originally drawn by Burne-Jones as full-size figures for an impressive window at Cheddleton church, Staffordshire, in 1869. His cartoons (‘BJ 26’ and BJ 28’) were used for several other Morris & Co. windows; full-size versions are at All Saints’, Bingley (1874) and the tracery versions are at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea (1894-95).
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Fig. 14 ~
RUTH
(part of a three-light window, with figures of Miriam and Joshua) ~ 1911 H.145 W.45cm ~ H.57 W.18 in
The artist William Glasby (1863-1941), who for a time worked as a glass-painter for Morris & Co., painted this figure of Ruth from the cartoon by Burne-Jones. The figure (cartoon number ‘BJ 467’) was originally designed for a window in St Giles’s Cathedral, Edinburgh in 1886, and later re-used for windows at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea (1894-95) and at Crescent Street Church, Montreal, Canada (1901).
Fig. 13 ~ NOAH (part of a three-light window, with figures of Abel and Enoch) ~ 1909 H.144 W.44 cm ~ H.57 W.17 in
Originally drawn in 1874 for part of a window in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge, Burne-Jones’s cartoon of Noah was subsequently used for a number of later commissions, including windows at Brampton (1878) and Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea (1894-95). The cartoon was catalogued as ‘BJ 173’ in Morris & Co.’s numerical listing of stained glass cartoons. The documentation for the original use of the cartoon at Jesus College suggests that the dove holding the olive branch might possibly have been drawn by Philip Webb (1831-1915).
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Fig. 15 ~ RACHEL (part of a three-light window, with figures of Abraham and Joseph) ~ 1909 H.122 W.44 cm ~ H.48 W.17 in
Fig. 16 ~
Listed by Morris & Co. as ‘BJ 540/544’, the cartoon for this figure of Rachel was drawn by Burne-Jones for a window of 1878 at Guilsborough. Apart from the Cheadle version of the figure, only one other is recorded, part of a 1901 window (destroyed by fire) at the former Crescent Street Church, Montreal, Canada.
JEREMIAH
(part of a three-light window, with figures of Daniel and Isaiah) ~ 1911 H.121 W.45 cm ~ H.48 W.18 in
Burne-Jones’s cartoon, listed as ‘BJ 268’ by Morris & Co., was first drawn for a window of 1875 (commemorating William Morris’s sister’s father-in-law) at Tavistock church. It was used thereafter for windows at Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge (1878), St Martin’s, Brampton and King’s College Chapel, Aberdeen (both 1897).
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Fig. 17 ~ ST JAMES THE GREATER (part of a three-light window, with figures of St Mark and Timothy) ~ 1911 H.145 W.44 cm ~ H.57 W.17 in
Fig. 18 ~ ST ELIZABETH
Burne-Jones’s cartoon of St James, as used for this window, was first drawn in 1876 for a window made for St Mark’s church, New Ferry, Cheshire. As with some of the artist’s depictions of Christ, this figure has a suggestion of self-portraiture. The cartoon – ‘BJ 365’ in the Morris & Co. list – was re-used for windows at Clay Cross (1879), Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea (1894-95) and Youlgreave (1897).
(part of a three-light window, with figures of St Mary and St John) ~ 1911 H.145 W.45 cm ~ H.57 W.18 in
Burne-Jones drew the cartoon (‘BJ 212’ in Morris & Co.’s list) of the mother of St John the Baptist for a window at Speldhurst church, Kent, in 1874. There are several later uses of the cartoon, including windows at Paisley (1876), Welburn (1878), Halewood (1879) and Monkton (1892).
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Fig. 19 ~ ST ANDREW (part of a three-light window, with figures of St Matthew and St Peter) ~ 1909 H.176 W.44 cm ~ H.69 W.17 in
Fig. 20 ~ VIRGIN MARY AND CHRIST CHILD (part of a three-light window, with flanking scenes of Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop and Christ blessing Children) ~ 1909
Burne-Jones’s drawing of St Andrew, ‘BJ 514’ in Morris & Co.’s list of cartoons, was first made for a window in St Mark’s church, New Ferry, in 1876. Later re-uses of the cartoon are at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea (1894-95) and Albion Congregational Church, Ashton-under-Lyne (1896).
H.165 W.43 cm ~ H.65 W.17 in
The first use of Burne-Jones’s cartoon of the Virgin and Child, for which he was paid £10 by Morris & Co., was for a window of 1868 in Tilehurst church. The cartoon was numbered ‘BJ 2a’ by the firm and used for several later windows: at Furneaux Pelham in 1874, Littlemore in 1889 and All Saints’, Putney in 1890.
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Fig. 22 ~
ST PAUL
(part of a three-light window, with figures of St Thomas and St Luke) ~ 1911 H.122 W.45 cm ~ H.48 W.18 in
Fig. 21 ~ ENOCH
This late design by Burne-Jones (‘BJ WB61’ in Morris & Co.’s numbered list) dates from 1892. It was originally used for a window at Ashton-under-Lyne, and subsequently for St Germans (1896) and St Mary’s, Dundee (1897).
(part of a three-light window, with figures of Abel and Noah) ~ 1909 H.122 W.44 cm ~ H.48 W.17 in
Burne-Jones originally designed this figure of the Old Testament prophet Enoch for part of the west window of Calcutta Cathedral, India, in 1874. As well as its later use for the window at Cheadle (1909), it was adapted for Morris & Company windows in 26 other locations, including those at St Martin’s, Brampton (1878) and Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, Chelsea (1894-5). Burne-Jones’s cartoon was catalogued as ‘BJ 143’ in Morris & Co.’s numerical listing of stained glass cartoons.
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Fig. 23 ~ AN ANGEL, THE EMBLEM OF ST MATTHEW
Fig. 24 ~ WINGED LION, THE EMBLEM OF ST MARK
(part of a three-light window, with figures of St Matthew, St Andrew and St Peter) ~ 1909
(part of a three-light window, with figures of St Mark, St James and Timothy) ~ 1911
H.90 W.44 cm ~ H.35 W.17 in
H.90 W.45 cm ~ H.36 W.18 in
This is one of four Emblems of the Evangelists designed by Burne-Jones for windows in the Chapel of Castle Howard, Yorkshire, in 1872. He charged Morris & Co. £16 for the four cartoons of ‘Evangelistic Beasts’, of which this was ‘BJ 77’ in the firm’s numerical list.
Burne-Jones’s friend and patron George Howard, Earl of Carlisle, commissioned the first version of this design (along with the emblems of the three other Evangelists) for windows in the Chapel of Castle Howard, Yorkshire, in 1872. The cartoon was catalogued as ‘BJ 78’ in Morris & Co.’s numerical listing of stained glass cartoons. 26
Fig. 25 ~ WINGED OX, THE EMBLEM OF ST LUKE
Fig. 26 ~ EAGLE, THE EMBLEM OF ST JOHN
(part of a three-light window, with figures of St Luke, St Thomas and St Paul) ~ 1911
(part of a three-light window, with figures of St John, St Mary Virgin and St Elizabeth) ~ 1911
H.90 W.45 cm ~ H.35 W.18 in
H.90 W.45 cm ~ H.35 W.18 in
This is one of the four ‘Evangelistic Beasts’ originally designed by Burne-Jones for George Howard’s refurbishment of Castle Howard Chapel in 1872. The cartoon was listed as ‘BJ 79’ by Morris & Company.
This Emblem of St John the Evangelist (cartoon number ‘BJ 80’) was originally drawn by Burne-Jones in 1872 for the windows installed by Morris & Co. in the Chapel of Castle Howard.
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Fig. 27 ~ MELCHISEDEK (part of a three-light window, with figures of Elijah and Samuel) ~ 1911 H.145 W.44 cm ~ H.57 W.17 in
Fig. 28 ~ SAMUEL
The figure of Melchisedek was first used in the east window of All Saints’ church, Cambridge. An entry dated August 1866 in Burne-Jones’s account book records his charge of four guineas for the drawing, which was numbered ‘BJ 72’ in Morris & Co.’s listing of stained glass cartoons. It was re-used for several later windows, including one at Meole Brace (1871) and at St Peter’s church in Albany, New York, USA (1881).
(part of a three-light window, with figures of Melchisedek and Elijah) ~ 1911 H.146 W.45 cm ~ H.48 W.18 in
A Morris & Co. window of 1868 at Llandaff Cathedral has the first version of Burne-Jones’s Samuel figure, numbered ‘BJ 177/317’ in the firm’s listing. Several later versions exist, including windows at Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge (1872), Tamworth (1874) and Middleton Cheney (1880).
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Miriam 29
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Miriam 30
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Fig. 29 ~
St. Mark
(part of a three-light window, with figures of St James and Timothy) ~ 1911 H.122 W.44 cm ~ H.48 W.17 in
This is one of the four Evangelist figures originally drawn by Burne-Jones for windows in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge. His account book entry (between February and May 1874) lists his charge of £15 for the cartoon, to which Morris & Co. gave the list number ‘BJ 146’. There are other versions at Speldhurst church (1875) and Birmingham City Art Gallery (1883), the latter one of several windows originally made for Morris & Co.’s display at the ‘Foreign Fair’ in Boston, USA.
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Fig. 30 ~ CHRIST BLESSING CHILDREN (part of a three-light window, with a figure of the Virgin & Child and a scene of Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop) ~ 1909 H.98 W.44 cm ~ H.39 W.17 in
The cartoon for this panel (numbered ‘BJ 277’ by Morris & Co.) is now in Leeds City Art Gallery. It was drawn by Burne-Jones in 1874 for a window in Speldhurst church, Kent. Morris & Co. made several subsequent versions, including those for windows at Allerton, Liverpool (1876), St Michael’s, Torquay (1878) and Manchester College Chapel, Oxford (1896).
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Miriam
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Miriam
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Fig. 31 ~ TWO ANGELS OF THE ASCENSION (part of the lower section of the Ascension scene in the Chapel’s west window) ~ 1915 H.118 W.60 cm ~ H.46 W.24 in
Morris & Co.’s first use of Burne-Jones’s cartoon for these figures was in a window of 1874 at Brown Edge in Staffordshire. Listed as ‘BJ 325’ in the firm’s inventory of cartoons, the design was re-used at Staveley (1881) and Troutbeck (1898).
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Fig. 32 ~ THE DOVE / HOLY SPIRIT (upper central tracery light from the Chapel’s west window) ~ 1915 H.67 W.63 cm ~ H.26 W.25 in
J. H. Dearle probably adapted his cartoon for the descending Dove from earlier cartoons by Burne-Jones and Philip Webb.
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Fig. 33 ~
THREE SERAPH HEADS
(tracery light from above the Nativity scene in the Chapel’s west window) ~ 1915 H.74 W.61 cm ~ H.29 W.24 in
This quatrefoil panel of Seraphim was made from the cartoons of John Henry Dearle (1859-1932), Morris’s assistant and, after 1896, the principal designer of stained glass, textiles and wallpapers for Morris & Company.
Fig. 34 ~ THREE SERAPH HEADS (tracery light from above the Nativity scene in the Chapel’s west window) ~ 1915 H.73 W.63 cm ~ H.29 W.25 in
J. H. Dearle drew the cartoon for this quatrefoil tracery light. The Seraphs’ faces and coiffure closely replicate Burne-Jones’s typical idiom for such details.
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Fig. 35 ~ANGEL HOLDING
THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM
(part of the upper section of the Nativity scene from the Chapel’s west window) ~ 1915 H.55 W.61 cm ~ H.22 W.24 in
The original version of this design by Burne-Jones was drawn for the famous Morris & Co. tapestry The Adoration of the Magi, first woven in 1886-90 for the chapel of Exeter College, Oxford (where both Morris and Burne-Jones had been students in the 1850s). BurneJones also used the same subject, with minor changes, for an enormous watercolour, The Star of Bethlehem, commissioned by Birmingham City Art Gallery in 1887. The Morris firm adapted Burne-Jones’s design – more closely following the tapestry version than the watercolour – for at least two other stained glass windows, at Westerham church (1909) and St Michael’s church, Macclesfield (1918).
Fig. 36 ~ CHRIST ASCENDING (part of the upper section of the central Ascension scene from the Chapel’s west window) ~ 1915 H.55 W.61 cm ~ H.22 W.24 in
The cartoon by J. H. Dearle for this Ascension scene (‘HD 645’ in Morris & Co.’s listing) was first used for a window in the Old Parish Church at Troon in 1903. A much later version appears in a 1936 window by the firm for St Andrew’s, Vancouver, Canada.
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fig. 37a
Miriam
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Fig. 37a & 37b ~ TWO PRAYING ANGELS (tracery light from above the Crucifixion scene in the Chapel’s west window) ~ 1915 H.118 W.24 cm ~ H.46 W.9 in (each)
John Henry Dearle designed these two praying Angel figures for the central tracery lights of the Cheadle chapel’s west window. As in most of Dearle’s cartoons for stained glass, the dominant influence of Burne-Jones is evident.
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Miriam 45
fig.12
Miriam 46
Further Reading: The definitive account of Morris & Company’s stained glass is A. C. Sewter’s The Stained Glass of William Morris and his Circle, published in two volumes by Yale University Press, New Haven and London, in 1974 and 1975. Sewter’s work has been amplified and, in a few cases corrected by Martin Harrison, author of Victorian Stained Glass (1980), and by the late Donald Green, whose research archive is now at the National Monuments Record (English Heritage) at Swindon. The history of Burne-Jones’s cartoons for stained glass is substantially documented in Douglas E. Schoenherr’s ‘The “Cartoon Book” and Morris & Company’s sale of Burne-Jones’s cartoons in 1901-1904’ in The Journal of Stained Glass, Volume XXIX (2005).
Thanks to John Murdoch and his colleagues at the Huntington Library and Art Collections at San Marino, California Text of Introduction and Captions © Peter Cormack 2008 Photographs © 2008 Michael Whiteway Figs 38-42 © the Huntington Library and Art Collections
Design: Sarah Southin:
[email protected] Printed in Great Britain by Henry Ling Limited, The Dorset Press, Dorchester DT1 1HD ISBN- 978-0-9559239-0-6 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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