Fig. 7.14 Grief, 1951, by Jack B. Yeats, oil on canvas, 102cm x 153cm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin Book illustrations


A. E. Child, who had trained in the studios of William Morris, set up a stained glass department in the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. The craft was taught to a very high technical standard.


Harry Clarke (1889–1931)


Clarke’s father, Joshua, had a church decorating and stained glass business in North Fredrick Street in Dublin. His secondary education was with the Jesuits in Belvedere College, which was close to his home. He left school at the age of 14 following his mother’s death. He began an apprenticeship in his father’s workshop and went to night classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art under A. E. Child. He won a full scholarship in stained glass in the School of Art in 1910 and won a gold medal for stained glass at the Board of Education National Competition in London three years in a row from 1911.


He began to get commissions for book illustrations early in his career. The first to be published was Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales for Harrap publishers of London, which was well received when it came out in 1916. The book had 40 full- page illustrations, 16 of which were in colour. He illustrated several books for Harraps. He made 96 drawings for a 1925 edition of Goethe’s Faust. The Walpurgis Night page (Fig. 7.15) shows Clarke at his macabre best. A sniggering devil pushes a victim into the festering zoomorphic mass at the bottom right. An arc of hair connects to a scaly witch at the top of the composition grasping pieces of people who have led less than virtuous lives. The drama of the dense black background contrasts with the fine line and texture marks that Clarke used to describe fur, fabrics and fantasy. The drawing and some of the decoration are beautiful, which makes the weird subject even stranger.


CHAPTER 7: IRISH ART IN THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES 135


ART IN IRELAND


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