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144

Patrick Pollen (b.1928) ST PATRICK WITH ST. BRIGID AT HIS FEET; THE VIRGIN MARY TRAMPLING THE SNA...

Currency:EUR Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA
Patrick Pollen (b.1928) ST PATRICK WITH ST. BRIGID AT HIS FEET; THE VIRGIN MARY TRAMPLING THE SNA...
Patrick Pollen (b.1928)
ST PATRICK WITH ST. BRIGID AT HIS FEET; THE VIRGIN MARY TRAMPLING THE SNAKE
ABOVE STE. CATHERINE LABOURÉ AND HER MIRACULOUS MEDAL; CHRIST WITH THE SACRED
HEART AND STE. MARGUERITE-MARIE ALACOQUE KNEELING AT HIS FEET; ST. VINCENT DE
PAUL WITH A CHARITABLE VINCENTIAN NUN AT HIS FEET.
each light inscribed in its lower section with the names of its donor(s) (left
to right): "Pray for P. and E.R."; "In Memory of Kathleen Coates"; "In Memory of
Cornelius and Agnes Smith and Family"; and "Remember the Sherlock and Durkin
Families"
two pairs of two-light painted and stained glass windows
each light measures 429 by 49cm, 169 by 19in.
overall dimensions 429 by 196cm., 169 by 77in.
Provenance:
Commissioned circa 1953 for the St. Vincent de Paul Church, Solly Street,
Sheffield (England) to commemorate the centenary of its foundation in 1853;
Private collection, England, following the demolition and dispersal of the
contents of the Solly Street church approximately five years ago;
Hôtel Drouot, Paris (sold as attributed to Evie Hone);
With the Galerie Madaba (specialists in religious art), Paris
Patrick Pollen, son of a sculptor whose uncle was J. Hungerford Pollen, the
well-known Pre-Raphaelite painter and designer of Dublin’s University Church,
was trained at the Slade School in London and, in 1951, in Paris at the Académie
Julian. Such was the effect of Evie Hone’s great nine-light Eton College Chapel
Crucifixion and Last Supper window (completed 1952) on him that Pollen resolved
to go to Dublin to learn the art of stained glass with her. Since 1944, on the
dissolution of An Túr Gloine cooperative in Dublin’s Upper Pembroke Street, Hone
had been working prolifically but in increasingly poor health on her greatest
masterpieces in stained glass from her small studio beside Marlay Grange,
Rathfarnham. On her advice, in January 1953, Pollen rented a small area off the
large studio from Catherine O’Brien, the An Túr artist who had bought up the
studio and its contents, much of which were destroyed by fire in 1958. He worked
from there aided by the studio glazier, Peter Connolly, until O’Brien’s death in
1963, sometimes taking on commissions Hone could not take on, cherishing the use
of her brushes which she bequeathed to him on her death in 1955.
Hone’s profound influence on Pollen, apparent in this early work by him, is seen
in the superb quality of the deep, thick pieces of glowing ruby, blue, amber and
green glass selected to capture the passing light, the bold, expressive painting
with thick brushstrokes and loose washes to enhance the rich colours and ensure
clear, graphic legibility from a considerable height, and the gentle compassion
with which each figure is depicted. Each of the figures, which were given to the
artist by the Irish Vincentian fathers in Sheffield, is identifiable by
distinctive attributes: St. Patrick by his crossed-snake mitre, torc, green alb
and shamrock; St. Brigid by her Cross and Abbey; Ste. Catherine Labouré, the
devout 19th century French Vincentian nun who beheld a vision of the Virgin Mary
poised on a globe on which a serpent was prostrated, and was bidden to have a
medal struck with this living picture; kneeling Ste. Marguerite-Marie Alacoque,
the aristocratic 17th century Burgundian nun of the Order of the Visitation,
whose visionary and penitential devotion to the Sacred Heart led to its
subsequent official adoption; St. Vincent de Paul, the 17th century charitable
reformer of hospitals, galley slave conditions, nursing and parochial missions
and founder of the Vincentians holds a crucifix and looks down on a saintly
blue-clad Vincentian nun who cradles a baby in one of the foundling hospitals he
systematised.
Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe
Dublin, February 2004
For further information on the artist, see Nicola Gordon Bowe, 20th Century
Irish Stained Glass, Dublin, 1983; or Nicola Gordon Bowe, David Caron and
Michael Wynne (ed.s), Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass, Irish Academic Press,
Dublin, 1988.
Whyte’s wish to thank the artist Patrick Pollen, Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe, Ken Ryan
of Abbey Stained Glass and Muriel and Oliver Hone for their concerted efforts in
the cataloguing of this work.
€10,000-€12,000 (£6,700-£8,000 sterling approx.)
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