Harry Clarke
Introduction
I talk about Harry Clarke a lot. With this drawing, I am trying to see if I can encapsulate his illustration style. But I have never really discussed his work in detail. I do not know what the rules are about copyright on images. So in this essay I will provide links to sites, where the artworks I mention can be viewed.
Influences
Clarke was an internationally renowned stained glass artist and illustrator. He was born in Dublin in 1899 and learned his skills as an apprentice in his father’s Church decorating business. Clarke was an Art Nouveau artist. This art style flourished between 1890 and 1910 in Europe and the United States. It is characterized by its use of sinuous curves and detailed finery. Inspired by Ukiyo-e (Picture of the Floating World) Japanese print making, Art Nouveau was employed by 19th century illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, an important influence on Clarke. The style would most often be used in jewellery, architecture painting, and most importantly for you and me, stained glass design and illustration.
Clarkes skills with stained glass would lend themselves well to the illustration of books. His major break in the world of publishing came in 1916, from the London publisher George Harrap. He was commissioned to work on creating forty illustrations, sixteen in colour, for Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales. Even though the First World War had caused a shortage of paper and inks, the book was successfully printed and published. Clarke’s skill for the fantastical was an influence of the Celtic revivalists. This movement had begun in the 1880s. It was an effort by Irish artists and writers – including poet William Butler Yates, and poet and painter George Russel – to create a new cultural identity for Ireland, in the wake of their country gradually gaining independence from British rule. This would be achieved, they envisioned, through the revival of the Gaelic language, along with new representations of Celtic mythology and folklore, in painting, imagery and literature. Clarkes love for mythology and the supernatural is clear throughout most of his commissions. From his masterpieces such as his depiction in stained glass of JM Synge’s poem, Queens in 1917, to his promotional booklet for Jamieson and Son’s Whisky in 1925. Illustrating Synge’s work would seal Clarke’s reputation as a maker of stained glass. Wealthy businessman and patron of the arts, Lawrence Ambrose Waldron commissioned the Synge window to be displayed in the library of Ballybrack, his residence in Dublin.
Mystery and Imagination
In 1919, Clarke would take Art Nouveau into some very dark territory. He provided twenty four monochrome illustrations for Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, a collection of stories by horror writer and poet Edgar Allen Poe. Poe had died mysteriously in1849 at the age of 41, possibly from alcoholism. He is one of the great pioneers of horror fiction, and is also credited with inventing the maverick detective genre. Clarke’s dreamlike style combines perfectly with Poe’s sinister characters and chilling storylines. The prints for the stories, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Masque of Red Death are particularly horrifying. In The Fall of the House of Usher, the character of Madelaine Usher is accidentally buried alive by her brother Roderick. She breaks out of her grave and kills him, before finally their decaying house collapses on them both. The bandages hanging from Madelaine’s body put the viewer in mind of strips of flesh. And the fact that the figure is partially obscured by the door way, the bandages trailing behind, gives a sense of otherworldly animation and imminent physical contact. In The Masque of Red Death, Prince Prospero holds a masked ball, thinking that he can safely ignore a plague, the mysterious Red Death – which some readers consider to be tuberculosis – which is killing the peasantry of his domains. The nobility dance, revel and consume huge amounts of food and alcohol. They do not realize that the party has been infiltrated by an uninvited guest who is dressed all in red. This figure takes off its mask, revealing itself to be the living incarnation of Red Death, and proceeds to wipe out Prospero and his guests. The figure of Red Death is looking away from the horrified revelers, making us imagine how it will react, when it realizes it has so many victims ripe for consumption.
An awareness of real anatomy is important for these artworks, despite Clarkes fantastical style. I could not find out if this was the case with Tales Of Mystery and Imagination, but we know that Clarke sometimes used photographs of models for references. An example of this was his 1920 stained glass portrayal of the Crucifixion in St. Michael’s Church in Terenure in Dublin. Wearing only a loincloth, Clarke took up a Christlike pose with his hands held up by a rope in imitation of the Crucifixion. He then had his brother Walter take his picture, and used his own body as a reference for the work. His appreciation of the human form, combined with his over elegant style, make his visualizations of Poe’s stories even more terrifying. It makes every figure in his works, look like statues that have come alive, and become aware of the viewer. The contrast between the intricate detail of the figures, and the stark blankness of the spaces, emphasizes the easiness with which human life, vibrant and complicated, can disappear into nothing.
Death and Rejection
Clarkes non-horror works could be just as shocking. In 1926, he was commissioned to create a window, as a contribution from the Irish government, to the fabric of the League of Nations building in Geneva. The windows depicted scenes from the works of Irelands greatest writers, including George Bernard Shaw and P.H. Pearse. But Clarke would never get to see his work installed. In 1931, he died from tuberculosis. The League of Nations window is now considered to be a masterpiece. But it would never be installed in Geneva. Instead it was installed in the government buildings in Marrion Square Dublin. In 1932 it was bought back by Clarkes widow Margaret. Today it is kept in the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami. The reasons for this cancellation are both amusing and totally understandable. The representations of sexuality and alcohol consumption were considered too provocative, both by politicians and the Catholic Church. These included a scene from Liam O’Flaherty’s Mr. Gilhooley, which featured the title character drinking alcohol, whilst admiring a nude female dancer. There was also Clarkes depiction of a scene from Seamus O’Sullivan’s poem, The Others. In the scene, a woman is shown dancing whilst touching the genitals of her partner.
The Irish Free State had been achieved in 1921 with much blood and suffering. Thus President William T Cosgrove had to have a care for how the state introduced itself to the world stage. It was time for the land of revelry and fairy folk to grow up. The politicians were given yet another fright by the windows inclusion of the work of Protestant writers, such as William Butler Yeats. With elections approaching, Cosgrove had to consider the Catholic vote. Thus the fairy stories of the Celts came to be repressed by those of the One God.
Artworks
Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales
Drawing Inspiration: Harry Clarke (1889-1931) | National Gallery of Ireland
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau | History, Characteristics, Artists, & Facts | Britannica
Ukiyoe art style
The Enduring Art of Japanese Woodcuts: Then and Now | Perspectives
JM Synge’s Queens
Irish Arts Review — A Regal Blaze: Harry Clarke’s Depiction of Synge’s “Queens”
Clarkes illustrations for John Jamieson and Sons Whiskey
Tomm Moore and Harry Clarke — Crooked Timber
Tales of Mystery and Imagination – The Fall of the House of Usher
Tales of Mystery and Imagination – The Masque of Red Death
Clarkes photographs himself as reference for 1920 commission Crucifixion for St Michaels Church in Terenure Dublin
Harry Clarke’s Looking Glass — The Public Domain Review
The Geneva Window – Clarkes stained glass panels for: JM Synge’s The Other; Liam O’Flaherty’s Mr. Gilhooley; George Bernad Shaw’s St Joan and WB Yeats The Countess Cathleen
Other Sources
Exploring Harry Clarke’s Geneva Window – Houses of the Oireachtas
The Geneva Window, Wolfsonian Museum, Miami, Florida, USA – Harry Clarke Stained Glass Windows
THE ILLUSTRATIONS OF HARRY CLARKE HD
Alien spaceship, Hammer horror? The pulsating visions of Harry Clarke | Art | The Guardian
Short History of Harry Clarke | Harry Clarke Stained-Glass Windows | Historical Ballinrobe
Harry Clarke: Modernising a medieval art – The History Press
Harry Clarke’s Looking Glass — The Public Domain Review
Irish Arts Review — A Regal Blaze: Harry Clarke’s Depiction of Synge’s “Queens”
Harry Clarke –Shipwreck Library
How to do Master Studies for pen and ink drawing | Longstride Illustration
Harry Clarke Paintings, Bio, Ideas | TheArtStory