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Charles Connick and Gothic Revival Stained Glass

© Sue Kimbel

An unexpected and wonderful opportunity came to me recently. I didn't appreciate it at first but when more information came, the opportunity came to light as well. What am I talking about? Well, in a nutshell, Charles Connick.

Here's the story - my colleague and I are building a group of windows for a new house. Part of that project are four diamond light panels that will each feature an antique medallion. The design allows the medallion to sit in front of its own tailor-made section in the window so that it can be enjoyed yet removable.

Three of the medallions are signed by Charles J. Connick and the project gave me the opportunity to learn about his work. I had never heard of this man, but with the information supplied by the client, Charles Hayes, I was able to do some research.

Through the great resources available on the Internet, I found the Charles J. Connick Foundation web site. I learned that Connick opened his studio in Boston in 1913. The studio became a leading American maker of stained glass in the Gothic Revival tradition and from that time until the studio closed in 1986, the studio designed very impressive windows for churches, cathedrals, libraries and more - both in the United States and abroad.

Connick used clear "antique" glass, similar to that of the Middle Ages and praised this type of glass as "colored radiance, with the lustre, intensity, and baffling vibrant quality of dancing lights." His style incorporated a strong interest in symbolism as well. He also believed that his greatest contribution to glasswork was "rescuing it from the abysmal depth of opalescent picture windows" of the sort popularized by Louis Comfort Tiffany, John La Farge and others.

Connick had passionate beliefs about stained glass: that it could transmit light to the soul, and that it was "the handmaiden of architecture." In 1937 his book, Adventures in Light and Color, describes his work and his philosophy. While the book is out of print, copies can be found through antiquarian book dealers if you're really interested.

Connick was influenced by English Arts and Crafts stained glass artist Christopher Whall, whose work influenced Connick's. In many respects Connick's studio was the arts and crafts ideal in that the art was produced by a community of committed craftsmen. At its height in the 1930s, 40 -50 men and women worked at the studio, which, as Connick wrote in his will, was "only incidentally a business." A reporter remarked on the atmosphere of mutual respect that was present there saying " Attitude to his co-designers [is] that of one artist to another...He [Connick] originates, supervises. They elaborate."

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