Description
Book SynopsisHenry Holiday (1839–1927) was a polymath who counted figures such as Lewis Carroll, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Emmeline Pankhurst as his friends. Most significantly, he was unquestionably one of the greatest stained-glass artists of the Victorian-Edwardian period, yet his considerable achievements have not received the recognition that they deserve.
Taking Holiday’s commissions for New York State churches as its focus, George Bryant’s ground-breaking study places the artist’s transatlantic accomplishments in the context of the social, artistic, religious and economic shifts that shaped his success in the US during America’s Gilded Age – a period where existing social hierarchies were challenged by new money and European immigration that ended with the outbreak of the First World War. Also providing a clear understanding of the technical and aesthetic differences that set Holiday's stained glass apart from that of his contemporaries such as Edward Burne-Jones, La Farge, and Tiffany, Bryant's truly original publication, based on substantial archival research, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of nineteenth-century stained-glass design and Henry Holiday's important achievements.
Trade Review'Bryant’s detailed accounts of many of Holiday’s magnificent windows point to the artist’s colossal artistic achievement; they also point to the fragility of the medium. {...} Stained-glass windows are difficult to record accurately and the brilliance of Holiday’s colour palette shines through in these reproductions.' – Morna O’Neill, Apollo Magazine
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I: Holiday's early life and career (three chapters covering 1839-1876); Part II: Holiday in the 1880s (six chapters, with a focus on specific commissions); Part III: Holiday in the 1890s and beyond (six chapters, which include specific commissions); Conclusion; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Acknowledgements; Illustration credits; Index
