Smokey Mary’s Again

Another image has popped up onto my feed and I wanted to add it to the discussion of the work of d’Ogries et al at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Manhattan (known affectionately as Smokey Mary’s).

This mural of the Nativity is very lovely and one can see one of d’Ogries’ handsome windows above. I think this is clearly d’Ogries’ work and not that of Henry Wynd Young who also worked at St Mary’s. It shows how very different his approach was in paint from glass where he was considerably more experimental. I’m hoping someone from New York can tell me more about this work.

It’s been Forever!

My apologies for neglecting this blog. Life can get in the way of the best of intentions.

I just found this sweet and lively portion of a window at The Church of St James the Less in East Falls, Philadelphia, PA. It’s unmistakably d’Ogries, though not signed. It’s too charming not to share widely.

A Curious Issue

Stained glass, like all two dimensional art, is ruled largely by two things – color and lines. But when faced with a need to show “white” it can produce awkward results. While I’m genuinely in awe of d’Ogries best work and his line work is flawless, here it’s obvious he struggled with the monastic habit of the two monks shown in the clerestory windows at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, PA. They depict Father James Otis Sargent Huntington OHC the founder of the Order of the Holy Cross, an Episcopal monastic order, who has been placed in the church kalendar (yes that’s how it’s spelled) and also another well beloved monk of the order, Father Shirley Carter Hughson OHC.

The problem as I see it is the white habit of the order and d’Ogries has chosen various pale greys and taupes that simply don’t work very convincingly, though he has even inserted pinks and blues – a technique he used many times showing out of context color for visual interest.. Additionally he generally avoided flesh toned glass ( for which I salute him), but it might have helped in this case.

Father Huntington holds the monastery building he commissioned from the architect Henry Vaughan which is, I think, still the primary guest house of the order, while behind him to the left is the chapel designed by Ralph Adams Cram. It’s a beautiful place.

 

Fr Hughson was a prolific writer on sacred subjects so he holds some of his volumes and pen while he stands before the order’s west coast house in Santa Barbara, CA. Both windows are a memorial to the parish’s beloved rector Fr Charles Townsend who died about 1950.

I will give him kudos also for making actual portraits of the monks that avoid appearing odd in his pastiche of 13th c stained glass –  it’s usually a disaster.

Many thanks to John Wallace, architect, for the use of his fine photos of these hard to photograph windows.

More work to be done.

 

St Mary the Virgin, an Episcopal church in New York has numerous contributions by d’Ogries. The first three images are of the main altar mural depicting the BVM as Queen of Heaven. Standing beneath her are Saints Anselm, John the Evangelist, and Dominic who are shown in the detail. The mural is partly obscured from the church by the elaborate marble high altar. The date on this mural is 1922 – much earlier than I would have expected. [Edited to make a correction:  The parish advises me that it now seems that the mural is the work of Henry Wynd Young. D’Ogries may have worked on it as he had worked with Young.]

The following three stained glass images are of the lives of various saints and they are quite exquisite example of his late 14th c style.

Below is the mural – much obscured of the Baptistery showing Christ with the children. He is seated before a blossoming orange tree and the effect is utterly lovely.

Much more work needs to be done to understand  his contribution at this notable church. I’d be happy to hear from any contributors who could help divine the context of his work there over the years.

Sacristy Special

In the Church of St James the Less, a landmark gothic revival church in what were once fields near the city of Phiadelphia, d’Ogries did some spectacular but difficult to photograph lancets in the new sacristy finished in 1930 and the windows were dedicated that same year. They had been ordered in 1926. There are several in fact but of the photos I took only these four details are useful for this blog.

St Dunstan.

ST Hilda

St Gregory

Archbishop Warham

Please note the exceptional delicacy of the drawing – these are some of his finest, in my opinion, and I hope one day to get better full photos of these tiny windows.

In a Time of War Continued…

Another off kilter view due to the unfortunate placement of the gallery at St Mary’s Church Wayne, PA. Here St Cornelius the Centurion is the companion window to the previously discussed St Joan of Arc. But in going over my photos from Wayne I noticed how many of the windows were in fact memorials from the Second World War. There are even more.

The war, while it took many lives from the parish, was bountiful in it’s “gift” of memorial windows. This one, like the one of St Joan, is a thank offering for all those men of the parish who served rather than for a lost soldier or sailor.

I am not completely satisfied with this example. While there is some of his characteristic variety in color, it’s not as bold as other examples in the same series. I like the border concept – the oak leaves (for valour) and the red, white, and blue ribbons, there is little to no variation in it. Perhaps he was tired, or involved with other projects. Certainly he spends a lot of time on incident and the draughtsmanship is sure.

The Best of the Best ?

I have posted some details of these windows before but here is the series of four from the baptistery of The Church of The Good Shepherd in Rosemont Pennsylvania. The first photo isn’t the best as it was a very sunny day.

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

The Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Nativity of Jesus

The Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist

The sheer delight in technique, exquisite draughtsmanship, playful details, and crystalline color makes these, to my thinking, some of his finest work, certainly the finest I have seen.

Merry Christmas

Again with the comparisons! The first Nativity window is from the St Joseph’s chapel in the old parish house at The Church of St James the Less in Philadelphia and the second in the baptistery of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont a few mies away. Done at different times, the Rosemont window represents a more refined design, though the St James window suffers from having an awkward squat shape as opposed to the elongated more truly gothic shape of the second example. But both examples show his play with the local color and though the canopy-work is essentially the same format and style, the figures are not mere repeats of previous cartoons – something that most stained glass firms tend to abuse.

I hope in time to get images of the other windows in the chapel at St James the Less. The chapel is no longer used as such, but is a classroom in the excellent middle school that was established a few years ago at the parish. Happily the school values the stained glass as well as the marvelous parish church which they use as a school chapel.

The Passion

These cartoons are from a group of three possibly related for a church or project unknown to me (D’Ogries’ work is concentrated largely in the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania region though my recent post from Chicago’s St Thomas the Apostle shows his reach into the mid-west).

In the first we have Peter (identifiable by his shorter beard and haircut) with other disciples and possibly Mary Magdalene kneeling in the foreground. I have been unable to photograph the central crucifixion panel due to its size but suffice it to say it is stark.

In the second – the right hand light of the triple light window – we have Mary and the Beloved Disciple at the foot of the cross. Note the austere and modern dramatic composition. Several spears from the Roman soldiers appear to cross from one light into the next – something a truly ” early gothic” window would not have done. Though these are modern in their feeling, the bits of framework indicated suggest they are from a traditional setting.

More New Finds !

Two more windows from Chicago’s St Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church. The first is a detail – a half figure – of St Ephrem of Edessa, a Doctor of the Church, and shows d’Ogries at his most daring. While he uses the elements of his 14th c mannerisms – he weds them here to the art deco style of the building. The portrayal is strange and powerful.

The second is a lower light from a full window – here showing the Magi presenting gifts to the Christ Child. I would love to see the upper light – and in fact I hope one day to see all of this remarkable glass!

Again I am indebted to the Facebook page of the parish.

A further reference has come to light: “The stained glass windows from the d’Ogries Studios of New Hope, Connecticut [sic], portray the Greek and Latin fathers of the early church. Some of their faces were derived fro photographs of contemporary people adn protraits of historicalfigures: Msgr. T.V. Shannon who was pastor when the church was built (St. Gregory the Great), Cardinal Mundelein (St. Augustine), President Coolidge (St. Bede), George Washington (St. John Chrysostom), and Thomas Jefferson (St. Bernard). Page 165, of “Chicago Churches and Synagogues: An Architectural Pilgrimage” by George A. Lane, S.J. 1981