Lucy Costigan

This has a potted biography of Harry Clarke to start and then a catalogue of his works, mostly the stained glass, with some of the illustrations also featured. Many of the windows are pictured and some of the elements discussed in detail, this book features a lot of pictures of the windows (though sometimes I wanted more, and a zoom function!)
Yes, a potted biography, it details the facts without any real speculation to his inner world, but you can see some of his inner world in his illustrations and some of it looks quite dark. I have been a Clarke fan for a long time and this cements my fannishness.

Harry Clarke was a man who designed windows and did some illustrations and sadly died relatively young of consumption (1889-1931), one of the things he illustrated was the list of the Irish War dead of 1914-18, a sobering list with amazing illustrations. His illustrations and Aubrey Beardsley were quite similar, though each had their own signature. He is a man who has had a lot of influence in Irish art, and this book makes me want to visit the Hugh Lane or Collins Barracks soon to see his work in the flesh again. Pictures are wonderful but they are only a pale shadow of the real thing.

Also, the Irish state should be so ashamed about the Geneva Window, that was a criminal act of censorship by a cowardly government. The fact that it was allowed to leave the country was also a massive mistake.… (meer)