Page 21 - Whyte's Irish & British Art 4th March 2013 (Use full screen from menu for best Viewing)

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WHYTESSINCE 1783
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Evie Hone HRHA (1894-1955)
MY FOUR GREEN FIELDS, NEW YORK - DESIGN FOR
STAINED GLASS WINDOW, c.1937-1938
gouache
32.50 by 20.25in. (82.55 by 51.44cm)
Exhibited:
possibly exhibited at the WCSI, 1939, My Four Green Fields
Sketch Design for Stained Glass Window,no. 76
The stained-glass window, My Four Green Fields, dates from 1939
when it was commissioned by the Department of Industry and
Commerce for the Irish Government’s Pavilion at the New York
World Trade Fair. It was installed in the CIE Head Office, O’Connell
Street in 1960 and later removed to storage by Abbeyglass in
Kilmainham at the request of the OPW in 1983. During the
renovation of Government Buildings in 1990 the window was
taken out of storage, renovated and installed in its present
location at the top of the foyer staircase.The carpet on the stairs
was custom made by Mary Fitzgerald to complement the colours
of Hone’s designs.
Examples of designs for My Four Green Fields (lent by Mr & Mrs
F.H. Boland, no. 94) as well as the finished window (lent by the
Commissioners of the Board of Works (no. 70) were shown at the
artist’s retrospective exhibition, ‘Evie Hone 1894-1955’, Great Hall,
University College Dublin, 29 July - 5 September 1958. Another
design, Saints and Scholars with St. Colmcille, 1938 was shown at
the IELA in 1955 and later lent to the 1958 exhibition by Dr Eileen
MacCarvill.
In reference to My Four Green Fields, in the exhibition catalogue
to the 1958 show, James White, former Director of the National
Gallery of Ireland commented:
“The My Four Green Fields[window] shown in the New York
World’s Fair must rank amongst the most important [in the
artist’s oeuvre] , but it is notable that a feeling of new assurance
centred in the features and disposition of the figures. It was
almost as if the curvaceous and rounded line of the Byzantine
world were added to the Northern, Gothic style which the artist
seemed to possess in common with the medieval craftsmen of
Chartres and Poitiers.”
€3,000-€5,000 (£2,600-£4,300 approx.)
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Evie Hone HRHA
(1894-1955)
DESIGN FOR STAINED GLASS WINDOW
DEPICTING THE DEPOSITION
gouache
11.75 by 4.25in. (29.85 by 10.80cm)
Provenance:
Studio of the artist;
By descent to Margaret Clarke;
Thence by descent to her son David
Clarke
€600-€800 (£430-£690 approx.)