Autumn Lecture - Behind the Mask: Stained Glass in the Art and Life of Wilhelmina Geddes (1887–1955)

Aug 26, 2026

Upload by Aurora

Autumn lecture event review (9 October) presents Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe’s talk, “Behind the mask: stained glass in the art and life of Wilhelmina Geddes (1887–1955)”, featuring commentary and contextual links from Arts & Crafts stained glass. The lecture traces Geddes’s early emergence as a portrait artist, Celtic Revival influences, key collaborations, and her development through the Tower of Glass and the “Whall method”. It also highlights major windows, stylistic sources from classic sculpture, medieval manuscripts, and cathedral art, and how the biography shaped her distinctive imagery and symbolism.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages1

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Event review: Autumn lecture

Speaker and introduction

Early life and artistic training

Celtic Revival and the Tower of Glass

Major windows and stylistic influences

Travels and later developments

Event review: Autumn lecture, 9 October: ‘Behind themask: stained glass in the art and life of Wilhelmina Geddes (1887–1955)’ by Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe The speaker her as ‘the was introduced by Peter Cormack, who described premier Irish scholar on Arts & Crafts stained glass’. She began by describing how Geddes first came to public attention when, in 1919, a war memorial window commissioned by the Duke of Connaught and destined for Ottawa was shown briefly in London en route from her studio in Dublin, causing astir. In particular, it drew the attention of the eminent American artist Charles J Connick, who commented that he felt gratitude‘for the spiritual beauty, the poetry and youthful audacity’. `The speaker then took us back to the early 1890s, and Geddes’early promise as a portrait artist. At the time, the Celtic Revival style had become popular in glass, with the result that leading studios (e.g. Heaton, Butler & Bayne) simply added a border of‘green tagliatelle’ to a window to make it ‘Celtic’. However, the Revival was also, in Ireland, a cultural search for a new national identity and independence amongst the new generation of artists and writers. Consequently Sarah Purser, a leading painter, the poet WB Yeats, the art collector and writer Edward Martyn, and Christopher Whall collaborated to bring AE Child to Dublin as Instructor in Stained Glass at Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. Under Whall’s influence, in 1903 Purser founded the Tower of Glass (An Túr Gloine) as a cooperative stained glass workshop in the mould of Lowndes & Drury’s London workshop, and Child then became its first manager. Returning to Geddes’ early life, Dr Bowe related how she had been born in a country farmhouse in Leitrim, Co. Antrim, thoughthe family moved a couple of years later into Belfast; she was the first of several children in a staunchly Methodist family. Her father was autocratic, and became increasingly unstable and dependent on drink, which probably had a profound effect on the sensitive girl. A marvellous illustrator from an early age, in 1903 Geddes enrolled at Belfast Technical Institute, encouraged by her early teacher Rosamond Praeger, who had noted the ‘strong sense of line and movement’ in her drawings. She also revealed a marvellous sense of colour and draughtsmanship, and at first desired to train as a book illustrator, producing exceptional drawings of The Vicar of Wakefield (she loved 18th C caricatures), as well as woodblock prints – notably one of Dr Johnson, with‘velvet blacks’. Another passion was for the Classics and she often drew from early Classical sculptures at Belfast Museum, and produced illustrations of The Iliad. Although she regularly won the art prizes at Belfast, Geddes was becoming increasing unhappy there; the relationship with her life-drawing teacher Mr Hodge became tense owing to her rude remarks and wilfulness. Then, in 1910, came a turning point: her Cinderella drawing shown at the 4th A&C Society of Ireland exhibition in Dublin caught the attention of Sarah Purser, who described it as ‘finished with a menacing sense of irony’, and invited her there. However, she had another year to spend at Belfast, during which she made her first attempt at stained glass: a panel of Sir Walter Raleigh. That year she also won a travelling scholarship enabling her to go first to Dublin and then to London, where she made drawings in the British Museum, as well as of stained glass at the V&A and of Titian, Uccello and Fra Angelico paintings in the National Gallery, and moved on to York where she was much excited by its glass. Back in Dublin, Geddes attended the classes of William Orpen, alongside Harry Clarke and others, studying the ‘Whall method’as outlined in his Stained Glass Work and taught by Child. She also worked for Purser, where she produced her first windows for Ulster, Dublin and Lancashire. Her first big window, The Angel of Resurrection, was at St Ninnidh, Inishmacsaint, Co. Fermanagh,

FAQs

Who delivered the autumn lecture and what was the talk’s focus?

Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe delivered the talk, focused on Wilhelmina Geddes’s life and how stained glass shaped her art and legacy.

How did Geddes first gain public attention according to the review?

In 1919, a war memorial window commissioned for Ottawa was shown briefly in London, drawing attention from key figures including the American artist Charles J Connick.

Which influences are highlighted for Geddes’s stained-glass style?

The review connects her style to the Celtic Revival, the “Whall method”, Classical sculpture studies, medieval manuscripts, and cathedral art seen during a trip to France.

Aug 26, 2026

Upload by Aurora