Harry Clarke

Henry Patrick Clarke was born on 17 March 1889, the younger son and third child of Joshua Clarke and Brigid (née MacGonigal) Clarke. Joshua Clarke was a church decorator who moved to Dublin from Leeds in 1877 and started a decorating business, Joshua Clarke & Sons, which later incorporated a stained glass division. Through his work with his father, Clarke was exposed to many schools of art but Art Nouveau in particular. Clarke was educated at the Model School in Marlborough Street, Dublin and Belvedere College, which he left in 1905. He was devastated by the death of his mother in 1903 when he was only 14 years old. Clarke was then apprenticed into his father's studio and attended evening classes in the Metropolitan College of Art and Design. His The Consecration of St Mel, Bishop of Longford, by St Patrick won the gold medal for stained glass work in the 1910 Board of Education National Competition. At the art school in Dublin, Clarke met fellow artist and teacher, Margaret Crilley. They married on 31 October 1914 and moved into a flat at 33 North Frederick Street. In subsequent years the Clarkes lived in various locations in Dublin, including a semi-detached house in Cabra in which Margaret Clarke painted her husband at work. The Clarkes had three children, Michael, David, and Ann. ==Career==

Book illustration Clarke briefly moved to London to seek work as a book illustrator. Picked up by London publisher Harrap, Clarke was commissioned by the Committee of the Irish National War Memorial in 1919 to illustrate the ''Ireland's Memorial Records 1914-1918,'' a roll of honour for the 49,435 Irish who died during World War I. Illustrations for the 8 volumes were completed in 1922 and published in 1923, and a set is on display in the Irish National War Memorial Gardens. 100 copies of the book were distributed to cathedrals and libraries across Ireland and to other Allied countries. Each page features a large four-sided border of black and white illustrations by Clarke. Difficulties with these projects made Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen his first printed work, in 1916. It included 16 colour plates and more than 24 halftone illustrations. This was followed by illustrations for an edition of Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination: the first version of that title was restricted to halftone illustrations, while a second with eight colour plates and more than 24 halftone images was published in 1923. of the latter, a window illustrating John Keats' The Eve of St. Agnes (now in the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery in Dublin) and the Geneva Window, created for the Centre William Rappard in Geneva, Switzerland (now in the Wolfsonian Museum, Miami, Florida, US). ==Later years and death==

Both Harry and his brother Walter were plagued with ill health, in particular problems with their lungs. Clarke was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1929, and went to a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland. Fearing that he would die abroad, he began his journey back to Dublin in 1931, but died on 6 January 1931 in Chur where he was buried. A headstone was erected, but local law required that the family pledge to maintain the grave 15 years after the death. This was not explained to the Clarke family and Harry Clarke's remains were disinterred in 1946 and reburied in a communal grave. ==Legacy==

In 2019 a bridge in Cabra, Dublin, was renamed "Harry Clarke Bridge" in his honour. In 2026, a plaque marking Clarke's birthplace was unveiled on North Frederick Street in Dublin. ==Gallery==

Stained glass File:Cork - Honan Chapel - Saint Gobnait by Harry Clarke (Detail).jpg|The Saint Gobnait window, Honan Chapel, Cork, 1916 File:Longford St. Mel's Cathedral West Transept Window Sts. Anne and Mary by Richard King 2019 08 22.jpg|St Anne and Mary, St Mel's Cathedral, Longford, 1932 File:Dingle Presentation Convent Chapel Harry Clarke Window The Baptism of Jesus.jpg|Chapel of the Sacred Heart, Dingle, The Baptism of Jesus, 1922–24 File:Duhill Church of Saint John the Baptist Window Vision of Bernadette at Lourdes by Harry Clarke Detail Our Lady of Lourdes 2012 09 08.jpg|"Vision of Bernadette at Lourdes", Church of Saint John the Baptist, Duhill, County Tipperary, 1925 File:Queens whose finger once did stir men.jpg|Queens whose finger once did stir men ("Queens"), 1917 Illustrations File:Ligeia-Clarke.jpg|Illustration for Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia", 1923 File:Page 28 illustration from Fairy tales of Charles Perrault (Clarke, 1922).png|The Fairy, from Fairy tales of Charles Perrault, 1922 File:Harry Clarke The Colloquy of Monos and Una.jpg|The Colloquy of Monos and Una, Edgar Allan Poe series, 1923 File:Page 002 (Faust, 1925).png|Faust, page 2, 1925 File:Clarke - The Two Distilleries on the Same Hill (1925).png|From Elixir of Life, G. C. Warren, 1925 File:Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen (Harry Clarke).jpg|From Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, 1916 == Works ==

As illustrator • Andersen, H. C. — The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, George Harrap, London, 1916 • Poe, E. A. — Tales of Mystery and Imagination, George Harrap, London, 1919 • Walters, L. d'O. — ''The Year's at the Spring, George Harrap, London, 1920 The Year's at the Spring'' via HathiTrust • Perrault, C. — The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, George Harrap, London, 1922 • _____ ''Ireland's Memorial Records 1914–1918,'' Maunsel and Roberts, Dublin, 1923 Volume Five via Trinity College Dublin • Warren, G. C. — The History of a Great House, John Jameson & Son, Dublin, 1924 • Warren, G. C. — Elixir of Life {Uisge Beatha} John Jameson & Son, Dublin, 1925 • Goethe, J. W. von — Faust, George Harrap, London, 1925 • Swinburne, A. C. — Selected Poems of Charles Swinburne, John Lane, London, 1928 ==See also==