Harry Clarke's stained glass: Panels from the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin

Details of "A Meeting", 1918

The details and images of the stained glass panels in the National Museum of Ireland are illustrative of many facets of Harry Clarke's work; decorative secular, and commemorative panels, and a religiously themed window. The works also span a large portion of the career of Harry Clarke, whom it must be remembered died at the age of 41. The Unhappy Judas panel was produced in 1912 for the South Kensington examinations in London and the Royal Dublin Society's Art Industries Exhibition in 1913. The panel won awards in both exhibitions.

The panel entitled "A Meeting" above, was produced in 1918 and is a diminutive, and highly detailed oval stained glass panel. It is similar in style to some other similar panels commissioned about this time, and indeed the illustrative work designed for the London publishers Harrap. Titles which Clarke worked upon during this period include "The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anderson" and "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" by Edgar Allen Poe. This particular panel is inspired by a ballad written by Heinrich Heine.

The panel below is a portrait of General Richard Mulcahy and was probably produced in or about 1925. General Mulcahy fought in the 1916 Easter Rising, served as Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence [1920 - 1922], and was commander of the pro-treaty forces in the Irish Civil War [1922 - 1923].

Portrait of General Richard Mulcahy, Circa 1925

Detail of "The Unhappy Judas", 1912