page_title: British and Irish stained glass (1811–1918)
section_title: Naturalism
hierarchical_section_title: British and Irish stained glass (1811–1918) / Stylistic developments in 19th-century stained-glass windows / Naturalism
caption_attribution_description: English stained glass
context_page_description: A revival of the art and craft of stained-glass window manufacture took place in early 19th-century Britain, beginning with an armorial window created by Thomas Willement in 1811–12. The revival led to stained glass windows becoming such a common and popular form of coloured pictorial representation that many thousands of people, most of whom would never commission or purchase a painting, contributed to the commission and purchase of stained-glass windows for their parish church.
  Within 50 years of the beginnings of commercial manufacture in the 1830s, British stained glass grew into an enormous and specialised industry, with important centres in Newcastle upon Tyne, Birmingham, Whitechapel in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Norwich and Dublin. The industry also flourished in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. By 1900 British windows had been installed in Copenhagen, Venice, Athens, Bangalore, Nagasaki, Manila and Wellington. After the Great War from 1914 to 1918, stained glass design was to change radically.
context_section_description: The 1870s was a time of rich ornamentation and eclecticism in the arts. The treatment of Gothic canopies which were a feature of so many windows began to change from the brightly coloured, two-dimensional, playful appearance of the 1850s and 60s to an appearance of having been carved from fine white limestone. Tudor and Renaissance architectural details made an appearance and were often used without reference to the nature of the real architecture that enclosed the window. The art of painting canopies in this manner was diligently maintained until after World War I.
  The Gothic style of figure painting began to give way to a more naturalistic style in which the figures seem more three-dimensional and portrait-like. An important source at this time was German wood engravings and etchings. These were available in a number of forms. Bibles and Bible picture books were available with several different series of such engravings. The works of Albrecht Dürer were much admired. One of the advantages of using engravings as a source was that the essentially linear techniques that were employed by the engraver to define forms could be easily interpreted in lead and the fine linear treatment of shadows was likewise easy for the stained glass artist to achieve using the monochrome paint technique. There were also windows imported into England at this time from the studios of Mayer of Munich which influenced English designers towards this style.
  In the late 19th century there is often a great richness in the colouration of the windows, marked by a use of tertiary colours including rich purple, salmon pink, olive green, claret red, saffron and brown. Flashed glass was skillfully employed to enhance deep folds in robes. With this interest in colour, many windows depict atmospheric effects. Sunsets, glowering storm clouds and blazing glories appear behind the figures.
  In line with the naturalistic drafting of the figures, there is a pictorial emphasis on depicting human interaction and response, often with detailed facial expressions and rather flamboyant gestures. Large scenes with large figures were popular. Among the major exponents were Lavers, Barraud and Westlake; and Heaton, Butler and Bayne.  These trends continued, taking two basic directions until World War I.
  The notable exceptions to the general trend were a large number of the windows made by Clayton and Bell who produced a diverse range of styles and continued to supply cheerfully coloured Gothic-style windows with a proliferation of bright red and yellow to catch the morning sun in church chancels.
caption: Elegant figures in subdued colours.
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