page_title: Michael Healy (artist)
section_title: Stained Glass career
hierarchical_section_title: Michael Healy (artist) / Stained Glass career
caption_attribution_description: St. Brendan's Cathedral, Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland Michael Healy &#160;(1873&#8211;1941)&#160;&#160;DescriptionIrish artistDate of birth/death 14 November 1873&#160; 22 September 1941&#160;Authority control : Q41755484 VIAF:&#8201;18023371 ISNI:&#8201;0000 0000 6675 464X ULAN:&#8201;500067118 creator QS:P170,Q41755484 English: Detail of the stained glass window in the baptistry by Michael Healy (1873–1941), depicting Simeon holding Jesus Christ. This work was created in 1904 in the An Túr Gloine workshop in Dublin. (See Nicola Gordon Bowe et al, Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass, ISBN&#160;0-7165-2413-9, p. 57; St Brendan's Cathedral, Loughrea, ISBN&#160;0-900346-76-0.) Wikidata has entry Q7592699 with data related to this item.
context_page_description: Michael Healy was an Irish stained glass artist, one of a small number which included Wilhelmina Geddes, Evie Hone, and Harry Clarke, who achieved international recognition for their work in this medium in the first half of the 20th century. He also achieved some distinction as an illustrator and cartoonist early on in his artistic career, and as an ongoing recorder of Dublin street characters going about their daily business. Healy also occasionally painted in oil, both portraits and landscapes, exhibiting a small number of the latter during his lifetime.
context_section_description: The official start of Michael Healy's stained glass career coincided with the opening of An Túr Gloine in January 1903 and for the first two years he executed, or assisted in the execution of, a total of thirteen stained glass windows; in the case of the majority of these he assisted in the painting (often working alongside Catherine O'Brien) of windows which had been designed by Sarah Purser, Alfred E. Child or Beatrice Elvery. The first two windows designed and painted entirely by Healy, Simeon (1904) and St John (1904), demonstrate his finely honed drawing ability and his natural affinity for the craft that would ensure he would soon eclipse his teacher (Alfred E. Child) and his peers. By 1906 Healy had all but ceased to assist in the painting of windows by other artists at the studio and between that year and 1909 he designed fourteen windows himself. Initially he was only assigned small single-light windows but by 1907 he was entrusted with two small rose windows for the side chapels of St Brendan's Cathedral, Loughrea, County Galway (where his Simeon had already been installed, and which would ultimately become a showcase for some of his finest work), and by 1908 five of his six windows were two-light commissions. In 1909, having proved his worth, Healy was assigned a large four-light window for the Church of Ireland, Rathmines, Dublin. This significant window, which features three saints he had already painted in stained glass, can be seen as the culmination of his first six years as a maturing stained glass artist.
  Between 1910 and 1914 Healy executed fifteen works in stained glass, including two sets of door panels. Healy's first window of this period, the massive five-light Convention of Drum Ceat for the Cathedral of St Eunan and St Columba, Letterkenny, County Donegal, with its increased employment of the aiding technique and heightened palette, signals a new departure in Healy's stained glass oeuvre. His finest two windows of the period, both of which are two-lights and were executed in 1914, are St Helena and Constantine (also for Letterkenny Cathedral) and St Patrick blessing Saints Eithne and Fidelma, for the Catholic Church, Donnybrook, Dublin. Between 1915 and 1917 Healy executed eleven stained glass windows, all of which, with one exception are of modest proportions. Particularly noteworthy is his Christ with St Thomas (1915) for the Catholic Church, Mayfield, Cork, which seems to capture a moment of suspended animation rarely seen in stained glass. Echoing his earlier representation of St Patrick (1914), Healy depicted Ireland's patron saint in sparkling golden vestments twice again in single-light windows destined for the Catholic Church, Ballyporeen, County Tipperary, (1916), and the Catholic Church, Glenariff, County Antrim (1917). Undoubtedly his finest work of this period is his impressive three-light for the chapel of Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare, which depicts three incidents (all nocturnal scenes) from St Joseph's life which occurred around the time of Christ's birth.
  It was only on the conclusion of the First World War that war memorials windows were commissioned from An Túr Gloine in significant numbers. Two artists at the studio appear to have specialised in this genre; Michael Healy and Alfred E. Child. The war memorial boom continued unabated into the 1920s and only began to subside post 1921. Between 1918 and 1921 Healy designed twelve windows and six of these were war memorials, and probably the finest of these was for the Church of Ireland, Castlecomer, County Kilkenny. The commissions entrusted to Healy during the years 1922 to 1924 were diverse, and the calibre of design varied from the pedestrian to the sheer brilliance. The first pair of windows for the Catholic Church, Timahoe, County Laois, are disappointing, though they were immediately followed by two more stunning single-lights (for the Catholic Church at Bridge-a-Crin, County Louth, and the Church of St James and St Catherine, Dublin). Aside from small panels for Fr Glendon, Healy also painted three single-light win
caption: Detail of the Simeon window in St Brendan's Cathedral, Loughrea
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