Brief Biography-Harry Clarke was a renowned stained-glass artist and book illustrator from Dublin, Ireland. His father, Joshua, was in church decorating, which included stained glass installation. Harry’s father apprenticed him while studying at the Metropolitan College of Art and Design at night. The French Symbolist movement and the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti strongly influenced him.
In 1910 he won a gold medal in a Board of Education National Competition. He also won several awards in London and exhibited works in Germany, which led to him receiving commissions for churches in Ireland. His most noted work was for the Horan Chapel in the University College Cork; however, his most viewed works were his windows in the famous Bewley’s Café Grafton Street Dublin.
Book illustrating was also becoming a successful career for him. He contributed to the publications of works by many renowned authors of the time.
Sadly, he suffered severely from tuberculosis and died at the young age of forty-two in 1931