Patrick Pollen

Summary

Patrick Pollen (12 January 1928 – 30 November 2010) was a British stained-glass artist who spent most of his life working in Ireland.

Patrick Pollen
Born
Patrick Laprimaudaye Pollen

12 January 1928
London, United Kingdom
Died30 November 2010(2010-11-30) (aged 82)
NationalityBritish
Known forstained glass design

Early life and education edit

Patrick La Primaudaye Pollen was born in London on 12 January 1928, the second son and second of six children of Arthur and Daphne Pollen (née Baring).[1] Arthur Pollen was a sculptor of religious works, and grandson of John Hungerford Pollen. Daphne was the daughter of Cecil Baring, 3rd Baron Revelstoke, who purchased Lambay Island and employed Edwin Lutyens to restore the castle there. Daphne was a painter of religious matter.[2] Pollen attended St Philip's preparatory school in South Kensington, then Avisford, near Arundel,[1] and finally Ampleforth College, going on to serve national service. He attended the Slade School of Fine Art for two years to study painting, going on to work at an art school in Paris, Académie Julian.[2]

Stained glass work edit

 
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Chapel of Laurence O'Toole Window Virgin and Child with Saint Luke

In 1952 Pollen's father took him to see Evie Hone's Crucifixion and Last Supper window in Eton College Chapel. Upon seeing it he announced "That's what I want to do."[2] He moved to Dublin to study with the stained glass cooperative Evie Hone was a member of, An Túr Gloine, which was run by Catherine O'Brien and she and Hone became his mentors.[1] When Hone died in 1955, she left him her brushes.[3]

His early work from the 1950s is mostly in Britain, including a window in a private chapel in the London Oratory, three windows for a chapel at Whitchurch, and a crypt window for Rosslyn Chapel. Pollen worked for two years from 1957 on 32 windows for the new Cathedral of Christ The King, Johannesburg. He made the windows in Dublin, then shipping them to be assembled in South Africa. Pollen created the mosaic of St Joseph the Worker and windows for Galway Cathedral.[2] In 1963 Pollen created a memorial window to Catherine O'Brien in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.[4] He took on Helen Moloney as an assistant from 1960 to 1962.[5]

Following Vatican II newly designed churches featured less stained glass, and Pollen found he was receiving less commissions. As a consequence Pollen and his family moved to the United States in 1981. They settled in Winston-Salem, North Carolina but there was very little work there and in 1997 they returned in Ireland, living in his wife native County Wexford.[2]

Family edit

Pollen married sculptor Nell Murphy in 1963, with the couple buying a house in Dublin in which Pollen had his studio. Murphy worked in plaster, clay and stone, her works often features in churches with that of Pollen. They had four sons, Peter, Ciaran, Laurence and Christopher, and a daughter, Brid.[3] Pollen died on 30 November 2010 in County Wexford.[2]

Other works edit

See also edit

Further reading edit

  • Gordon Bowe N., (2011) "Pollen, Patrick (Patrick Pollen metaphysician in glass)". Irish Arts Review 28 (2) p. 102

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d Jebb, Louis (30 December 2010). "Patrick Pollen: Artist celebrated for his work in stained glass". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Patrick Pollen". The Telegraph. 27 December 2010. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Artist's stained glass windows graced churches in Ireland and beyond". The Irish Times. 11 December 2010. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  4. ^ "Catherine Amelia O'Brien". Clare County Library. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  5. ^ White, Lawrence William (2017). "Moloney, Helen". Dictionary of Irish Biography - Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 4 May 2020.