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Charles Jay Connick

{{Short description|American painter}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2014}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Charles Jay Connick

| image = Charles Connick.jpg

| image_size = 180px

| caption = Charles Connick at work circa 1945

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1875|9|27}}

| birth_place = Springboro, Pennsylvania

| death_date = {{death date and age|1945|12|28|1875|9|27}}

| death_place =

| nationality = American

| known_for = Stained glass, painting, writer

| training =

| movement = Gothic Revival

| notable_works =

| patrons =

| awards = Gold Medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/athousandameric00unkngoog | title=A Thousand American Men of Mark To-day | year=1917 | publisher=American Men of Mark | location=Chicago, Illinois | pages=[https://archive.org/details/athousandameric00unkngoog/page/n76 72]–73 | access-date=November 12, 2009}}

}}

Charles Jay Connick (1875–1945) was a prominent American painter, muralist, and designer best known for his work in stained glass in the Gothic Revival style.{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Cormack|title=Charles J. Connick: America's Visionary Stained Glass Artist|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, CT and London, UK|year=2024|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LF070AEACAAJ |isbn=978-0-300-27232-1}} Born in Springboro, Pennsylvania, Connick eventually settled in the Boston area where he opened his studio in 1913. Connick's work is contained in many preeminent churches and chapels, including examples in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.{{cite web | url=http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?searchtype=BIO&artist=125580 | editor-first=Peter Hastings | editor-last=Falk | title=Who Was Who in American Art | access-date=November 12, 2009}} He also authored the book Adventures in Light and Color in 1937. Connick's studio continued to operate, and remained a leading producer of stained glass, until 1986.

Life

File:Charles Jay Connick Naomi Window, Parish of All Saints Ashmont.png in Brookline]]

Born in Springboro in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, on September 27, 1875, Connick moved with his family to Pittsburgh when he was eight years old. Bullied by city children who made fun of his countrified attire, Connick would stay indoors during recess and draw with crayons, and thereby developed an interest in drawing and color at a young age.{{cite news | url=http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/focus/s_599003.html | title=Pittsburgh stained-glass artist's work beautifies region | first=Sandra Fischione | last=Donovan | newspaper=Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | date=November 23, 2008 | access-date=November 12, 2009 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120913080101/http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/focus/s_599003.html# | archive-date=September 13, 2012 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }} When obligated to leave high school when his father was disabled, he became an illustrator on the staff of the Pittsburgh Press.{{cite book | last=Tannler | first=Albert M. | title=Charles J. Connick: His Education and His Windows in and Near Pittsburgh | publisher=Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation | date=December 2008 | isbn=978-0-9788284-3-1 }}

At the age of 19, Connick became apprenticed in the production of stained glass windows at the shop of Rudy Brothers in Pittsburgh, where he stayed through 1899. He left for work in Boston for two years, returning to Pittsburgh in 1903 and worked for a number of stained-glass companies both in Pittsburgh and New York. Connick also studied drawing and painting in night classes and went to England and France to study ancient and modern stained glass, including those in the Chartres Cathedral, in which he examined the effect of light and optics that had been employed in the 12th and 13th centuries, but which he perceived to be neglected since.{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/discoveringstain0000tuta | url-access=registration | quote=charles jay connick was born. | title=Discovering stained glass in Detroit | last1=Tutag | first1=Nola Huse | year=1987 | page=[https://archive.org/details/discoveringstain0000tuta/page/150 150] | publisher=Wayne State University Press | isbn=0-8143-1875-4 | access-date=November 12, 2009}} Connick was also influenced by English Arts and Crafts Movement stained glass artist Christopher Whall.{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/stainedglasswork00corm | first=Peter | last=Cormack | title=The Stained Glass Work of Christopher Whall 1849–1924 | publisher=Boston Public Library and the Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation | year=1999 | isbn=0-89073-091-1 | url-access=registration }}

Connick's first major work, All Saints Church in Brookline, Massachusetts, was completed in 1910.{{cite web | url=http://kdka.com/kdcountry/Stained.glass.windows.2.1016788.html | title=KD Country: Stained Glass Windows | publisher=KDKA | date=May 22, 2009 | access-date=November 12, 2009 }}{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Connick settled in Boston where he opened his stained glass studio at Nine Harcourt Street, Back Bay, Boston, in 1913.{{cite web | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/history.php | title=History of the Connick Studio | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation Ltd. | access-date=November 12, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725113701/http://www.cjconnick.org/history.php | archive-date=July 25, 2008 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }} From there until his death, Connick designed and produced many notable stained glass windows including the rose windows of the Cathedrals of St. Patrick and St. John the Divine in New York City, and windows in the Princeton University Chapel, the American Church in Paris, and in the Calvary Episcopal and East Liberty Presbyterian churches in Pittsburgh. One of his largest works is in the Heinz Memorial Chapel at the University of Pittsburgh. Heinz Chapel, regarded by many as Connick's most important commission,{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Cormack|title=Charles J. Connick: America's Visionary Stained Glass Artist|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, CT and London, UK|chapter=Introduction|page=12|year=2024|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LF070AEACAAJ |isbn=978-0-300-27232-1}} has the distinction of having all of its 23 windows ({{convert|4000|sqft|m2}}) designed by Connick, including its 73-foot (22 m) tall transept windows which are among the tallest such windows in the world.{{cite journal | url=http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/heinzchapel.aspx | title=Heinz Chapel Unveiled | first=Barbara Diven | last=Machamer | date=May 31, 2006 | journal=Pop City | publisher=Issue Media Group | location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | access-date=November 12, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010155848/http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/heinzchapel.aspx# | archive-date=October 10, 2017 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }}

Connick also authored the book Adventures in Light and Color, modestly subtitled An Introduction to the Stained Glass Craft, as well as a series for Random House titled International Studio (1923–24).

His work involved close collaborations not only with architects but also with other artists, including the poet Robert Frost, with whom Connick had an ongoing friendship.{{Cite book|last=Connick|first=Charles J|title=Adventures in Light and Color|publisher=Random House|year=1937|location=New York, NY|pages=92}} For one of a pair of windows for the Newtonville Branch Library, in Newton, Massachusetts, Connick included in the glass the opening line of Frost's poem "Mending Wall" . Frost was present at the dedication of the building in 1939 to read this poem.{{Cite web|last=MIT Libraries|title=Design for Stained Glass Window Inspired by Robert Frost Poem "Mending Wall". Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation Collection|url=https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/79471|url-status=live|access-date=January 5, 2022|website=MIT Dome|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912203115/http://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/79471 |archive-date=September 12, 2015 }} The second window was inspired by Emily Dickinson's poem "There is no frigate like a book." The pair of Connick windows, which are in a more personalized Arts and Crafts style rather than his more known ecclesiastical designs, contribute to the significance of the Newtonville Library which is part of the Newtonville Historic District.

Connick was active in, among other societies, the Boston Art Club, Boston Architectural Club, The Mural Painters, and the Copley Society of Art. Connick adopted the Pegasus as his symbol and designed it in stained glass which was carved on his gravestone.

Charles Jay Connick died on December 28, 1945. At his death, The New York Times reported that Dr. Connick was "considered the world's greatest contemporary craftsman in stained glass." (The New York Times, Saturday, December 29, 1945, p. 13.)

Style

File:HeinzNorthTranseptWindows.JPG at the University of Pittsburgh are among the tallest in the world]]

Connick preferred to use clear "antique" glass, similar to that of the Middle Ages and praised this type of glass as "colored radiance, with the lustre, intensity, and baffling vibrant quality of dancing lights." He employed a technique of "staggered" solder-joints in his leading and bars, which English stained-glass historian Peter Cormack says gives the windows their "syncopated or 'swinging' character." His style incorporated a strong interest in symbolism as well. Connick expressed the opinion that the first job of stained glass was to serve the architectural effect, and he believed that his greatest contribution to glasswork was "rescuing it from the abysmal depth of opalescent picture windows" of the sort popularized by Louis Comfort Tiffany and John La Farge.{{cite web | url=http://www.morsemuseum.org/collection/louis_comfort_tiffany.html | title=Louis Comfort Tiffany | publisher=The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art | location=Winter Park, FL | access-date=June 28, 2011}} Although firmly committed to a regenerated handicraft tradition, Connick welcomed innovation and experimentation in design and technique among his co-workers at his studio.{{cite web | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/sgtour2009.php | title=Singing Windows | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation | access-date=November 12, 2009}}

Studio

In many respects, Connick's Boston studio was the arts and crafts ideal in that the art was produced by a community of committed craftsmen. At its height in the 1930s, forty to fifty men and women worked at the studio, which, as Connick wrote in his will, was "only incidentally a business."{{cite web | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/history.php | title=History of the Connick Studio | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation, Ltd. | date=April 2011 | access-date=June 28, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725175531/http://www.cjconnick.org/history.php | archive-date=July 25, 2011 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }} A reporter visiting his studio in 1931 remarked on the atmosphere of mutual respect that was present there saying "Attitude to his co-designers [is] that of one artist to another...He [Connick] originates, supervises. They elaborate."{{cite web | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/exhibition.html | title=Join in Our Adventure in Light and Color: Connick Exhibition Being Organized | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation | access-date=June 28, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008191551/http://www.cjconnick.org/exhibition.html | archive-date=October 8, 2011 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }} Connick left his studio and business to the craftsmen which became a cooperative after his death. For 41 years the studio continued to receive commissions and design windows in the Connick tradition. The studio closed its workshop in 1986 because the workers were aging and the modern high-rises of Copley Square threatened the light source essential to their work. The final commissioned window the studio produced was placed in All Saints Parish of Brookline, Massachusetts.{{cite video | people=John Bishop (Producer/Director) | title=The Last Window (1988) | medium=DVD | publisher=Media Generation | date=2005}}{{cite web | url=http://allsaintsparish.info/windows/Windows/Pepper.html | title=The Henry Pepper Memorial Window | publisher=All Saints Parish | access-date=January 19, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101026042528/http://allsaintsparish.info/windows/Windows/Pepper.html | archive-date=October 26, 2010 | url-status=dead }} Shortly after closing, the studio donated its collection of records, working drawings and related materials to the Boston Public Library. Throughout its history, the Charles J. Connick Associates Studio produced some 15,000 windows in more than 5,000 churches and public buildings.

{{Clear}}

Foundation

The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation, Ltd., was formed after the studio closed in 1986. Its mission is to "promote the true understanding of the glorious medium of color and light and to preserve and perpetuate the Connick tradition of stained glass."{{cite web | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/ | title=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation, Ltd | access-date=January 21, 2010}} In December 2008, the foundation donated materials to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Rotch Library of Architecture and Planning to form the Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation Collection. This collection contains photographs, slides, stained glass windows and designs, paintings, and documents related to both the foundation and the studio. MIT has processed the collection and made it available digitally.{{cite web | url=http://info-libraries.mit.edu/rotch/collections/ | title=MIT Rotch Library – Architecture and Planning: Collections | publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology | access-date=January 21, 2010}}{{Cite web|last=Connick|first=Charles Jay|title=Charles J Connick Stained Glass Foundation Collection|url=https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/74802|url-status=live|access-date=January 5, 2022|website=MIT Libraries Dome|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604100642/http://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/74802 |archive-date=June 4, 2012 }}

Locations of works

The following is an incomplete list, sorted by location, of Connick stained glass works in the United States.

{{col-begin}}

{{col-3}}

  • California
  • Pasadena: Throop Unitarian Universalist Church{{cite web | url=http://www.throopuupasadena.org/stained-glass-windows-at-throop.html | title=Songs in Light | publisher=Throop Unitarian Universalist Church | location = Pasadena, CA | access-date=April 7, 2016}}
  • San Francisco:
  • Grace Cathedral{{cite web | url=http://www.gracecathedral.org/content/arts/glass/ | title=Gospel in Glass | publisher=Grace Cathedral | first=Michael | last=Lampen | year=2004 | access-date=December 11, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091120015226/http://www.gracecathedral.org/content/arts/glass/ | archive-date=November 20, 2009 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }}
  • St. Dominic's Catholic Church{{cite web | url=http://www.stdominics.org/art/art.asp | title=Parish Art & Architecture | publisher=St. Dominic's Catholic Church | access-date=June 8, 2010}}
  • Colorado
  • Denver: Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness{{cite web | url=http://www.sjcathedral.org/internal/?page_id=16 | title=Saint John's Cathedral: History | publisher=Saint John's Episcopal Cathedral | location=Denver, CO | access-date=November 19, 2009 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720081210/http://www.sjcathedral.org/internal/?page_id=16 | archive-date=July 20, 2011 | df=mdy-all }}
  • Connecticut
  • Hartford: Asylum Hill Congregational Church
  • District of Columbia
  • Washington, D.C.: St. Gabriel's Church{{cite journal | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/newsletters/Summer2008.pdf | title=Gabriel's Hope | first=Milda B. | last=Richardson | date=Summer 2008 | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation |journal=Connick Windows| access-date=November 12, 2009}}
  • Illinois
  • Chicago: Fourth Presbyterian Church{{cite web | url=http://www.fourthchurch.org/about/architecture/sanctuary/east-window/index.html# | title=About Fourth Church: The Great West Window | publisher=Fourth Presbyterian Church | location=Chicago, IL | access-date=November 19, 2009}}
  • Evanston: Northwestern University Seabury Hall (2122 N Sheridan Rd.)
  • River Forest: Grace Lutheran Church[http://www.graceriverforest.org/pages/Grace_OurChurch_History Grace Lutheran Church] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193713/http://www.graceriverforest.org/pages/Grace_OurChurch_History |date=October 29, 2013 }} (Rose window above chancel)
  • Iowa
  • Des Moines: St. Augustin Catholic Church{{cite web|url=http://www.staugustin.org/about-us/history/|title=Parish History|publisher=St. Augustin Church|access-date=2017-10-30|author=}} with {{NRHP url|id=13000068|photos=y|title=photo(s)}}
  • Massachusetts
  • Boston
  • Boston University Chapel, Boston University
  • Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Boston
  • Brookline: All Saints Parish{{cite web | url=http://allsaintsparish.info/windows/Windows/WindowHome.html | title=The Windows of All Saints Parish | access-date=January 5, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907183510/http://allsaintsparish.info/windows/Windows/WindowHome.html | archive-date=September 7, 2008 | url-status=dead }}
  • Hyde Park: First Congregational Church of Hyde Park
  • Leominster:Saint Mark's Episcopal Church
  • Marion:Saint Gabriel's Church
  • Milton:Saint Michael's Episcopal Church
  • Nahant: Greenlawn Cemetery
  • Newton: First Church, Second Church, Parish of the Good Shepherd, Newtonville Library
  • North Easton: Unity Church
  • Waltham: Christ Church

{{cite book

| title=Waltham Rediscovered: An Ethnic History of Waltham, Massachusetts.

| author=Petersen, Kristen A.

| location=Portsmouth, NH

| publisher=Peter E. Randall Publisher

| year=1988

}}

{{col-3}}

{{cite book

| title=Work Order 2365: Designer and Worker in Stained and Leaded Glass

| author=Connick, Charles J.

| location=Nine Harcourt Street, Boston, Massachusetts

| publisher=Charles J. Connick

| date=June 1, 1944

}}

  • First Central Congregational Church{{Cite web|url=http://firstcentral.org/about-our-church/our-building/|title=Our Building|website=First Central Congregational Church|language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-21}}
  • New Hampshire
  • Peterborough: All Saints Episcopal Church{{cite journal | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/newsletters/June2002.html | title=Book Review: The Stained Glass of All Saints: All Saints Parish Church, Peterborough, New Hampshire | first=Lance | last=Kasparian | journal=Connick Windows | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation | location=Newtonville, MA |date=June 2002 | access-date=June 26, 2010}}
  • New Jersey
  • Montclair: Union Congregational Church
  • Princeton: Princeton University Chapel
  • New Mexico
  • Albuquerque: Cathedral Church of St. John{{cite web | url=http://www.stjohnsabq.org/History/Windows.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908075106/http://www.stjohnsabq.org/History/Windows.htm | title=St. John's Cathedral History: Cathedral Windows – Overview | publisher=The Cathedral Church of St. John | location= Albuquerque, NM | archive-date=September 8, 2006 | access-date=November 19, 2009}}
  • New York
  • Buffalo: Westminster Presbyterian Church{{cite web | url=http://www.westminster-bflo.org/church/architecture.htm | title=Westminster Architecture | publisher=Westminster Presbyterian Church | location=Buffalo, NY | access-date=November 19, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101026111356/http://www.westminster-bflo.org/church/architecture.htm | archive-date=October 26, 2010 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }}
  • New York City (Manhattan):
  • Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Morningside Heights
  • St. Patrick's Cathedral, Midtown
  • Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, Upper East Side
  • North Dakota
  • Valley City: Our Savior's Lutheran Church
  • Ohio
  • Cincinnati: Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church
  • Columbus: First Congregational Church
  • Gambier: Pierce Hall, Kenyon College
  • Oklahoma
  • Tulsa: St. John's Episcopal Church
  • Oregon
  • Portland: Trinity Episcopal Cathedral

{{col-3}}

{{col-end}}

References

File:HeinzChapelNativityWindowDetail.jpg

File:HeinzChapelWindowPiratedetail.jpg

{{reflist}}

External links

  • [http://www.cjconnick.org/ The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation]
  • Massachusetts Historical Commission [https://mhc-macris.net/ MACRIS] Newtonville Branch Library, Newton, MA

Video

  • [http://kdka.com/video/?id=57898@kdka.dayport.com KDKA news feature on Charles Connick]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Connick, Charles J}}

Category:1875 births

Category:1945 deaths

Category:People from Springboro, Pennsylvania

Category:19th-century American painters

Category:American male painters

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:American muralists

Category:American stained glass artists and manufacturers

Category:19th-century American male artists

Category:20th-century American male artists