Harry Harvey, who died on January 29 aged 88, was a leading figure in contemporary stained glass design and completed more than 220 windows in a career lasting 40 years.
Perhaps his best known work is the large and colourful window in York’s 15th-century Guildhall, which depicts some of the city’s major historical buildings along with significant events in its history. But his efforts are also on display in over 70 churches in Yorkshire, including a vivid depiction of St Wilfred in Ripon Cathedral (1977), and a dramatic representation of the Last Judgement in Sheffield Cathedral.
Elsewhere in the country he worked in 60 other churches, from Carlisle Cathedral to Shooters Hill in London, and from Builth Wells in Brecon to Great Thurlow parish church in Suffolk. He also decorated the Astronomical Clock in York Minster.
His style was inspired by classical iconography and the images of medieval glass, eschewing sentimentality in favour of simplicity and directness. Rich in detail, his windows feature figures that are never wooden or stuffy, and look fresh and surprisingly contemporary despite being half a century old. A recent article in the magazine Church Buildings noted: “Looking back at the work Harvey has left for posterity up and down the country, in cathedrals, parish churches and far-flung village chapels, one is tempted to say that, like the music of JS Bach, there is not one dud note in the entire output.”
Harry Harvey was born in November 22 1922 in Birmingham, and attended Moseley Junior School of Arts and Crafts. As a 15 year-old, his flair for draughtsmanship won him an apprenticeship in a stained glass studio with Pearce & Cutler, where he learnt the basics of the trade.
He served as a signalman with the Royal Navy during the war on the destroyer Windsor. After the conflict ended, having married and moved to Devon, he began work at Whippells of Exeter before moving to York in 1947 at the invitation of a former designer at Whippells, Harry Stammers, who had been invited by Dean Milner-White to revive the York School of Glass Painting.
Harvey became Stammers’s assistant and worked in his studio for nine years. He was grateful for the opportunity as he, along with many others in the field, held Stammers’s work in the highest esteem.
In 1956, with Stammers’s blessing, Harvey opened his own studio in York and continued to work in the area until his retirement in 1987. He, in turn, took on two assistants, Sep Waugh from 1957 to 1967 and Ann Sotheran from 1982 to 1987, both of whom went on to open their own studios.
The development of Harvey’s early career in the 1960s was assisted by the patronage of the eminent architect George Pace, widely regarded as the leading ecclesiastical architect in Britain until his death in 1975. Pace was committed to marrying the modern with the traditional, and to using the finest artists, a category in which he clearly included Harvey. As well as commissioning stained glass works, Pace drew on Harvey’s talents as a fine lettering artist for gilded and painted lettering projects and heraldic design.
Two notable examples of Harvey’s work for Pace are the east window for Maesmynis church near Builth Wells (1964) and a series of painted wooden panels depicting various saints at a new church – All Saints, Intake in Doncaster. In these panels Harvey restricted his colour palette to black, white and terracotta, to suit the simple lines of the church.
Harvey later enjoyed a fruitful professional relationship with the innovative restorer and conservator, Keith Barley, with whom he shared the same studio. One of their notable collaborations was on the restoration of the celebrated late-medieval windows of St Mary’s Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire.
A dapper and stylish figure with a warm sense of humour, Harvey was an inveterate sketcher and doodler, often experimenting with lettering in the margins of newspapers. He was also a cricket lover and a very capable batsman who played club cricket and coached in the York area for many years. He lived just long enough to enjoy England’s Ashes victory and to learn that his beloved Birmingham City had made it through to the Carling Cup final.
He was elected a Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters in 1962.
Harry Harvey married, first, Eileen, with whom he had two sons. They survive him, as does his second wife, Margo.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8314422/Harry-Harvey.html
In 1956, with Stammers’s blessing, Harvey opened his own studio in York and continued to work in the area until his retirement in 1987. He, in turn, took on two assistants, Sep Waugh from 1957 to 1967 and Ann Sotheran from 1982 to 1987, both of whom went on to open their own studios.
The development of Harvey’s early career in the 1960s was assisted by the patronage of the eminent architect George Pace, widely regarded as the leading ecclesiastical architect in Britain until his death in 1975. Pace was committed to marrying the modern with the traditional, and to using the finest artists, a category in which he clearly included Harvey. As well as commissioning stained glass works, Pace drew on Harvey’s talents as a fine lettering artist for gilded and painted lettering projects and heraldic design.
Two notable examples of Harvey’s work for Pace are the east window for Maesmynis church near Builth Wells (1964) and a series of painted wooden panels depicting various saints at a new church – All Saints, Intake in Doncaster. In these panels Harvey restricted his colour palette to black, white and terracotta, to suit the simple lines of the church.
Harvey later enjoyed a fruitful professional relationship with the innovative restorer and conservator, Keith Barley, with whom he shared the same studio. One of their notable collaborations was on the restoration of the celebrated late-medieval windows of St Mary’s Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire.
A dapper and stylish figure with a warm sense of humour, Harvey was an inveterate sketcher and doodler, often experimenting with lettering in the margins of newspapers. He was also a cricket lover and a very capable batsman who played club cricket and coached in the York area for many years. He lived just long enough to enjoy England’s Ashes victory and to learn that his beloved Birmingham City had made it through to the Carling Cup final.
He was elected a Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters in 1962.
Harry Harvey married, first, Eileen, with whom he had two sons. They survive him, as does his second wife, Margo.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8314422/Harry-Harvey.html
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