SNIPPET: Born on St. Patrick's Day in 1889, Harry CLARKE literally grew up in a world of stained glass. His father, Joshua, owned a North Dublin firm that created and supplied stained glass to churches. Harry began learning the craft in his father's studios as a teenager. He had already exhibited a remarkable talent for drawing. By his early 20s, Harry CLARKE was an accomplished illustrator and stained-glass artist. Over the next twenty years he turned out a prodigious quantity of windows - largely for Irish churches, which most still can be viewed - and illustrated several books with striking drawings. His characters bear something of a stylistic resemblance to the drawings of Aubrey BEARDSLEY - willowing figures with long, solemn faces and powerful eyes, placed before ornate, exotic backgrounds. The scenes often come from a mix of Irish history, early Irish saints and legends - St. Brendan the Navigator meeting an eternally burning Judas on a remote island, St. Gobnait, patron saint of beekeepers, or St. Dymphna, whose pagan father had her beheaded. (In his mammoth triple window at Newport, Co. Mayo, depicting the Last Judgement, a green-skinned Harry CLARKE is among the sinners being cast into hell). The books he illustrated included works by Edgar Allan POE, considered an ideal combination of author and artist. As striking as his drawing style was his use of color is what stands him apart. Standard stained-glass windows literally pale in comparison to CLARKE's hues. CLARKE's windows shimmer and sparkle with iridescent midnight blues, burning reds and lustrous greens. His luminous colors set flowing robes in motion and transform border details into jewels. Much of CLARKE's stained-glass was a visual celebration of the Celtic Revival, of the Irish peoples rediscovery of themselves and their marvelous heritage. The artist lived during a tumultuous time when the Irish language once again flowered, the Abbey Theatre was founded, Patrick PEARSE led the Easter Rising and YEATS' poetry captured our imagination. CLARKE catapulted to fame with his first church commission. It was for some of the windows in a perfect architectural jewel of the Celtic Revival, per article in "Irish America" magazine, the Honan Chapel at University College, Cork. The small chapel is a replica of an idealized 12th-century Irish church that features stone carvings and imaginative mosaic floor and carved oak pews. CLARKE's works can be found at the Wolfsonian Museum, Miami Beach; the Basilica of St. Vincent de Paul in Bayonne, New Jersey; throughout Britain; in Newport, Co. Mayo (his stunning Last Judgement); St. Joseph, Terenure, Co. Dublin; Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan; Ballinasloe, Co. Galway; Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary; St. Barrahane's Church of Ireland, Castletownsend, Co. Cork; the Presbyterian Church in Clontarf, just north of Dublin; the Church of Ireland church on Sanford Road in Ranelagh, just south of Dublin; Belcamp College, just off the main road at Raheny, north of Dublin; the chapel at the Presentation Convent in Dingle, Co. Kerry; the Dominican Convent Chapel on the Falls Road in Belfast; Basicila of St. Patrick's Purgatory on Station Island, Lough Derg, Co. Monaghan; Crawford Municipal Art Gallery at Emmet Place in Cork; Municipal Gallery of Art, Dublin; International Labor Office, League of Nations Headquarters, Switzerland and Bewley's Oriental Cafe on Grafton Street. (Inquiries should be made beforehand as to hours his works can be seen). Unfortunately, CLARKE died at the age of 41 after a long illness during the time of controversy regarding his breathtaking Geneva Window that depicted scenes from authors' works felt representative of Irish literature (YEATS, JOYCE, SYNGE, O'CASEY, and Liam O'FLAHERTY); beautifully created with dazzling designs and intense colors, it was rejected in Ireland, felt by some as unpastoral and less than heroic with features that brought blushes to the cheeks of a number of Irish leaders with a seductive, semi-clad dancer, a decidedly drunken-looking lout, etc. However, when an exhibition, "The Stained Glass of Harry Clarke," was later staged in London by the Fine Arts Society, the controversial Geneva Window, which had been carefully cleaned and restored, was the hit of the show and was purchased by a wealthy American collector who found a home for it at his new Wolfsonian Museum in Miami Beach. CLARKE's friend, the writer Lennox ROBINSON, wrote, "People who write books and plays and poems have their work put away on shelves where they may lie for years, unopened and unread. Harry CLARKE in the east end or transept of many a church in Ireland and elsewhere comes to life with every dawn and will have his daily resurrection."