Charles J. Connick: America’s Visionary Stained Glass Artist is the first comprehensive account of Charles J. Connick, America’s most innovative and influential stained-glass artist working in the first half of the twentieth century. When Connick (1875-1945) began his stained-glass career in Pittsburgh in the 1890s, America’s fascination with the newly invented “opalescent” windows of Tiffany and La Farge meant that the original traditions of the art form were almost forgotten.
Connick, once referred to as the “Burne-Jones of America,” made it his life’s mission to reassert the values of the medieval craft, successfully persuading twentieth-century Americans that these could inspire powerfully expressive modern glass as well as thrilling new imagery. Chicago churches featuring his windows include Fourth Presbyterian Church and St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church.
This richly illustrated book, representing decades of research, presents the dynamic trajectory of Connick’s artistic development, and analyzes Connick’s work in the contest of the Arts and Crafts and “Modern Gothic” movement in architecture and the applied arts.
Author Peter Cormack is a noted scholar of post-medieval British and American stained glass, William Morris, and the Arts and Crafts Movement. He is the author of a number of books, including Arts & Crafts Stained Glass.
PLEASE NOTE THIS AUTHOR TALK AND BOOKSIGNING IS AN IN-PERSON EVENT ONLY.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. Peter Cormack will also be leading a tour of two Chicago churches with Connick windows on Wednesday, October 16. Click here to register.
$15 per person / $12 for members
All ticket sales are final; no refunds or exchanges.
IMAGE: Cyrus McCormick Memorial Window (1930), Fourth Presbyterian Church, photo by Peter Cormack.