The art of Wilhelmina Geddes (1887-1955), Modernist stained glass, graphic and textile artist of Ireland" - Presentation by Dr Nicola GORDON BOWE

Dr NICOLA GORDON BOWE is an associate research fellow at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. She is the former director of the MA Course in the History of Design and the Applied Arts, NCAD (National University of Ireland). She has held research fellowships at CASVA in Washington DC, at the Huntington Library, California and from the Guild of St. George (England) and served on academic, cultural advisory and examining committees in Ireland, England and Scotland. She represented Ireland on international UNESCO study group for Art Nouveau architecture. An Hon Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, she has written and lectured widely on late 19th and 20th century decorative arts, compiled exhibition catalogues and contributed to e.g. Country Life, Apollo, Journal of the Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Antiques, Journal of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, Craft Arts International, Journal of the Decorative Arts Society, Journal of the Stained Glass Association of America, Studies in the Decorative Arts, The Journal of Design History, Crafts, Irish Arts Review and the Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies... Book contributions include Women Designing; Redefining Design and Britain between the Wards (ed. J. Seddon & S. Worden, Brighton, 1994); The Substance of Style: Perspectives on the American Arts and Crafts Movement (ed. B. Denker, Winterthur, 1996); Obscure Objects of Desire: Reviewing the crafts in the twentieth century (ed. Tanya Harrod, London 1997); Irish Furniture (ed. B. Austen, London 2001); Art in Central Europe around 1900 and Vernacular Art and Architecture in Central Europe (both ed. Jacek Purchla, Krakow 1999 and 2002); The Artists Colony of Godollo 1901-1920 (ed. K. Geller, Budapest 2003). Books include Harry Clarke - His Graphic Art (1983), The Life and Work of Harry Clarke (1989), A Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass (ed. and co-author) (1988), Art and the National Dream; the Search for Vernacular Expression in Turn-of-the-Century Art, Architecture and Design (ed. and contributor) (1993) and The Arts and Crafts Movements in Dublin and Edinburgh (with E.S. Cumming) (1998); contributing editor, Macmillan Dictionary of Art and Encyclopaedia of Ireland (2003). Contributor to forthcoming anthologies on The Twentieth Century Book in Ireland (ed. C. Hutton, Dublin), The Honan Chapel, Cork (ed. V. Teehan, Cork) and The Irish Book (OUP), and to the Journal of the Decorative Arts Society's special Arts and Crafts issue. Currently preparing a book on Ulster-born stained glass and graphic artist, Wilhelmina Geddes (1887-1955).

WILHELMINA GEDDES (1887–1955) was born in Drumreilly, County Leitrim. Her family moved to Belfast where she was educated at the Methodist College. She later studied at the Belfast School of Art and the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. In 1910, she exhibited an illustration at the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland exhibition in Dublin. She worked at An Túr Gloine from circa 1911 to 1922. She exhibited at the RHA and the Ulster Academy. In 1925, she moved to London and opened a studio. She designed windows for churches in Belfast, Enniskillen, Dublin and Larne. Her principal works are the Duke of Connaught's war memorial window in St Bartholomew's Church, Ottawa, a window in Ypres Cathedral in memory of King Albert of Belgium, and The Children of Lir window commissioned for the Ulster Museum. After many years of poor health, Wilhelmina Geddes died in London in 1955.

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Princess Grace Irish Library
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Photograph: Wilhelmina Geddes, main part of the War Memorial window at St Bartholomew’s, Ottawa, Canada, 1919. (c) Jonathan Taylor