Charles Connick

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. 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. 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

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. When obligated to leave high school when his father was disabled, he became an illustrator on the staff of the Pittsburgh Press.

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 was also influenced by English Arts and Crafts Movement stained glass artist Christopher Whall.

Connick's first major work, All Saints Church in Brookline, Massachusetts, was completed in 1910. Connick settled in Boston where he opened his stained glass studio at Nine Harcourt Street, Back Bay, Boston, in 1913. 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, has the distinction of having all of its 23 windows designed by Connick, including its 73-foot (22 m) tall transept windows which are among the tallest such windows in the world.

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). 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. 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. Although firmly committed to a regenerated handicraft tradition, Connick welcomed innovation and experimentation in design and technique among his co-workers at his studio.

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." 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." 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. Shortly after closing, the studio donated its collection of records, working drawings and related materials to the Boston Public Library. 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.

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

California Pasadena: Throop Unitarian Universalist Church San Francisco: Grace Cathedral St. Dominic's Catholic Church Colorado Denver: Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness Connecticut Hartford: Asylum Hill Congregational Church District of Columbia Washington, D.C.: St. Gabriel's Church Illinois Chicago: Fourth Presbyterian Church Evanston: Northwestern University Seabury Hall (2122 N Sheridan Rd.) River Forest: Grace Lutheran Church Iowa Des Moines: St. Augustin Catholic Church Massachusetts Boston Boston University Chapel, Boston University Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Boston Brookline: All Saints Parish Hyde Park: First Congregational Church of Hyde Park Leominster:Saint Mark's Episcopal Church Marion:Saint Gabriel's Church, First Congregational Church of Marion Milton:Saint Michael's Episcopal Church Nahant: Greenlawn Cemetery Newton: First Church, Second Church, Parish of the Good Shepherd, Church of the Holy City (Swedenborgian), Newtonville Library North Easton: Unity Church Waltham: Christ Church Winthrop:St. John's Episcopal Church, St. John's Episcopal Church Worcester: Dinand Library, College of the Holy Cross Michigan Detroit: St. Margaret Mary Church First Central Congregational Church New Hampshire Peterborough: All Saints Episcopal Church New Jersey Montclair: Union Congregational Church Princeton: Princeton University Chapel New Mexico Albuquerque: Cathedral Church of St. John New York Buffalo: Westminster Presbyterian Church 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

Pennsylvania Butler: St. Peter's Episcopal Church Greensburg: First Presbyterian Church Harrisburg: Pine Street Presbyterian Church Pittsburgh: St Anne's Catholic Church Utah Salt Lake City: Cathedral Church of St. Mark Virginia Staunton: Temple House of Israel Washington Seattle: St. James Cathedral Seattle: Epiphany Parish Episcopal Church Shoreline: St. Dunstan's Church of the Highlands Parish Spokane: Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist Wisconsin Milwaukee: St. Joan of Arc Chapel, Marquette University