Charles Jay Connick: Difference between revisions

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| birth_date = {{birth date |1875|9|27|}}

| birth_place = [[Springboro, Pennsylvania|Springboro]], Pennsylvania

| death_date = {{death date and age |1945|12|28|1875|9|27|}}

| death_place =

| siblings known_for = [[LouiseStained Connickglass]], [[Grace Connick]]painting, [[Coburn Ernest]] Connickwriter

| works notable_works =

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'''Charles Jay Connick''' (1875–1945) was a prominent American painter, [[mural]]ist, 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.<ref name="askart">{{cite web | url=http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?searchtype=BIO&artist=125580 | editor-first=Peter Hastings | editor-last=Falk | title=Who Was Who in American Art | accessdateaccess-date=November 12, 2009}}</ref> 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.

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 (break)|recess]] and draw with [[crayon]]s, and thereby developed an interest in drawing and color at a young age.<ref name="trib-review">{{cite news | url=http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/focus/s_599003.html | title=Pittsburgh stained-glass artist's work beautifies region | first=Sandra Fischione | last=Donovan | newspaper=Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | date=November 23, 2008 | accessdateaccess-date=November 12, 2009 | archive-url=https://archive.istoday/20120913080101/http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/focus/s_599003.html# | archive-date=September 13, 2012 | dead-url-status=yesdead | df=mdy-all }}</ref> When obligated to leave high school when his father was disabled, he became an illustrator on the staff of the ''[[Pittsburgh Press]]''.<ref>{{cite book | last=Tannler | first=Albert M. | title=Charles J. Connick: His Education and His Windows in and Near Pittsburgh'' | publisher=Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation | date=December 2008 | ISBNisbn=978-0-9788284-3-71 }}</ref>

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.<ref name="men of mark"/><ref name="trib-review"/> Connick also studied drawing and painting in night classes and went to England and France to study ancient and modern stained glass, including those in the [[Chartres Cathedral]], in which he examined the effect of light and optics that had been employed in the 12th and 13th centuries, but which he perceived to be neglected since.<ref name="trib-review"/><ref name="detroit">{{cite book | url=https://books.googlearchive.comorg/books?id=SiUsbJkdetails/discoveringstain0000tuta | url-1KMC&lpgaccess=PA150&ots=SMdwegoLme&dqregistration | quote=charles%20jay%20connick%20was%20born&pg=PA150#v=onepage&q=charles%20jay%20connick%20was%20born&f=false jay connick was born. | title=Discovering stained glass in Detroit | last1=Tutag | first1=Nola Huse | year=1987 | page=[https://archive.org/details/discoveringstain0000tuta/page/150 150] | publisher=Wayne State University Press | ISBNisbn=0-8143-1875-4 | accessdateaccess-date=November 12, 2009}}</ref> Connick was also influenced by English [[Arts and Crafts Movement]] stained glass artist [[Christopher Whall]].<ref>{{cite book | archiveurlurl=https://web.archive.org/webdetails/20080512043943/http://www.morrissociety.org/newsltrs/newsltr-july01.html| url=http://www.morrissociety.org/newsltrs/newsltr-july01.htmlstainedglasswork00corm | first=Peter | last=Cormack | title=The Stained Glass Work of Christopher Whall 1849–1924 | publisher= Boston Public Library and the Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation | archivedate=May 12, 2008| year=1999 | ISBNisbn=0-89073-091-1 | url-access=registration }}</ref>

Connick's first major work, theAll First BaptistSaints Church in Pittsburgh[[Brookline, Massachusetts]], was completed in 19121910.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://kdka.com/kdcountry/Stained.glass.windows.2.1016788.html | title=KD Country: Stained Glass Windows | publisher=KDKA | date=May 22, 2009 | accessdateaccess-date=November 12, 2009 }}{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Connick settled in Boston where he opened his stained glass studio at Nine Harcourt Street, [[Back Bay, Boston]], in 1913.<ref name="studio">{{cite web | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/history.php | title=History of the Connick Studio | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation Ltd. | accessdateaccess-date=November 12, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725113701/http://www.cjconnick.org/history.php | archive-date=July 25, 2008 | dead-url-status=yesdead | df=mdy-all }}</ref> From there until his death, Connick designed and produced many notable stained glass windows including the [[rose window]]s of the Cathedrals of [[St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York|St. Patrick]] and [[Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine|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 Church (Pittsburgh)|Calvary Episcopal]] and [[Cathedral of Hope (Pittsburgh)|East Liberty Presbyterian]] churches in Pittsburgh. One of his largest works is in the [[Heinz Memorial Chapel]] at the [[University of Pittsburgh]]. Heinz Chapel has the distinction of having all of its 23 windows ({{convert|4000|sqft|m2}}) designed by Connick, including its 73-foot (22 m) tall transept windows which are among the tallest such windows in the world.<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/heinzchapel.aspx | title=Heinz Chapel Unveiled | first=Barbara Diven | last=Machamer | date=May 31, 2006 | journal=[[Pop City]] | publisher=Issue Media Group | location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | accessdateaccess-date=November 12, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010155848/http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/heinzchapel.aspx# | archive-date=October 10, 2017 | deadurl-urlstatus=yesdead | df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Connick preferred to use clear "antique" glass, similar to that of the [[Middle Ages]] and praised this type of glass as "colored radiance, with the lustre, intensity, and baffling vibrant quality of dancing lights." He employed a technique of "staggered" solder-joints in his leading and bars, which English stained-glass historian Peter Cormack says gives the windows their "syncopated or 'swinging' character."<ref name="trib-review"/> His style incorporated a strong interest in symbolism as well. Connick expressed the opinion that the first job of stained glass was to serve the architectural effect, and he believed that his greatest contribution to glasswork was "rescuing it from the abysmal depth of opalescent picture windows" of the sort popularized by [[Louis Comfort Tiffany]] and [[John La Farge]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.morsemuseum.org/collection/louis_comfort_tiffany.html | title=Louis Comfort Tiffany | publisher=The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art | location=Winter Park, FL | accessdateaccess-date=June 28, 2011}}</ref> Although firmly committed to a regenerated handicraft tradition, Connick welcomed innovation and experimentation in design and technique among his co-workers at his studio.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/sgtour2009.php | title=Singing Windows | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation | accessdateaccess-date=November 12, 2009}}</ref>

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."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/history.php | title=History of the Connick Studio | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation, Ltd. | date=April 2011 | accessdateaccess-date=June 28, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725175531/http://www.cjconnick.org/history.php | archive-date=July 25, 2011 | dead-url-status=yesdead | df=mdy-all }}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/exhibition.html | title=Join in Our Adventure in Light and Color: Connick Exhibition Being Organized | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation | accessdateaccess-date=June 28, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008191551/http://www.cjconnick.org/exhibition.html | archive-date=October 8, 2011 | dead-url-status=yesdead | df=mdy-all }}</ref> 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]].<ref name="movie">{{cite video | people=John Bishop (Producer/Director) | title=The Last Window (1988) | medium=DVD | publisher=Media Generation | date=2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://allsaintsparish.info/windows/Windows/Pepper.html | title=The Henry Pepper Memorial Window | publisher=All Saints Parish | accessdateaccess-date=January 19, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101026042528/http://allsaintsparish.info/windows/Windows/Pepper.html | archive-date=October 26, 2010 | dead-url-status=yesdead }}</ref> Shortly after closing, the studio donated its collection of records, working drawings and related materials to the [[Boston Public Library]].<ref name="studio" /> Throughout its history, the Charles J. Connick Associates Studio produced some 15,000 windows in more than 5,000 churches and public buildings.<ref name="movie"/>

The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation, Ltd., was formed after the studio closed in 1986. Its mission is to "promote the true understanding of the glorious medium of color and light and to preserve and perpetuate the Connick tradition of stained glass."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/ | title=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation, Ltd | accessdateaccess-date=January 21, 2010}}</ref> 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 ishas currently processingprocessed the collection and made it available digitally.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://info-libraries.mit.edu/rotch/collections/ | title=MIT Rotch Library – Architecture and Planning: Collections | publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology | accessdateaccess-date=January 21, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Connick|first=Charles Jay|title=Charles J Connick Stained Glass Foundation Collection|url=https://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/74802|url-status=live|access-date=January 5, 2022|website=MIT Libraries Dome|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604100642/http://dome.mit.edu/handle/1721.3/74802 |archive-date=June 4, 2012 }}</ref>

** [[Pasadena, California|Pasadena]]: Throop Unitarian Universalist Church<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.throopuupasadena.org/stained-glass-windows-at-throop.html | title=Songs in Light | publisher=Throop Unitarian Universalist Church | location = Pasadena, CA | accessdateaccess-date=April 7, 2016}}</ref>

***[[Grace Cathedral, San Francisco|Grace Cathedral]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.gracecathedral.org/content/arts/glass/ | title=Gospel in Glass | publisher=Grace Cathedral | first=Michael | last=Lampen | year=2004 | accessdateaccess-date=December 11, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091120015226/http://www.gracecathedral.org/content/arts/glass/ | archive-date=November 20, 2009 | dead-url-status=yesdead | df=mdy-all }}</ref>

***[[St. Dominic Church in San Francisco|St. Dominic's Catholic Church]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.stdominics.org/art/art.asp | title=Parish Art & Architecture | publisher=St. Dominic's Catholic Church | accessdateaccess-date=June 8, 2010}}</ref>

**[[Denver]]: [[Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness, Denver|Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.sjcathedral.org/internal/?page_id=16 | title=Saint John's Cathedral: History | publisher=Saint John's Episcopal Cathedral | location=Denver, CO | accessdateaccess-date=November 19, 2009 | deadurlurl-status=yesdead | archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720081210/http://www.sjcathedral.org/internal/?page_id=16 | archivedatearchive-date=July 20, 2011 | df=mdy-all }}</ref>

**Washington, D.C.: St. Gabriel's Church<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/newsletters/Summer2008.pdf | title=Gabriel's Hope | first=Milda B. | last=Richardson | date=Summer 2008 | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation | accessdateaccess-date=November 12, 2009}}</ref>

**Chicago: Fourth Presbyterian Church<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.fourthchurch.org/about/architecture/sanctuary/east-window/index.html# | title=About Fourth Church: The Great West Window | publisher=Fourth Presbyterian Church | location=Chicago, IL | accessdateaccess-date=November 19, 2009}}</ref>

**[[Des Moines, Iowa|Des Moines]]: [[St. Augustin Catholic Church (Des Moines, Iowa)|St. Augustin Catholic Church]]<ref name=Augustin>{{cite web|url=http://www.staugustin.org/about-us/history/|title=Parish History|publisher=St. Augustin Church|accessdateaccess-date=2017-10-30|author=}} with {{NRHP url|id=13000068|photos=y|title=photo(s)}}</ref>

**[[Brookline, Massachusetts|Brookline]]: All Saints Parish<ref>{{cite web | url=http://allsaintsparish.info/windows/Windows/WindowHome.html | title=The Windows of All Saints Parish | accessdateaccess-date=January 5, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907183510/http://allsaintsparish.info/windows/Windows/WindowHome.html | archive-date=September 7, 2008 | dead-url-status=yesdead }}</ref>

**[[Newton, Massachusetts|Newton]]: First Church, Second Church, Parish of the Good Shepherd, Newtonville Library

**[[Waltham, Massachusetts|Waltham]]: [[Christ Episcopal Church (Waltham, Massachusetts)|Christ Church]]<ref name="Waltham">

***[[Woodlawn Cemetery (Detroit, Michigan)|Woodlawn Mausoleum]]

*** [[St. Margaret Mary Church]]<ref name="Charles J. Connick:">

**[[Peterborough, New Hampshire|Peterborough]]: [[All Saints' Episcopal Church (Peterborough, New Hampshire)|All Saints' Episcopal Church]]<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://www.cjconnick.org/newsletters/June2002.html | title=Book Review: The Stained Glass of All Saints': All Saints' Parish Church, Peterborough, New Hampshire | first=Lance | last=Kasparian | journal=Connick WIndowsWindows | publisher=The Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation | location=Newtonville, MA |date=June 2002 | accessdateaccess-date=June 26, 2010}}</ref>

**[[Albuquerque, New Mexico|Albuquerque]]: Cathedral Church of St. John<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.stjohnsabq.org/History/Windows.htm | archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908075106/http://www.stjohnsabq.org/History/Windows.htm | title=St. John's Cathedral History: Cathedral Windows – Overview | publisher=The Cathedral Church of St. John | location= Albuquerque, NM | archivedatearchive-date=September 8, 2006 | accessdateaccess-date=November 19, 2009}}</ref>

**[[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]]: Westminster Presbyterian Church<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.westminster-bflo.org/church/architecture.htm | title=Westminster Architecture | publisher=Westminster Presbyterian Church | location=Buffalo, NY | accessdateaccess-date=November 19, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101026111356/http://www.westminster-bflo.org/church/architecture.htm | archive-date=October 26, 2010 | dead-url-status=yesdead | df=mdy-all }}</ref>

**[[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|Harrisburg]]: Pine Street Presbyterian Church<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.pinestreet.org/windowRestoration/militantchristianity.html | title=The Stained Glass Windows of Pine Street Presbyterian Church and Their Restoration: Militant Christianity | publisher=Pine Street Presbyterian Church | accessdateaccess-date=November 12, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100829054535/http://www.pinestreet.org/windowRestoration/militantchristianity.html | archive-date=August 29, 2010 | dead-url-status=yesdead | df=mdy-all }}</ref>

***Church of the Annunciation <ref name="cjconnick.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.cjconnick.org/installations|title = Installations &#124; the Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation}}</ref>

**[[Waco, Texas|Waco]]: [[Armstrong Browning Library]], [[Baylor University]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.baylor.edu/abl/index.php?id=49154 | title=Armstrong Browning Library: Martin Entrance Foyer | publisher=Baylor University | location=Waco, TX | accessdateaccess-date=November 19, 2009}}</ref>

[[Category:19th-century American male artists]]