Alfred Ernest Child (1875–1939) was an English stained glass artist, a lecturer in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and was associated with An Túr Gloine.[1]

Alfred Ernest Child
Born1875
Died1939
NationalityEnglish
EducationCentral School of Arts and Crafts
Alma materDublin Metropolitan School of Art
Known forStained Glass

Life and education

edit
 
St. Patrick's Cathedral Dublin, North Transept Window King Cormac of Cashel, (detail)

Alfred Ernest Child was born in London in 1875. As a young man, he left school to work in an accountant's office, working there for a year when he decided to pursue a career in the arts. He studied in the Central School of Arts and Crafts having won a scholarship, and went on to study stained glass under Christopher Whall as an assistant glass painter and designer.[2][3] Child was married to Annie, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.[4] Child died of stroke in Dublin in 1939.[3]

Artistic work

edit

Child was invited to Dublin in September 1901 to teach in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, forming a class in stained glass within two months.[2] Whilst working in the School he tutored a generation of Irish stained-glass artists which included Harry Clarke, Ethel Rhind, Catherine O’Brien, Michael Healy and Evie Hone.[4] It is this influence is seen as his largest contribution to Irish stained glass art.[5][6]

Child became the manager of An Túr Gloine upon its opening in 1903. Child was a member of Guild of Irish Art Workers and exhibited with the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland. Amongst the windows that he designed are those at Loughrea Cathedral, the Honan Chapel at University College Cork, the Unitarian Church, Dublin and St Mary’s Church, Haddington Road.[2][7] Though his eyesight began to fail in 1937, he was associated with the studio until his death 1939.[4]

References

edit
  1. ^ Bowe, Nicola Gordon; Caron, David; Wynne, Michael (1988). Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. pp. 91–92. ISBN 0-7165-2413-9.
  2. ^ a b c "Alfred Ernest Child". Mayo Stained Glass. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Mr Alfred Ernest Child". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951. University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  4. ^ a b c "CHILD, ALFRED ERNEST". Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720-1940. Irish Architectural Archive. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  5. ^ Gordon Bowe, Nicola. "The Tower of Glass: An Túr Gloine and the early 20th century stained glass revival in Ireland". Building Conservation. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  6. ^ "A. E. Child (1875-1939)". Stained Glass in Wales. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  7. ^ "Raising the roof". The Irish Times. 10 December 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
edit