Henry Holiday
His Stained-Glass Windows for Gilded-Age New York
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
Published:31st Mar '23
Should be back in stock very soon

Henry Holiday (1839–1927) was a polymath who counted figures such as Lewis Carroll, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Emmeline Pankhurst as his friends. Most significantly, he was unquestionably one of the greatest stained-glass artists of the Victorian-Edwardian period, yet his considerable achievements have not received the recognition that they deserve.
Taking Holiday’s commissions for New York State churches as its focus, George Bryant’s ground-breaking study places the artist’s transatlantic accomplishments in the context of the social, artistic, religious and economic shifts that shaped his success in the US during America’s Gilded Age – a period where existing social hierarchies were challenged by new money and European immigration that ended with the outbreak of the First World War. Also providing a clear understanding of the technical and aesthetic differences that set Holiday's stained glass apart from that of his contemporaries such as Edward Burne-Jones, La Farge, and Tiffany, Bryant's truly original publication, based on substantial archival research, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of nineteenth-century stained-glass design and Henry Holiday's important achievements.
'Bryant’s detailed accounts of many of Holiday’s magnificent windows point to the artist’s colossal artistic achievement; they also point to the fragility of the medium. [...] Stained-glass windows are difficult to record accurately and the brilliance of Holiday’s colour palette shines through in these reproductions.' – Morna O’Neill, Apollo Magazine
Winner of the Victorian Society of New York book award 2023.
'Bryant has successfully situated Holiday as an artist in his own right, dynamically addressing key moments in a long and rich career. The book is a visual and intellectual feast and a very welcome addition for scholars of this period to digest.' – Reviewed by Dr Marie Groll, The York Glaziers Trust, for Vidimus, Issue 151
ISBN: 9781848225602
Dimensions: 270mm x 249mm x 30mm
Weight: unknown
328 pages