Harry Clarke was the greatest of all Irish stained glass artists, as well as a talented painter and book illustrator. Born in Dublin, the son of a church decorator and supplier of stained-glass, at a time when the latter art form was undergoing a rebirth due to the establishment of the An Tur Gloine studios by Sarah Purser, Clarke studied briefly at (what is now) the Royal College of Art in London. However, most of his artistic technique was gleaned either from his father's workshop or at Dublin Art School night classes. The Irish international Exhibition (1907) provided his first glimpse of Aubrey Beardsley illustrations, and works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (one of the leaders of the Pre-Raphaelites) and the Continental S...