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Frank Furness and Henry Holiday: A Study of Patronage, Architecture and Art
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 January 2016
Extract
The decorative arts are integral and crucial elements in the works of Philadelphia architect Frank Furness (1839–1912) (Fig. 1). The wonderfully inventive embellishments to his buildings, in wood, metal and glass, contribute to a memorable richness and help distinguish his buildings from those of his contemporaries. Our current understanding of Furness and his works has been based primarily upon considerations of the buildings themselves, and on anecdotal information concerning Furness’s personality and family, and some reasonable assumptions as to how his work fits within the architectural and design trends of his day. A fuller understanding has been hindered by the fact that he wrote very little, that first-hand accounts of his working methods are few, and that, of his relationships with the artisans who produced his decorative designs, only the collaborations with the furniture maker Daniel Pabst (1826–1910) and sculptor Karl Bitter (1867–1915) have been documented. Therefore, the discovery of new sources of information that document an overlooked but long-time working relationship between Furness and a noted English artist is an important addition to Furness scholarship.
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- Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. 2013
References
Notes
1 See O’Gorman, James F., The Architecture of Frank Furness, 2nd edn (Philadelphia, 1987)Google Scholar; Kaplan, Wendy, ‘The Furniture of Frank Furness’, Antiques, May 1987, pp. 1088–95 Google Scholar; Thomas, George E., Cohen, Jeffrey A. and Lewis, Michael J., Frank Furness: The Complete Works (New York, 1991)Google Scholar; Lewis, Michael J., Frank Furness: Architecture and the Violent Mind (New York and London, 2001).Google Scholar
2 The Philadelphia Survey was directed by Jean Farnsworth for the Census of Stained Glass Windows in America and in association with the Philadelphia Historic Preservation Corporation. See Farnsworth, Jean, ‘Progress in the Study of Windows: The Philadelphia Stained Glass Survey’, Glory in Glass: Stained Glass in the United States, Origins, Variety, and Preservation, ed. Raguin, Virginia Chieffo (New York, 1998), pp. 35–37 Google Scholar. I presented the initial findings of my research at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians in Philadelphia in 1994.
3 In addition to Furness and his connections, Holiday’s major clients were Revd Phillips Brooks (1835-93) of Trinity Church in Boston; Revd Arthur Brooks (1845–95) of Church of the Incarnation in New York City and brother of Phillips, Revd William McVicar (1843–1910), Phillips Brooks successor at Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia and Revd Henry Potter (1835–1908) of Grace Church in New York City. These men were responsible for, or facilitated, numerous commissions for Holiday and, along with Furness, their continued patronage largely assured Holiday’s success in America.
4 The most detailed account of Furness’s early life and career is found in Lewis, Frank Furness. A Furness family tree is included in Thomas et al., Frank Furness: The Complete Works, after p. 364.
5 See Baker, Paul R., Richard Morris Hunt (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, 1980).Google Scholar
6 Frank Furness, ‘A Few Personal Reminiscences of His Old Teacher by One of His Old Pupils’, edited typescript for Memorial to Richard Morris Hunt (1895), 28 pp. Reprinted in Thomas et al., Frank Furness: The Complete Works, pp. 345–50.
7 Lewis, , Frank Furness, p. 21.Google Scholar
8 Baker, , Richard Morris Hunt, pp. 103–05.Google Scholar
9 Lewis, , Frank Furness, p. 232.Google Scholar
10 Ibid., p. 88.
11 ‘Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art’, Harper’s Weekly, 29 July 1876, p. 622.Google Scholar
12 Lewis, , Frank Furness, pp. 122–23.Google Scholar
13 Despite Holiday’s success as a stained glass designer, his reputation as such was not widespread in England let alone in the United States. At this time he was probably better known as a muralist. For the frontispiece of A History of the Gothic Revival (1872), Charles Eastlake reproduced the Annunciation portion of Holiday’s murals in the chancel of All Saints Church designed by William White in Notting Hill. If Furness was aware of Holiday before the exhibition, this would be the most likely source for an example of Holiday’s work. Even so, the exhibition was certainly Furness’s first opportunity to see Holiday’s work first hand.
14 For a general history of the firm, see Evans, Wendy, Catherine Ross and Alex Werner, Whitefriars Glass: James Powell & Sons of London (London, 1995)Google Scholar. The Powell archive is held by the Archive of Art and Design at the V&A Museum in London.
15 Great Britain, Executive Commission, Philadelphia Exhibition, Official Catalogue of the British Section. Published by Authority of the Lord President of the Council (London, 1876), pp. 224–25.Google Scholar
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17 Holiday, Henry, Reminiscences of My Life (London, 1914), pp. 94 and 103.Google Scholar
18 Ibid., pp. 1–4.
19 Codel, Julie F., ‘William Cave Thomas: Pre-Raphaelite Defector of Educator?’, journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, 7 (May 1987), p. 25.Google Scholar
20 Holiday, , Reminiscences, p. 16.Google Scholar
21 Ibid., pp. 71–72.
22 Ibid., p. 42.
23 Ibid., pp. 65 and 75–76.
24 Ibid., p. 46.
25 Mordaunt Crook, J., William Burges and the High Victorian Dream (Chicago, 1981), p. 321.Google Scholar
26 Holiday, , Reminiscences, p. 106.Google Scholar
27 Harrison, , Victorian Stained Glass, pp. 45–46.Google Scholar
28 Plans, elevations and a section of Oak Tree House were published in The Building News, 4 June 1880. This large house was an early, fully developed essay in the ‘Queen Anne’ style and indicates Holiday’s advanced taste in architecture. See Girouard, Mark, Sweetness and Light: The ‘Queen Anne’ Movement 1860–1900 (Oxford, 1977), pp. 49–50.Google Scholar
29 Carroll, Lewis, The Annotated Snark, ed. Gardner, Martin (Harmondsworth, 1973), pp. 16–18.Google Scholar
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31 London, V&A Museum, Powell Archive at the Archive of Art and Design, Powell & Sons Cash Book entry, 15 February 1877. My thanks to Dr Dennis Hadley and Joan Hadley for sharing their research on Holiday and the Powell Archive.
32 Holiday, Henry, Stained Glass as an Art (London, 1896), p. 154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33 Holiday’s knowledge of camels perhaps stems from his first trip to Egypt in 1872 where he actually rode one. Camels and Egyptian themes appear in many of his works.
34 Philadelphia, Archives of St Stephen’s Church, Vestry Minutes, 3 May 1880.
35 The specification of exact window dimensions was often difficult and alterations to windows after their arrival were not uncommon.
36 Philadelphia, Archive of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, Box AB #4, Meeting Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, 11 December 1882. The archives are located in the church’s safe.
37 For the history of Philadelphia’s Unitarians, see Geffen, Elizabeth M., Philadelphia Unitarianism 1796–1861 (Philadelphia, 1961).Google Scholar
38 It is not clear how much if any of Furness’s original decorative scheme survives. A pamphlet written by church member Richard Fry for the church in 1986 describes a repainting that occurred in 1981. After an analysis of the paint layers, the new paint was chosen from ‘the closest available commercial color. The raised lily designs on the ceiling were roller painted with an approximation of the original gold color.’
39 Philadelphia, Unitarian Church archive, Trustees’ Meeting Minutes, 26 September 1885.
40 Ibid., 22 November 1885. The minutes quote Furness saying that ‘he had decorated a great many churches in the city and other places and that he had never been called upon in any case to submit a design in color […] and it could not be done without involving considerable expense.’
41 Holiday, Henry, ‘“Charity” Cartoon for Stained Glass Window’, Builder, 3 September 1887, p. 328.Google Scholar
42 London, V&A, Powell Archive, Cash Book entry, 24 August 1886.
43 Holiday, , Reminiscences, pp. 322–23 Google Scholar. In 1893, Holiday reused the design for another mosaic reredos installed in St Chad’s, Kirkby (near Liverpool). The design was illustrated in ‘The Decorative Work of Mr. Henry Holiday’, Studio International, 46 (1909), pp. 106–15Google Scholar. See also Reminiscences, p. 436.
44 Holiday, , Reminiscences, pp. 322–23.Google Scholar
45 Grammer, Carl Ekhardt, St. Stephen’s Church Philadelphia: A Brief Account of the Memorials (Philadelphia, n.d.), p. 81.Google Scholar
46 Jordon, John W., Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, XI (New York, 1919), p. 231.Google Scholar
47 London, V&A, Powell Archive, Cash Book entry, 4 January 1887.
48 Holiday, , Stained Glass as an Art, pp. 141–46.Google Scholar
49 Philadelphia, Unitarian Church Archive, Trustees’ Meeting Minutes, 12 December 1889.
50 Ibid., 6 January 1891.
51 Ibid., 6 April 1891.
52 The caption for fig. 19, p. 61 in Holiday’s Stained Glass as an Art reads ‘E. window in chapel of a school near Philadelphia.’ The Powell and Sons cash book entry notes that the window was to be sent to Mr Furness, Philadelphia, which is crossed out and Boston written in by another hand.
53 Thomas, , Complete Works, p. 297 Google Scholar. Thomson was one of Furness’s many connections with the Pennsylvania Railroad, which provided him with a steady stream of commissions.
54 ‘Funeral of Alexander Thomson’, Philadelphia Inquirer, Morning edition, 7 August 1889, p. 8, col. 3. Dr Daniel N. Rolph at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania graciously tracked down the obituary for me.
55 Douglas Brown, Archivist at Groton School, is to be thanked for directing me to copies of the letters and other archival materials and for showing me the windows during my visit to Groton School.
56 Holiday, , Stained Glass as an Art, pp. 61 and 132.Google Scholar
57 Holiday commonly would reuse or rework previous designs for new commissions. The sketch of the Thomson window (fig. 19, p. 61) in Stained Glass as an Art shows that the figure of Joseph was originally more like the Grace Church window, but the clothing and background changed in the final design installed at Groton. The Thomson window also has Joseph looking at the viewer while the Joseph in the Grace Church window is looking at Benjamin in the adjacent panel. Grace Church has a number of Holiday windows; the church’s fifth rector was Revd Henry Codman Potter, later bishop of New York, and an important client of Holiday.
58 Holiday used the design for these windows as the coloured frontispiece of Stained Glass as an Art.
59 Holiday, , Reminiscences, p. 353.Google Scholar
60 Ibid. Holiday writes, ‘He had a fund of good stories, one of which I think I must give. Two Jews had made an unusually big haul in a cunning stroke of business, and determined to celebrate their success by a dinner at Delmonico’s. They had a good time until the bill came, when they gasped, and almost inarticulate with wrath, vowed they would not pay. The waiter let them rave, and then said coolly that it was their regular charge and they would have to pay. They groaned and paid. When they were in the street one said to the other, “Abram, that Delmonico ish a vicked man.” — “Yesh, Moshesh, he is a vicked man.” After a gloomy silence the first said, “God vill punish that vicked man.” The other, unbuttoning his coat and showing his friend the tops of a lot of silver forks and spoons peeping out of his breast pocket, said, “Moshesh, God has punished that vicked man.“‘ It should be noted that Furness had strong connections to Philadelphia’s Reform Jewish community, from which he received numerous commissions including Rodef Shalom Synagogue, the Jewish Hospital and Mount Sinai Cemetery Chapel.
61 Records of Holiday’s independent studio have not survived and therefore documentation of his designs is not readily available. The primary source is an incomplete and not entirely correct list of windows compiled by his daughter, Winifred, and included in Lys Baldry, A., ‘Henry Holiday’, Walker’s Quarterly, 31-32 (1930).Google Scholar
62 The Statutes at Large of the United States of America from December 1889 to March 1891, 26 (Washington, 1891), p. 576.Google Scholar
63 Windon, William, Secretary of the Treasury, Synopsis of the Decisions of the Treasury Department On The Construction of the Tariff, Navigation, And Other Laws For The Year Ended December 31, 1890 (Washington, 1891), pp. 515–16.Google Scholar
64 Groton, Groton School Archives, letter from Frank Thomson to Revd Endicott Peabody, 25 October 1890.
65 William Morgan in a note in his book, The Almighty Wall: The Architecture of Henry Vaughan (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, 1983), p. 164nGoogle Scholar, quotes a letter from Louise B. Richardson to Revd David Boulton, Christ Church, New Haven, 9 October 1980. The quote reads, ‘Vaughan was the American representative for all Kempe glass made for this country. It was ordered from England, the glass came in a boat to its destination in this country with Mr. Vaughan handling the final steps.’
66 The current state of this partially restored window makes it impossible to judge its full impact since the entire centre portion is not in place.
67 Philadelphia, First Unitarian Church Archive, letter from Frank Miles Day & Brother to John P. Croasdale, Chairman, 12 March 1897.
68 Philadelphia, First Unitarian Church Archive, Trustees’ Meeting Minutes, 20 May 1897. Leaving Frank Furness out of this decision must be viewed as a slight towards him by the Trustees.
69 Ibid., 27 June 1901.
70 Ibid., 21 November 1901.
71 Ibid., 9 January 1902.
72 Ibid., 2 April 1902.
73 Ibid., 10 April 1902.
74 Ibid., 6 May 1902.
75 Philadelphia, First Unitarian Church Archive, letter from Mary Howard Scott to John P. Croasdale, 2 July 1902.
76 Philadelphia, First Unitarian Church Archive, Trustees’ Meeting Minutes, 9 July 1902.
77 Philadelphia, First Unitarian Church Archive, letter from Mrs Edgar Randolph Hoyt to John P. Croasdale, n.d. The archives contain a collection of letters from the donors of the memorials in the church that were written in response to a request by Croasdale in 1907 on behalf of a committee formed to gather information for the church records. This is a documented case of a post-installation alteration to a stained glass window by applying paint that was not fired with the glass and thus cold painted.
78 Philadelphia, First Unitarian Church Archive, Trustees’ Meeting Minutes, 22 December 1902.
79 See O’Gorman, , The Architecture of Frank Furness, pp. 53 and 55Google Scholar; Thomas, , Complete Works, p. 246 Google Scholar; and Lewis, , Frank Furness, p. 161.Google Scholar
80 Shortly after completing my review of the Trustees’ meeting minutes, I was contacted by Richard Fry (see n. 38) who had also uncovered the true story of the skylight and had included it in the descriptive pamphlet he had written in 1986. He provided me with a copy of the pamphlet and encouraged my further research.
81 O’Gorman, , The Architecture of Frank Furness, p. 147 Google Scholar. The reference given is PI, 26 April 1902, p. 7.
82 The Board of Trustees finally agreed to ‘introduce electric current into the church and chapel buildings for light and vacuum cleaning power’ in 1912 (Trustees’ Meeting Minutes, 20 December 1912).
83 Furness to W. Aldis Wright, 29 July 1912, published in The Letters of Horace Howard Furness, ed. Jayne, H. H. F., 2 vols (Boston and New York, 1912), II, pp. 275–76.Google Scholar
84 Holiday, Winifred, ‘Note by Miss Holiday’, in Baldry, A.L., Walker’s Quarterly, 31-32 (London, 1930), p. 46.Google Scholar
85 There is a series of letters between Furness and John Croasdale and between Croasdale and the Lea Family in the First Unitarian Church Archive.
86 Philadelphia, First Unitarian Church Archive, Croasdale to Furness, 22 June 1910.
87 Ibid., Furness to Croasdale, 28 June 1910.
88 Ibid., Croasdale to Arthur H. Lea, 2 July 1910.
89 ‘He affected the English in fashion’; see Sullivan, Louis, The Autobiography of an Idea, 1924 edn (New York, 1956), p. 191 Google Scholar. English influences are evident throughout Furness’s work and have been discussed in the Furness monographs (see n. 1).
90 Farnsworth, Jean M., ‘An American Bias for Foreign Stained Glass’, in International Seminar on Stained Glass, ed. Raguin, Virginia Chieffo, pp. 112–14 Google Scholar. See also her ‘An American Bias for Foreign Stained Glass’, Nineteenth Century, 17 (Autumn 1997), pp. 15–20.Google Scholar
91 Avery, Kevin J., ‘“The Heart of the Andes” exhibited: Frederic E. Church’s Window on the Equatorial World’, American Art journal, 18 (Winter 1986), pp. 52–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
92 A number of Furness’s sketchbooks have survived and are in the collection of Theodore Green, a Furness descendant. An exhibition of these sketchbooks entitled, ‘Face and Form: The Art and Caricature of Frank Furness’ was held from 30 November 2012 to 11 January 2013 at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Several of Furness’s sketches have been reproduced in the Furness monographs (see n. 1 above).
93 Holiday, , Stained Glass, pp. 159–63.Google Scholar
94 Holiday, , Reminiscences, pp. 259–60.Google Scholar
95 The primary references for this discussion are Chadwick, Owen, The Victorian Church, Parts I & II (New York, 1966 and 1970)Google Scholar, and Hutchison, William R., The Transcendentalist Ministers: Church Reform in the New England Renaissance (Boston, 1965)Google Scholar. See also Bevir, Mark, ‘The Labour Church Movement, 1891–1902’, journal of British Studies, 38 (1999), pp. 217–45 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which includes a discussion of the late Victorian crisis of faith. For Philips Brooks and William McVicar, see Albright, Raymond W., Focus on Infinity: A Life of Phillips Brooks (New York, 1961)Google Scholar, and Allen, Alexander V.G., Life and Letters of Phillips Brooks, 2 vols (New York, 1902).Google Scholar
96 Holiday, , Stained Glass, pp. 51–54 Google Scholar. The client may have questioned the inclusion of science in the window since Drew Theological Institute was a seminary for the evangelical Methodist Episcopal Church and certainly did not share the views of the Broad Church movement.
97 MacKay, Angus M., ‘Henry Holiday and his Art’, The Westminster Review, 158 (1902), pp. 391–400.Google Scholar
98 Holiday, , Reminiscences, p. 260.Google Scholar
99 London, St Martin-in-the-Fields archives, letter from Dr George Woodward to Mrs J. Rundle Smith, 13 January 1910. Woodward was probably responding to the often maudlin quality of Tiffany’s windows that we now associate with some brands of sympathy cards.
100 The Henry family ordered a window from Tiffany in 1904 depicting St Martin dividing his cloak. The Walker’s Quarterly list of Holiday windows includes a design for this window. George Woodward, a relative of the Henrys, may have contacted Holiday and asked for a design but the Henrys went to Tiffany instead. This probably explains Woodward’s disparaging comments about Tiffany to Mrs Smith. The other Holiday commission that was instead given to Tiffany Studios is the Light of the World window in Holy Trinity Rittenhouse Square.
101 O’Gorman, , The Architecture of Frank Furness, pp. 36–37 Google Scholar; Taylor, David A., ‘Dresser in the United States’, in Shock of the Old: Christopher Dresser’s Design Revolution, ed. Whiteway, Michael (London, 2004), p. 118.Google Scholar
102 ‘Introduction’, in Henry Holiday 1839–1927, ed. Cormack, Peter (London, 1989), p. 1.Google Scholar
103 Thomas, , Complete Works, p. 14.Google Scholar
104 The connection with Hewitt proved to be a dead end. The windows in Holy Trinity are connected with Revd McVicar and the windows in the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields and at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy are connected with Dr George Woodward.