Jane Gray (born 1931)

Fish (1960)

Pencil and watercolour

19 x 54 cm

Provenance: the artist’s studio sale.

Jane Gray A.R.C.A. (b.1931) is a British stained glass artist. She studied stained glass at the Kingston School of Arts (1949 – 1951) and later at the Royal College of Art (1951 – 1955) under Lawrence Lee. Lee was so impressed with Gray’s work that he asked her to work alongside him on the design of ten nave windows for Coventry Cathedral. This six-year-long design project culminated in their final installation in 1962 after the cathedral’s consecration. Gray was the first woman to become a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and has designed more than a hundred windows in private and public buildings, chapels and over forty churches across the country, including St Peter’s, Martindale, Shrewsbury Abbey, St Oswald, Oswestry and St Mary, Chirk. Gray’s designs mark a crucial turning point in the history of stained glass art as the Victorian style gave way to a modern, aesthetic. In her work, Gray navigates this shift with a style that, whilst distinctly modern, retains a deep rooted sense of the medieval. Despite many of her commissions being for church windows, stained glass design was not simply about religious depiction for Gray, but more about ‘colour, shapes, luminosity, [and] playing with rainbows’.

Condition: generally very good.

If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056.

For other works by Jane Gray and more information about her, please click here.