Jane Gray (b.1931)

St Mary the Virgin, Ebony, Tenterden, Design for Stained Glass Window (1983)

Watercolour

15.5 x 10 cm

Dated in artist’s hand and artist label verso.

Worship at Ebony has taken place for some one thousand years but St Mary the Virgin Church, as it exists today, was not built until 1858. A church had previously existed on the island of Ebony where, standing 30 metres above sea level and visible for miles around, it provided a prominent landmark to ships coming up the sea creek. This church, however, was devastated by a fire in the 16th century, and from its ruins, a much smaller church, built in a simple rectangle of Kentish ragstone, was erected, serving the parish until 1858. In this year, the church was taken down, stone by stone, and moved to the nearby hamlet of Reading Street where it stands today. Gray’s design centres on the Anunciation, featuring the figures of Mary and Gabriel, and was installed in the church in 1984.

Provenance: the artist’s studio sale.

Literature: Jane Gray, Playing with Rainbows. (Shropshire: Ellingham Press, 2011), p.78.

Condition: very good.

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