Jane Gray (b.1931)

St Peter’s Church, Martindale, Design for Stained Glass Window (1980)

Watercolour

29.5 x 4.5 cm

Signed and dated verso.

St Peter’s Church was built in Martindale, Cumbria in 1880 by a local craftsman using stone from the surrounding area. The church is situated in an enchanting rural oasis and has connections to the acclaimed modern poet, Kathleen Raine, who lived in the Old Vicarage, as well as William and Dorothy Wordsworth who visited the area on one of their Cumbrian excursions. Gray’s ‘Martindale Era’ lasted from 1974-81, in which time, she designed and installed fifteen stained glass windows in St Peter’s Church. This window was designed in memory of Charles Barrand, the vicar at Martindale, who died in 1981. Alongside the cymbals, harp, pipes, horn, and musical notes to celebrate the musical Saint Cecilia, are some of the flowers the vicar grew in the vicarage garden and his favourite psalm: number 150. 

Provenance: the artist’s studio sale.

Literature: Jane Gray, Playing with Rainbows. (Shropshire: Ellingham Press, 2011), pp.20, 74.

Condition: 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.