Carl Almquist (1848 – 1924) was a Swedish-born stained-glass artist whose professional life was spent entirely in Britain. He was a pupil of

Henry Holiday Henry Holiday (17 June 183915 April 1927) was a British historical genre and landscape painter, stained-glass designer, illustrator, and sculptor. He is part of the Pre-Raphaelite school of art. Life Early years and training Holiday was born ...

and became one of the two chief designers for the well-known Lancaster firm of

Shrigley and Hunt Shrigley and Hunt was an English firm which produced stained-glass windows and art tiles. History The business began in the 1750s when Shrigley's was a painting, carving and gilding firm in Lancaster, Lancashire. In 1868, control of Shrigley's ...

. He was in large measure responsible for establishing their late

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

Aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...

style. Though largely neglected by 20th-century art historians he has more recently been acclaimed as a genius, and as one of the leading late-Victorian stained-glass designers.

Career

Carl Almquist was born in 1848 in Almby, near

Örebro Örebro ( , ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, sixth-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Örebro Municipality, and capital of the Örebro County. It is situated by the Närke Plain, near the lake Hjälmaren, a few kilometers in ...

, Sweden. Wanting to study stained-glass production and not being able to do so in Sweden, he travelled to England at the age of 22 under the sponsorship of , a local architecture teacher. He became a pupil, and soon an employee, of the

artist

, one of the leading stained-glass designers of the day, while also finding work with various other studios, including

Burlison and Grylls Burlison and Grylls is an English company who produced stained glass windows from 1868 onwards. The company of Burlison and Grylls was founded in 1868 at the instigation of the architects George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner. Both John Bu ...

Heaton, Butler and Bayne Heaton, Butler and Bayne were an English firm who produced stained-glass windows from 1862 to 1953. History Clement Heaton (1824–82) Fleming, John & Hugh Honour. (1977) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts. '' London: Allen Lane, p. 371. ...

, and

James Powell and Sons The firm of James Powell and Sons, also known as Whitefriars Glass, were London-based English glassmakers, leadlighters and stained glass window manufacturers. As ''Whitefriars Glass'', the company existed from the 17th century, but became well ...

. In December 1873 he began to get work from the new Lancaster firm of

, both as a stained-glass designer and a decorative artist in other media, and in 1876 he became a permanent employee and moved to Lancaster. Here the firm's founder, Arthur William Hunt, and his two chief designers, Almquist and

Edward Holmes Jewitt Edward Holmes Jewitt (1849–1929) was a Pre-Raphaelite artist working in stained glass and other media. He was one of the two chief designers, along with Carl Almquist, for the Lancaster firm of Shrigley and Hunt, producers of stained-g ...

, worked as a close team, drawing particularly on the

techniques Almquist had derived from Holiday and from

Harry Ellis Wooldridge Harry Ellis Wooldridge (28 March 1845 – 13 February 1917) was an English musical antiquary, artist and Professor of Fine Arts. His music collections included transcripts of 17th- and 18th-century Italian music. He enrolled at the Royal Aca ...

of the James Powell studio; they developed a house style of subtle colours (becoming richer in later years) and delicate drawing which defined Shrigley and Hunt until well into the 20th century. Almquist soon found he much preferred life in London, so to keep the company together Hunt opened a London branch for him in 1878. Almquist was still not finished with education, and from 1878 to 1884 attended the

West London School of Art West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

. This culminated with his being awarded a travelling scholarship to spend two months in Italy studying decorative art. As the years passed his style developed, with the Pre-Raphaelite influence becoming less obvious and those of

Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered ...

, Dürer and contemporary Scottish glass designers more so. Almquist designed many windows for locations in Scotland, Wales, the

Home Counties The home counties are the counties of England that surround London. The counties are not precisely defined but Buckinghamshire and Surrey are usually included in definitions and Berkshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent are also often inc ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, and above all in the north-west of England, and there are scattered examples elsewhere. Though he never returned to Sweden he designed several of the stained glass windows for the St Nicholas Church, Örebro, then being restored by his old friend Adolf Kjellström, and later for the Olaus Petri Church in the same town. Stylistic evidence also suggests that while employed by Shrigley and Hunt Almquist did some freelance work for the firm of Burlison and Grylls. In 1920, suffering from failing eyesight, he retired to the seaside resort of

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. He continued to send designs to Shrigley and Hunt and was paid for them, but they were never used. He died at Hove in 1924.

List of works

Footnotes

References

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Almquist, Carl 1848 births 1924 deaths 19th-century Swedish artists 20th-century Swedish male artists People from Örebro Municipality Stained glass artists and manufacturers Pre-Raphaelite stained glass artists 19th-century Swedish male artists