Kempe - by Adrian Barlow (Paperback)

About the Book

A biographical study of the Victorian church artist Charles Eamer Kempe and his considerable influence on church decoration worldwide.

Book Synopsis

A biographical study of the Victorian church artist Charles Eamer Kempe and his considerable influence on church decoration worldwide.

Kempe offers a radical revaluation of the life, work and reputation of Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907), one of the most remarkable and influential figures in late Victorian and Edwardian church art. Kempe's name became synonymous with a distinctive style of stained glass, furnishing and decoration deriving from late mediaeval and early Renaissance models. To this day, his hand can be seen in churches and cathedrals worldwide. Drawing on newly available archive material, Adrian Barlow evaluates Kempe's achievement in creating a Studio or School of artists and craftsmen who interpreted his designs and remained fiercely loyal to his aesthetic and religious ideals. He assesses his legacy and reputation today, as well as exploring his networks of patrons and influence, which stretched from the Royal Family and the Church of England hierarchy to the literary and artistic beau monde. These networks intersected at Kempe's stunning Sussex country house, Old Place, his 'Palace of Art'. Created to embody his ideals of beauty and history, it holds the key to understanding his contradictory personality, his public and private faces. This book will appeal to everyone interested in Victorian art in general and stained glass in particular. Detailed and wide-ranging, Kempe tells a compelling story.

Review Quotes

Adrian Barlow's book is a scholarly biography of the outstanding and prolific stained-glass artist Charles Kempe.--John Goodall "Country Life, pg92, 9th January 2019"

Forget what you knew, or thought you knew, about Kempe! Adrian Barlow's reexamination of the life, art and work of Charles Eamer Kempe and his circle is a masterful exercise in biography and art history.--Dr Jasmine Allen, Curator, The Stained Glass Museum, Ely

One comes away with a sense of the shape of Kempe's life, an interesting set of insights into his working methods, and, above all, the sense that he's a considerable artist.' 'Adrian Barlow's Kempe will send people back to the work, with much more background knowledge, with a clearer understanding of how his big Victorian studio worked, and, above all, with new enthusiasm and new eyes.--Phillip Wilk "'Into the Light', English Buildings, 29 November 2018"

This is a timely and long-awaited study of the work of C.E. Kempe and his successor company, not only in stained glass but within a wider context of later 19th and early 20th century design and the Arts and Crafts movement. Its illustrations draw attention to the consistently high quality of the firm's work and the informative text should put its reputation where it properly belongs, equal to and sometimes even above its contemporary rivals.--Dr Donald Buttress, LVO, OBE, Surveyor Emeritus of Westminster Abbey