Lot 83: - Henry Holiday (1839 - 1927) , `Moses leaving the Court of Pharaoh': A memorial window to General Robert E. Lee

Estimated Price: Log in or create account to view price data

Description: 1891 stained and leaded glass marked within the glass `MEMORIAL WINDOW TO GENERAL LEE ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL RICHMOND VIRGINIA'

Notes: The window in memory of Robert E. Lee was among the first installed in St Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia. Lee was the most celebrated general of the Confederate forces during the American Civil War and an iconic figure in American military leadership. The window is illustrated in a colour plate in A. L. Baldry, Henry Holiday, London, 1930, pp. 27-28, 36-37, 55. Baldry notes that Holiday first travelled to America and Canada in 1890 where he `found many admirers who gave him the heartiest welcome, and where commissions sufficient to keep him busily engaged for a long time were offered him'. Having established his own glass works in January of 1891, Holiday indulged his interest in Egyptian art and the life of ancient Egypt with the design for his memorial to General Robert E. Lee, for St Paul's, Richmond, Virginia, a companion piece to his panel `Moses on the Mount'. The window may be intended as an allegory of Lee's reluctant abandonment of the Union, which had trained him, in order to serve as a leader, and ultimately as General-in-Chief, of the Confederate Army.
Another version, without inscription, can be seen at Ponsonby Church, Cumbria.

Dimensions: measurements 111cm. high by 55.5cm. wide; alternate measurements 3ft 7¾in., 1ft 9¾in.