Harry Clarke: Geneva Window

In 1925, Harry Clarke was commissioned by the Irish Department of Industry and Commerce for a stained glass window for the International Labour Office of the League of Nations in Geneva. Clarke chose to illustrate works by Irish authors including George Bernard Shaw, W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and J.M. Synge. The choice was controversial, partly because writings by two of the authors – James Joyce and Liam O’Flaherty – had been censored. The scene from O’Flaherty’s novel 'Mr Gilhooley' (1926), in which Nelly’s dances wearing ‘nothing but a veil’, was subject to particular criticism. Clarke made two versions of the Mr Gilhooley panel. Hugh Lane Gallery now owns the original panel, which was removed by Clarke and kept in his personal collection because of a hairline crack across Nelly’s neck. Hugh Lane Gallery also includes nine of Clarke's original watercolour designs for the window. 'The Geneva Window' was rejected by the government for fear that the Mr Gilhooley scene would cause ‘grave offense’ at the League of Nations. It is now in the Wolfsonian Museum, Florida.