Wilhelmina Margaret Geddes

When Wilhelmina Geddes died in 1955 The Times obituary described her as "the greatest stained glass artist of our time", a description which grows in significance when it is remembered that Harry Clarke and Evie Hone were contemporaries as well as compatriots. Born in Co. Leitrim but educated in Belfast at Methodist College, Geddes showed promise from an early age, winning prizes for her life drawings and for graphic designs at Belfast School of Art. Her talent was recognized almost at once, Sarah Cecilia Harrison dismissed her as "too modern" in 1906, but Hugh Lane admired her work as did Orpen when she attended his classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School. Although her graphic work is also important, it is as a stained glass artist that Geddes is cheifly known. Even then she is not always accorded the recognition she deserves. Her strong, uncompromisingly modern interpretations of biblical subjects meant that her religious work was sometimes controversial, as at Laleham in Middlesex where her three-light window was moved to the back of the church to avoid "disturbing the congregation". Yet Thomas MacGreevy considered herself and Jack B. Yeats to be the most "truly religious" of modern Irish artists.

Cinderella dressing her Ugly Sister is a very early work by Geddes and the one which launched her on her career as a stained glass artist. not surprisingly, it caught the attention of Rosamund Praeger and Sarah Purser when exhibited in 1910 at the Arts and Crafts Society and led to her invitation to join An Tùr Gloine where she worked until 1925 when she moved to London. It is therefore of significance in the development of 20th century stained glass. the simplification of line and form anticipates stained glass as does the contrast in colour between the hard lemon yellow of the Ugly Sister's dress and the softer bottle green tones of Cinderella's skirt and the curtain. The heavily inked outlines suggest the lead lines of stained glass and Geddes' use of these is especially confident and sure, particularly around the arms and faces. Her interpretation of character is challenging and strong, Cinderella is not the shrinking, timid handmaid of earlier illustrations but a forceful personality, robust and resentful even though confined to the background. Geddes' Cinderella is in marked contrast to the heroines of Harry Clarke's windows and illustrations and clearly owes much to Geddes' Suffragette sympathies.