Fragments from Reims Cathedral
maker
Unknown
designer
Henry Davis Sleeper
(Boston, 1878 - 1934, Cambridge, Massachusetts)
manufacturer
Phipps, Ball & Burnham
(active Boston, 1919 - 1922)
Date18th century
Place MadeReims, Champagne, France, Europe
MediumStained glass
Dimensions54.5 x 34.5 cm (21 7/16 x 13 9/16 in.)
ClassificationsArchitectural Elements
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberC8e1
eMuseum ID729837
EmbARK ObjectID11385
TMS Source ID607
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryThese pieces of stained glass were gathered by Chester Howell, an ambulance driver during World War I after the German bombardment of Reims Cathedral on September 19, 1914. The French cathedral was still in ruins more than three years later when he gathered these. They were later set into this panel by American interior designer Henry Davis Sleeper.
Both Sleeper and Gardner supported ambulances in World War I, principally through the American Field Service (AFS) founded by their mutual friend A. Piatt Andrew to provide medical support to French, and later American forces. Both Sleeper and Gardner supported the organization; Sleeper with fundraising and administrative support, and Gardner financially.
Gardner installed the panel in the Chinese Loggia where it serves as a colorful memorial for the destruction of cultural landmarks during World War I.
BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), pp. 55-56.
William N. Mason. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 6, no. 47 (21 Jul. 1963), p. 2.
Clara Strauss. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 7, no. 29 (15 Mar. 1964), p. 2.
Madeline Caviness (ed.). Medieval and Renaissance Stained Glass from New England Collections. Exh. cat. (Cambridge: Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, 1978), p. 99.
Madeline Caviness et al. Stained Glass before 1700 in American Collections: New England and New York (Corpus Vitrearum Checklist I). Studies in the History of Art, vol. 15 (Washington, D.C., 1985), p. 44.
Meredith Parsons Lillich. The Gothic Stained Glass of Reims Cathedral (University Park, Pennsylvania, 2001), pp. 14-15, fig. 23.
Shirin Fozi. 'A Mere Patch of Color': Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Shattered Glass of Reims Cathedral. Memory and Commemoration in Medieval Culture (Farnham, 2013), pp. 321-44.
Aurora Daniel, "Henry Davis Sleeper and a Glass Mosaic," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 8 June 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/henry-davis-sleeper-and-glass-mosaic
Nathaniel Silver and Diana Seave Greenwald. Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life (Boston, 2022), pp.126-129, fig. 69.
William N. Mason. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 6, no. 47 (21 Jul. 1963), p. 2.
Clara Strauss. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 7, no. 29 (15 Mar. 1964), p. 2.
Madeline Caviness (ed.). Medieval and Renaissance Stained Glass from New England Collections. Exh. cat. (Cambridge: Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, 1978), p. 99.
Madeline Caviness et al. Stained Glass before 1700 in American Collections: New England and New York (Corpus Vitrearum Checklist I). Studies in the History of Art, vol. 15 (Washington, D.C., 1985), p. 44.
Meredith Parsons Lillich. The Gothic Stained Glass of Reims Cathedral (University Park, Pennsylvania, 2001), pp. 14-15, fig. 23.
Shirin Fozi. 'A Mere Patch of Color': Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Shattered Glass of Reims Cathedral. Memory and Commemoration in Medieval Culture (Farnham, 2013), pp. 321-44.
Aurora Daniel, "Henry Davis Sleeper and a Glass Mosaic," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 8 June 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/henry-davis-sleeper-and-glass-mosaic
Nathaniel Silver and Diana Seave Greenwald. Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life (Boston, 2022), pp.126-129, fig. 69.
ProvenanceNotesFragments of stained glass windows from Reims Cathedral shattered by German bombs during World War I, gathered by Chester A. Howell, American ambulance driver, between Ludes and Reims, France in May-June 1918.
Gift from Chester A. Howell to Isabella Stewart Gardner through Henry Davis Sleeper (1878–1934), interior decorator from Gloucester, Massachusetts, who had the fragments set into this panel by the glass company Phipps, Ball & Burnham, Boston in December 1919.
Gift from Chester A. Howell to Isabella Stewart Gardner through Henry Davis Sleeper (1878–1934), interior decorator from Gloucester, Massachusetts, who had the fragments set into this panel by the glass company Phipps, Ball & Burnham, Boston in December 1919.
Object/Provenance
Sibling/Sibling