!The Brownies!, a stained glass window designed by Selwyn Image.
Selwyn Image, Born 1849
Selwyn Image was an important British artist, designer, writer and poet associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement. He designed stained-glass windows, furniture, embroidery, and was an illustrator of books. Image was the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford from 1910 to 1916. He was born in Bodiam, Sussex to the Reverend John Image, vicar of Bodiam and Mary Maxwell. He attended Marlborough College and New College, Oxford in 1868 where he studied drawing under John Ruskin. Intending on entering the clergy and following his father as Vicar of Bodiam, Image took Holy Orders at the age of 24. He was ordained deacon in 1872, and priest the next year. He was a curate at Tottenham and later at St. Anne's, Soho. He abandoned the clergy in 1882. He was a vigorous campaigner against puritan attitudes in the Church of England. A friend of Oscar Wilde, he spoke up for social groups oppressed at the time, including dancers, music hall performers, prostitutes and homosexuals. At the age of 42 he formed a relationship with Janet McHale, an 18 year old music hall dancer. They married ten years later. A radical in his youth, Selwyn Image became an establishment figure, serving from 1910 to 1916 as the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University.
Click below to view his life story: