Stained Glass Window 1902 - 1905

This stained glass window, a 40 by 24 inch work by William Lightfoot Price, is a real puzzle. I imagine Price carefully placing each fragment of glass, negotiating the balance between light and form. The composition is based on a grid, but then interrupted by strong black lines. You can see that it almost looks like a tree, or maybe some branches. The image is balanced between the architectural and the organic, and the black lines, they have a real graphic punch! I wonder what Price was thinking when he made this? Was he trying to bring the outside world into the interior space, or was he interested in something else? I think it’s an exchange of ideas across time. Painting and art is a form of embodied expression, which embraces ambiguity. Meaning, this stained glass is open to multiple interpretations!