Who Was 'Rogers, a Pupil of Woodward'?

Irish Arts Review

Who Was 'Rogers, a Pupil of Woodward'?Author(s): Peter HowellSource: Irish Arts Review Yearbook, Vol. 13 (1997), pp. 105-111Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20492942 .

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WHO WAS 'ROGERS, A PUPIL OF WOODWARD9?

Peter Howell rescues from obscurity a talented Irish nineteenth-century architect

and artist, James Edward Rogers (1838-96) In his delightfully idiosyncratic

Reminiscences of Oxford (1900), the Revd W Tuckwell told how he

used to hear Rossetti and his

friends - 'a merry rollicking set' -

as they worked on their Arthurian

murals in the new Debating Hall

which had been designed for the

Oxford Union Society in 1854 by

Benjamin Woodward. 'It was dur

ing this visit', he continues, 'that Morris and Rossetti, with Rogers, a pupil of Woodward, hunting in the

parish churches on Sunday evenings to find a Guinevere, met

with the handsome girl who

became afterwards the wife of

William Morris and Rossetti's cherished friend'.'

Who then was Rogers? He did

one other work in Oxford: he

designed a stained glass window for

the south nave aisle of Christ

Church Cathedral (Fig. 1). Representing scenes from the life of St Peter, it was made in 1864 by

James Powell and Sons.2 This was

the same firm which had made the

glass for the new east window

designed for the Latin Chapel of

the Cathedral in 1859 by Benjamin

Woodward when the designer of the glass was Edward Burne-Jones.

The elaborate detail and jewel-like

colours of Rogers's window clearly

show the influence of the earlier

one. It has been described by Peter

Cormack as 'one of the most

accomplished windows of its date'.3

For the rest of Rogers's architec

tural work, one has to trace him

back to Ireland. Strickland's

Dictionary of Irish Artists tells us

that James Edward Rogers was born

in Dublin in 1838, the son of James

Rogers, Q C, of 20 Upper Mount

Street.4 Nothing is known of his

education apart from his pupilage to Woodward, and about that we

1. James ROGERS (1838-96): Detail of a stained glass window in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, 1864. Made by James Powell

and Sons, it shows scenes from the life of St Peter. Its crowded style shows the influence of Burne-Jones's St Frideswide window.

-~~~~~~~

2. James ROGERS: Rush Church, Co Dublin. Stained glass in the west window, made by James Powell and Sons, 1866. The

monogram is that of Mary Ellen Peel.

have few clues. These include two letters which Dr William Stokes

wrote to Professor Henry Acland in 1861 in connection with the pro

posed memoir of the recently

decreased Woodward. In one, of 13

August, he refers to 'some letters of

his to James Rogers' relating to the

Oxford Museum. 'Of course Rogers is anxious that they should be care

fully preserved', he continues: 'one of them is very important'.5 It is a

pity that they have disappeared. With another letter, apparently of

29 December, he sent 'an etching

by Rogers (Woodward's pupil) of a

gate-lodge by Woodward 'at my

mountain cottage at Howth' (ie

Caraig Breacc - to use Stokes's own

spelling).6 He reports that Woodward was particularly proud of this lodge.

In the same year, an engraving

after a drawing by Rogers of two

street-fountains in Dublin, erected in 1860-61 to the design of Deane

and Woodward, was published in

the Dublin Builder.7 We also hear of

Rogers taking a holiday in the win

ter of 1859 in Algiers where

Woodward, who had to go south in

winter for his health, met him on

his way back from Madeira. They

returned to England together in March.8

The Union Debating Hall was

the first of several commissions in

Oxford given to Woodward after

his success in the Museum competi

tion. The clerk of works seems to

have been J J O'Callaghan.9 Rogers

may have been assisting him or else

helping at the Museum. A link with

his Oxford experiences is provided by his loan of a 'pen and ink study

for Tony Lumpkin by Bume-Jones'

to the Dublin Art Club in 1886.10

Rogers's earliest known indepen dent works date from 1863. One

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| suhit' euh!, 3. James ROGERS: 'Robin and Richard were two pretty men', from Mores Ridiculi, published 1871. The Gothic furniture is a delight.

4. James RoERs: 'I wil sing you song thouh it's notvery long',from MoresRidiculi, pblished 181. Rogers ndulges hislove of stined glass

10

I ~ ~ ~ ~ RS A.Ii IIi;vii;w



WIio WAS 'ROGERS, A PuI)ii OF WOODWIARD5'?

was a stained glass window in All Saints' Church,

Grangegorman: erected to the memory of the Revd T G

Dudley, it shows the Good Shepherd." Another was some

work for A Samuels at Glenageary.'2 It was in the same year

that he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of

Architects of Ireland,'3 and received his first major commis sion - the Carmichael School of Medicine, in New

Brunswick Street (new Brunswick Street North), Dublin (Figs. 5-8). Built in 1864, this handsome structure clearly derives from Woodward's Trinity College Museum. Extra expenditure required for the foundations reduced the amount of decoration but the colourful materials (a mixture

of six different types of stone) compensate. The Dublin

Builder described the decoration around the entrance as 'something new in Dublin' - conventional foliage incised

and filled with black and red cement (Fig. 6).'4

Unfortunately this has been covered with paint. A charac

teristic touch is provided by a pair of quatrefoils, one show

ing the date among shamrocks, and the other Roger's

monogram and what one presumes to be his crest (Fig. 8).

The most remarkable interior is the large, top-lit central

hall (Fig. 7) which has stone arcades on columns with capi

tals richly carved by C W Harrison who had done the carv

ing at Woodward's Kildare Street Club.'5 The woodwork of

the roof is notched and pierced in the manner of

Woodward, and there are fine tiled floors. The floor of the

dissecting room is supported on brick arches carried by iron

girders, which shows that Rogers shared his master's inter

est in modem constructional methods.'6 In 1865 Rogers designed a new pulpit, executed by

Harrison in Caen stone and Irish marbles, for Monaghan

Parish Church and a new church (incorporating the old

tower) at Kilfergus (Glin) in the Diocese of Limerick.'7 But

it was 1866 that marked the high point of Rogers's career

with the completion of two new churches and his most

prominent Dublin building. The larger church was St

Mary's, Howth which had been begun in 1864.8 Rogers

incorporated the tower of the old church, adding a quirky

spire with octagonal top. Once again the masonry com

bines polychromy with refined textural effects. The west doorway is especially elaborate (Fig. 9). The arcades to the

aisles have arches of red and yellow brick supported on

marble columns with richly carved capitals: one bears the

monogram 'JER', and another 'WD' - the builder, Walter

Doolin. The stone pulpit has been altered, and the chan

cel fittings are later.

At Rush, also in Co Dublin, Rogers designed a charming

little estate church for Kenure Park, Lusk.'9 Although small,

it has great character, with polychromy in stone on the exte

rior and brick within. Beneath the westem bellcote is a large

rose window (Fig. 2): the glass for this was made to Rogers's

design by Powell's.20 Its swirling patterns incorporate the ini

tials of Mary Ellen Peel, who is also commemorated by the

excellent Clayton and Bell glass in the east window. (This is

5. James ROGERS: Cannichael School of Medicine, Dublin, 1864. Exterior. Six different types of stone are used.

6. James ROGERS: Carnichael School of Medicine, Dublin, 1864. (The Dublin Builder, 1 November, 1864). This shows the incised ornament which is no longer visible.

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW



W-io WvAS 'ROG'ERS, A Punti. OF WOOI)WARID'?

7. James ROGERS: Carmichael School of Medicine, Dublin, 1864. Staircase hall. The stone-carving is by C W Harrison, and the woodwork is treated in the manner of

Benjamin Woodward.

unlikely to have been designed by

Rogers). The original furnishings form a wonderfully evocative ensemble.

The only commercial building known to have been designed by Rogers is a

particularly fine one. The premises of

the Caledonian Insurance Company at

31 Dame Street, Dublin, were opened in 1866. The tall, narrow facade (Fig.

10) is astonishingly rich, with its poly

chromy of stone, granite, and brick, and

its lavish decoration. The ground floor has a triple arcade and the first floor a

pair of arched windows with gorgeous

relief carving around them. At the top

is a steep gable. The building was

described in the Irish Builder as 'one of

those that point hopefully towards the

development of a really healthy

Victorian style'.2" In the same year, 1866, Rogers car

8. James ROGERS: Carmichael School of Medicine, Dublin, 1864. Quatrefoil with the architect's monogram and

crest. The quality of the masonry is superb.

ried out his only known public commis sion, a new roof and other alterations

to Cashel Town Hall.22 It was probably

this job that led Rogers to write to the

London Building News to complain that his clients were refusing to pay the

amount of his balance due until he

handed over his plans to them: he

asked whether he was under any oblig

ation to do so. The Dublin Builder took

the matter up, and wondered why,

when the Royal Institute of the

Architects of Ireland had its own rules

on the subject, Rogers had sought an

answer 'over the water'. 23

His next church was for the parish of

Holmpatrick at Skerries.24 Opened in 1868, it is a comparatively plain build

ing with a wide, tall nave and narrow

chancel and a slim broach spire. The

chief distinction of the interior is the

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW



WHO WAS 'ROGERS, A PUPIL OF WOODWARD9?

9. James ROGERS: St Mary's Church, Howth, Co Dublin, 1864-66. West doorway. A photograph of.this was shown at a Dublin architectural conversazione in 1870.

10. James RoGERs: 31 Dame Street, Dublin, 1866. Built for the Caledonian Insurance Company, this elaborate facade is Rogers's only known commercial

building.

varnished deal woodwork, including the fine wagon roof and the furnishings. In the same year he built a small church at Kilkeedy, in the Diocese of Limerick.25 In 1869 he added a chan cel to Listowel Church in the Diocese of Ardfert26 and in this year he was appointed architect to the Diocese of Meath (along with F Darley).27

His last two churches are much more significant. St Patrick's, Kilcock, in Co Kildare, is perhaps his best church.' The nave and apsed chancel (Fig. 11) are in a simple Early English style; but attached to the porch, at the west end of the nave, is a bat

tered round tower with a pointed top seventy feet high. A round tower had been used for a new Church of Ireland church by

W H Lynn at St Patrick's, Jordanstown, Belfast in 1865-68. Rogers's familiarity with the obvious source, at Clonmacnoise, is shown by the fact that several of his drawings of monuments there were engraved for. Margaret Stokes's book Early Christian

Architecture in Ireland.29 The details of Rogers's church are refined and characterful. Its crowning glory was its complete set of contemporary stained glass but this is more likely to have been designed by someone in the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne who made it rather than by Rogers.' Sadly, the church

has been sold for conversion into a private house and the glass has been removed.

St Columb's Church at Omagh (1870) is remarkable for its plan: the width across the transepts, which open through two bay arcades, is almost equal to the total length.3' The old tower was remodelled with a new spire but the chief architectural fea ture is the large and rich west window filled with geometrical tracery. Apart from some work at a house in Glenageary,32

Rogers's last known architectural work was the new Rectory for St Bartholomew's Church at 32 Clyde Road, Dublin.33 Built in 1872-73, it is a large and colourful brick house. Designed to har

monise with T H Wyatt's church, its overall form is somewhat lumpy but it is enlivened by many imaginative details such as the stone-carving, the woodwork, and the tiled floors. It incor porated a parish hall (now the 'Council Chamber').

Why Rogers should have apparently ceased to practise as an architect at this point is not clear but he had already given indications of the change that occurred in his career.4 In 1869 he had published Ridicula Rediviva. This was a picture-book with one coloured plate for each of twelve nursery rhymes. The settings are all intensely medieval, and rather foreign, and

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WHO WAS 'ROGERS, A PUPIL OF WOODWARD'?

11. James ROGERS: St Patrick's Church, Kilcock, Co Kildare, 1868-70. The apsed chancel and nave are combined with an Irish round tower.

12. James ROGERS: A Street in Limburg. (National Gallery of Ireland). Shown at the Royal Hibemian Academy in 1896, this was presented to the Gallery by a 'Miss Rogers'. Limburg was probably visited by Rogers on an expedition subsequent to the one he made

with J P Mahaffy.

there is much jokery: for example, Little Tommy Tucker holds a song-scroll headed 'Tell me where is fancy bread' -

and there is a large loaf on the table. The book is bound in

purple-covered boards. In 1870 he provided full-page coloured illustrations, in a similar style, and also ornamen

tal borders for the second edition of The Fairy Book by 'the

author of John Halifax, Gentleman' (Mrs Dinah Craik).

The author's husband was a partner in Macmillan & Co., who had also published Ridicula Rediviva and this presum ably explains the commission. In 1871 Macmillan pub lished Mores Ridiculi, very similar to Ridicula Rediviva, but smaller in format. Again twelve rhymes were illustrated

and again there are many gorgeous details including some

delightful fumiture and stained glass (Figs. 3 & 4). These

must be two of the most attractive children's books of the

nineteenth century. In 1870 Rogers exhibited for the first time at the Royal

Hibemian Academy ('Frame of Five Subjects from nature ...

from Howth, Co Dublin, on the Thames, and in Essex'). In

1873 he was elected an Associate and his seven exhibits that

year included two pictures done for his nursery rhyme books.

The Irish Builder particularly commended these, congratulat ing Rogers 'on his happy rendering of the customs and cos tumes of the middle ages, in which he has few equals'."

Present Pastimes of Merrie England was published in 1873

by Cassell, Petter and Gilpin. The author was F C (later Sir

Francis) Bumand, who edited Punch for many years, and the

illustrations ('drawn from ye quicke') were by Rogers. The colour plates are dated 1872 and have a charm not so easily discerned in the heavy-footed larks of the text. No doubt

Burnand thought Rogers just the man to provide mock

medieval settings for such japes as 'A Bicyclopaedia' where a

man rides a primitive bicycle through a Gothic town, and to

design a Gothic ash-tray, billiard-table, and the like.

In 1874 Rogers resigned from the RIAI, and was elected

a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (he was proposed by J F Fuller, J j McCarthy, and T N Deane).

This may not be unconnected with his migration to

England for in 1876 he moved to Maida Vale and for the rest of his life he lived at a variety of addresses in north

west London. Strickland says that he exhibited at the

Royal Academy from 1876 until 1893 but Graves's

Dictionary of RA Exhibitors only mentions pictures in 1881,

1882, and 1884. In the latter year he showed scenes from

Hildesheim and Brunswick which suggests that he had

already made the expedition with J P Mahaffy which led to

the publication in 1889 of their Sketches from a Tour

through Holland and Germany. Mahaffy was Professor of

Ancient History at Trinity College, Dublin (and was later

knighted as its Provost). His wife's sister was married to a

son of Dr William Stokes which may explain how he knew

Rogers. The preface begins 'The first thing the authors

desire to state is that this book is really a joint-stock under

taking, in which neither has performed his part without

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW



Wi-io wAS 'Ro(,I1,KS, A PuLItIt oF- WOODWAImI'?

constant suggestion and correction from the other'. The text is quite entertaining, though the humour tends not to be subtle. There is a certain amount of architectural criticism, including lavish praise of Cuypers (the Rijksmuseum is 'of transcendent beauty and comfort') and of Sir Gilbert Scott's Nikolaikirche at

Hamburg - 'worth all the buildings in Berlin put together'. For

these they had a special loathing. The illustrations are all in

monochrome: the line drawings are charming but the reproduc tions of watercolours are less successful. Mahaffy and Rogers took particular note of any 'Irish remains' which they came

across, noting that some round towers in Germany could be

compared with Irish ones. 1891 saw the publication of the last book in which Rogers was

involved. The author was the astonishingly prolific Revd Sabine Baring-Gould, and its title was In Troubadour-Land: A Ramble in

Provence and Languedoc. The illustrations are very similar in technique to those in the earlier travel book though the repro

ductions of watercolours are even less satisfactory. Baring-Gould

makes no reference to Rogers and one presumes that they did

not travel together. Rogers died on 18 February, 1896. It is hard to believe that he

actually made a living by his artistic activities and one wonders

whether his giving up architecture was due, not just to the

change in taste in the 1870s which put his High Victorian

Gothic out of fashion, but to independent means (perhaps from

an inheritance) which made it unnecessary for him to pursue

such a demanding profession. At any rate he deserves to be res

cued from the total obscurity into which he has fallen.36

PETER HOWELL is a Senior Lecturer in Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Most of the research for this article (including the visiting) was done in 1983. 1 am particularly grateful to Jeanne Sheehy for much help; also to the staff of the Irish Architectural Archive; to Martin Harrison and Dennis Hadley for information on stained glass; to Edward Diestelkamp for taking the photographs; and to Peter Cormack for lending his photograph of the Christ Church window.

1. W Tuckwell, Reminiscences of Oxford, London,

1900, pp.49-50. 2. Powell's Archives, Victoria and Albert

Museum (information from Martin Harrison), 12 March, 1864.

3. M Archer, S Crewe, P Cormack, English Heritage in Stained Glass: Oxford, Oxford,

1988, p.39. 4. W G Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists,

Dublin and London, 1913, Vol II, p.298. 5. Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Acland, d.65,

ff.131-32.

6. ibid., ff. 135-36.

7. Dublin Builder, 1 February 1861; F O'Dwyer, Lost Dublin, Dublin, 1981, p.64.

8. F O'Dwyer and J Williams, 'Benjamin Woodward', Victorian Dublin, ed. T Kennedy, Dublin, 1980, p.54.

9. His obituary in Irish Builder, Vol 47 (1905),

p.918, must be mistaken in describing him as

clerk of works for the Museum: that was

WCC Bramwell.

10. First Winter Exhibition, no.206. In 1887 he was a 'corresponding member' of the Club.

11. Powell's Archives (as note 2), 12 January 1863.

12. Irish Architectural Archive, Account books of

Benjamin Thomas Patterson, Vol 2 (1866),

p.366. This involved masonry work in brick

and stone.

13. Irish Architectural Archive, Alfred Jones

Papers. Rogers practised at 179 Great

Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street). 14. Dublin Builder, 15 October 1864, pp.208-09;

also 1 April 1864, pp.61-62; 1 November 1864,

p.220; Patterson Account Books (as note 12), Vol 2, pp.386, 568 and Diaries 1863.

15. Jeanne Sheehy, Irish Arts Review, Vol 3, no.4, Winter 1986, pp.66-69.

16. Patterson's Account Book (Vol 2, p.386)

specifies 'wrought iron in rolled girders' and

'cast iron in girders'. The 'facework on rubble

masonry' was to be 'equal to that in the back wall of the National Gallery, Dublin'.

17. Monaghan: Dublin Builder, December, 1865,

p.299. Kilfergus: Representative Church Body (RCB) files, no.22. Rogers enlarged the

church in 1870. 18. Dublin Builder, 15 November 1864, p.236; 15

July 1866, p.175; Irish Builder, 1 January 1870,

p.4; Builder, Vol 24 (1866), p.582; RCB files, no. 14.

19. Dublin Builder, 15 December 1866, p.3Q3. 20. Powell's Archives (as note 2), March 1866.

21. Irish Builder, 15 November 1870, p.263. The

interior has been much altered.

22. Dublin Builder, 1 June 1866, p.147; 15 June

1866,p.l53. 23. BuildingNews, Vol 14 (1867), p.466; Irish

Builder, 15 July 1867, p. 186. Rogers was elect

ed a member of the Council of the RI AI in

1868.

24. Irish Builder, 15 September 1868, p.233; Builder, Vol 26 (1868), p.692; RCB files, no. 14.

25. RCB files, no.22.

26. RCB files, no.2. The church, of 1819, is attrib

uted to the Pain brothers.

27. RCB papers, list of architects attached to

Dioceses, 1869.

28. Irish Builder, 15 February 1870, p.82; 1 April 1870, p.82; Architect, Vol 3 (1870), p.180;

RCB files, no. 18. Also at the RCB is a set of

nine contract drawings, dated May 1868

(information from Jeanne Sheehy). 29. London, 1878; see p.l 16 of her text; also fig

ures 102-08 (which also include details of

Annadown and Tomgrany). The National

Gallery of Ireland has three drawings by

Rogers of antiquities at Clontubrick, Killaloe, and Graiguenamanagh, dated 1868 and 1869

(7451-2; 7684). 30. According to Martin Harrison, who identified

the maker.

31. Irish Builder, 15 October 1870, p.242. Alistair

Rowan (Buildings of Ireland: Northwest Ulster, Harmondsworth 1979, p.445) is surely right to

assume that the 1862 glass by O'Connor in

the east window was transferred from the old

church.

32. Patterson Account Books (as note 12), Vol 5,

p.611 - 'additional work at the residence of

J R Clarke, Esq.' 33. Irish Builder, 15 June 1872, p. 167. It is now St

John's House.

34. Various other works are attributed to Rogers

by Jeremy Williams in his Companion Guide to Architecture in Ireland, 1837-1921, Dublin

1994. Three seem not to be his. The church at Borris-in-Ossory, Co Tipperary, is by

Weiland and Gillespie (RCB files, no.24). The Provincial Bank of Ireland at Omagh, of

1864, is attributed by Rowan (as note 31,

p.447) to W G Murray. Although Rogers

produced a scheme for the remodelling of St

Patrick's Cathedral, Trim, in 1867 (Irish

Builder, December 1867, p.316), the work was carried out in 1868-69 under the

direction of T N Deane (RCB files, no.23).

(The stained glass in the west window, made

by Powell's in 1869 to the design which

Burne-Jones had made c.1857 and used in

1861 for Maidstone Congregational Church,

might suggest the influence of Rogers, but

the Powell's Archive mentions only Deane.) Williams also attributes to Rogers an

'octagonal viewing tower' at Lough Rynn, Co Leitrim; the execution of Deane and

Woodward's rectory at Athy, Co Kildare; and the school and rectory at Rush. The

addition of a smoking-room to 40-41 Broad

Street, Oxford (for Acland) at some date in

the 1860s is attributed to Rogers by O'Dwyer and Williams (as note 8), p.60.

35. Irish Builder, Vol 15 (1873), p.95. 36. One of the few recent authors to mention

him, Eve Blau, in Ruskinian Gothic: The

Architecture of Deane and Woodward,

Princeton, 1982, pp.110, 189, fails even to

spell his name correctly.

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Who Was 'Rogers, a Pupil of Woodward'?