MORETON

The Whistler Windows

Between 1955 and 1984 Sir Lawrence Whistler created a series of twelve windows, using the theme of 'light' as his inspiration.  Initially, only the windows surrounding the apse were commissioned and they were paid for by war damage money.  The remaining seven windows have all been paid for by private benefactors.  This church is perhaps the finest collection of Whistler's work.  In fact, as a gift, he created a thirteenth window, which featured Judas Iscariot, but it was met with disapproval by a church committee, who refused to install it.  For the moment, the pane can be seen in the Dorset Museum in Dorchester.

As a young man, his primary interest had been in writing poetry and it was quite by chance that he came upon what would become his life's work.  He was the younger brother of, and rather in the shadow of, Rex Whistler, the society painter and illustrator when, in 1935, he decided to etch the words of a sonnet he had written onto the window of a friend's house.  Encouraged by his efforts, he studied Dutch glass engraving and found a way to modernise their techniques.  Within a few years he was engraving for Royalty and wealthy admirers and thereafter was never short of commissions.  In his early work he used a diamond pointed tool to stipple rather than etch with acid.  Later, he preferred a powered carbon drill.  He was knighted in 2000.