Gabriel Loire

Stained glass window of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church Berlin

Gabriel Loire (born April 21, 1904 in Pouancé , Anjou , † December 27, 1996 near Chartres ) was a French glass painter , painter and draftsman.

biography

After studying in Angers in 1926, Gabriel Loire received his artistic and technical training in the workshop of the glass painter Charles Lorin in Chartres. When he, now a partner, left his apprenticeship workshop in 1936, he was contractually obliged not to set up as a self-employed glass painter for ten years. During this time he supported himself and his family with changing jobs as a sculptor, ceramist, painter and illustrator.

In 1946 he founded his own glass painting workshop in Lèves , a suburb of Chartres. Since the early 1960s he worked with his son Jacques, to whom he handed over the management of the workshop in 1971, while he mainly devoted himself to oil and gouache painting . In addition, he repeatedly worked as a draftsman.

In the 1950s and 1960s in particular, he created glass windows all over the world, especially in France and the USA, for well over 800 churches, and occasionally also for secular buildings. Gabriel Loire is regarded as a pioneer and outstanding representative of thick glass painting . Almost exclusively he did not use thin glass encased in lead , as has been customary since Carolingian times, but about two and a half centimeters thick thick glass (dalle de verre) , which, cut to size, is poured into concrete. The refraction of light of the hewn glass pieces and the dark lines of the concrete walkways give the glass windows their own intense radiance.

Major works

• Picture window of the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes (Casablanca) (1956)
• Stained glass window of the Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes (Santiago de Chile) (1958)
• Glass window of the new Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin (1960–1963; architect: Egon Eiermann )
• Salisbury Cathedral choir window (1980)
• Spiral window of the Thanksgiving Chapel in Dallas, Texas (1975/76; Architect: Philip Johnson )
• Stained glass tower in the Open Air Museum of Hakone, Japan (1973/74)
• Stained glass window in the Church of Notre-Dame de Consolation in Hyères , southern France (1952/53)
• Stained glass window in the parish church of St. Barbara in Dudweiler
• Stained glass window in the Notre-Dame au Cierge church in Épinal , Lorraine (1958/59)
• Stained glass window in Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos, California (1984)

literature

• Hans Joachim Schröder : The glass painter Gabriel Loire. In: das münster, 40th year 1987, no. 2, pp. 89-100.
• Gabriel Loire: La Création. Musée de Chartres, Collégiale Saint-André, 23 Mars - 27 May 1990 [exhibition catalog].
• Hans Joachim Schröder: Metamorphoses. The creation cycles of the painter and glass painter Gabriel Loire. In: das münster, Volume 44, 1991, No. 1, pp. 1-12.
• Charles W. Pratt, Joan C. Pratt: Gabriel Loire. Les Vitraux / Stained Glass. Center International de Vitrail, Chartres 1996, ISBN 2-90807704-3 .
• Hans Joachim Schröder: Trees. On the late work of the painter and glass painter Gabriel Loire. In: das münster, 49th year 1996, no. 1, pp. 29-37.
• Hans Joachim Schröder: A mosaic by Gabriel and Bruno Loire for Abbé Franz Stock . In: das münster, 51st year 1998, no. 4, pp. 369-371.
• Hans Joachim Schröder: Gabriel Loire - Windmills. In: das münster, 52nd year 1999, no. 4, pp. 353-359.
• Gabriel Loire. L'œuvre d'une vie (1904-1996). Texts by Véronique, Xavier Debendère. Paris 2004.

Web links

Commons : Gabriel Loire  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Loire Studio (Official Website)