Resurrection, 1856
The son of the architect John Pike Hedgeland (1792-1873), George Hedgeland deserves better recognition as a designer and craftsman for this period. He unfortunately had a short career, practising for less than twelve years in his own right.
He exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 when the pictorial approach was still prevalent.
George Hedgeland's work represents a quite different approach to stained glass from that of Pugin and other medievalists. His inspiration came from early Renaissance glass - he restored some of the windows at King's College Chapel, Cambridge - and his boldly pictorial designs were admired, perhaps surprisingly by Charles Winston, who revived the manufacture of medieval-style 'muff' glass. On the recommendation of Charles Winston, Hedgeland first rose to prominence as the designer of the Great West window at Norwich Cathedral (1853) using Winston's new glass.
Unfortunately, windows which were acceptable in the 1850s became out of date by the 1870s and 80s and by the end of the century many had been replaced.
In 1860 owing to ill health, Hedgeland sold his studio in London and emigrated to Australia where he died.
Hedgeland's window on display in the Museum was made originally for St Mary's Church, Great Brington, Northamptonshire in 1856 but was replaced in 1912 for one more suited to the taste of the time. Fortunately it survived in store and was brought to the Museum in 1976.