Paul Woodroffe

Paul Vincent Woodroffe was born on 25th January 1875 in India and later studied at the Slade School of Art in London.

 

In 1895, his first illustrated book, Ye Booke  of Nursey Rhymes, was published.  A year later, he left the Slade (having won first prize for life drawing), though he maintained links with his peers by contributing to' The Quarto', an artistic and literary journal of the 1890s. It was through these contributions that he met Laurence Housman (1865-1959) and Clemence Housman (1861-1955), who made wood-engravings from some of his drawings.

 

In the late 1890s Woodroffe became a pupil of leading Arts & Crafts stained glass designer Christopher Whall (1849-1924). His earliest stained glass is probably the four-light window (1901) which can be seen at St. John's Catholic church at Alton, Staffordshire.

 

Perhaps his most notable comission came in 1909. He was asked to design and make fifteen windows for the Lady Chapel of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. They can still be viewed there today.

 

Paul Woodroffe was a regular exhibitor at the Campden Society's Annual Exhibition and was President of the Society in 1934. His work was also exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, the New English Art Club and the Baillie and Cotswold Galleries.

 

Paul Woodroff died, aged 79, at Eastbourne on 7th May 1954.