Valentine D'Ogries

Valentine D'Ogries' stained glass windows, frescoes, murals, and altar pieces grace many of the most beautiful churches in America. His powerful designs, reminiscent of English Gothic of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, joins the ancient and modern. Notable among them are his Crucifixion, painted on wood, which hangs from the ceiling of St. George's Church, Chicago; the frescoes and murals in the Hatfield Chapel, New Canaan, Connecticut; the stained glass windows of Trenton's Trinity Cathedral; and the sixteen 24-foot windows for the church of St. Thomas the Apostle, Chicago, which took seven years to complete.

D'Ogries first studied painting and sculpture. Disappointed by sculpture's traditional lack of color, he turned to glassmaking, which incorporates not only color but light. Introduced to Bucks County by painter and stained glass artist, George Sotter, D'Ogries moved to New Hope in 1925. He used his talents as an architect and landscaper to build or renovate three different houses into beautifully proportioned homes and studios.

Education and Training
Sorbonne, Paris, France, prior to 1908
Engineering, Technical College of Klagenfurt, prior to 1908
Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1912-1916
Painted murals and altarpieces, Henry Wynd-Young studio, New York, New York, 1917-1925

Teachers and Influences
George Sotter, Carnegie Institute of Technology
Jo Davidson, Sculptor
Henry Wynd-Young, New York

Connection to Bucks County
Valentine D'Ogries came to Holicong, Pennsylvania in 1922 to visit his teacher, George Sotter. D'Ogries first settled in Carversville but later moved to New Hope in 1925, where his first home, Myrtle Brook Manor, was at Center Bridge. He built Villa Carynthia near Bowman's Hill, and later moved to the redecorated old New Hope schoolhouse, the subject of Joseph Pickett's painting, Manchester Valley.
D'Ogries is buried at the Solebury Meetinghouse, near New Hope.

Colleagues and Affiliations
Valentine D'Ogries met Forrest Crooks, as well as Charles Rudy and Edward Byrne, at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh.

Major Group Exhibitions
Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery, Reading, Pennsylvania, 1930s

Commissions
All Saints, Lakeland, Florida
16 twenty-four foot windows, Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, Chicago
Corpus Christi, New York
Grace Church, Newark, New Jersey
Frescoes and murals, Hatfield Chapel, New Canaan, Connecticut
Protestant Cathedral, Trenton, New Jersey
Crucifixion, a seven foot high painting on wood that hangs from the ceiling, St. George's Church, Chicago
St. James, Long Branch, Florida
Windows, St. John's, Massena, New York
Madonna and Child triptych, St. John the Evangelist Church, New Brunswick, New Jersey
St. Martin's Episcopal Church, Providence, Rhode Island
Windows, St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Wayne, Pennsylvania
St. Patrick's, Hamilton, Ontario
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Trenton, New Jersey, 1955

Teaching and Professional Appointments
Taught sculptural modeling at Carnegie Institute while a student there