Tudeley cum Capel with Five Oak Green
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All Saints’ Tudeley
The windows at Tudeley are a memorial tribute to Sarah d'Avigdor-Goldsmid who died aged just 21 in a sailing accident off Rye. Sarah was the daughter of Sir Henry and Lady d'Avigdor-Goldsmid; the family then lived at the fine Jacobean house Somerhill (now a school) which is situated nearby.
Sarah d'Avigdor-Goldsmid had shown an early interest in contemporary art, and had bought the first picture that David Hockney ever sold, snapping it up at his student show. She and her mother had been enthralled by the designs for the Hadassah windows at an exhibition at the Louvre in Paris in 1961. After her death in 1963, Sir Henry and Lady d'Avigdor-Goldsmid commissioned Chagall to design the magnificent east window, which was installed in 1967. In commemorating the daughter of a Jewish father and an Anglican mother Chagall was an inspired choice. He was a Russian Jew, but one who often included Christ in his work, and who spoke of him as "the radiant young man in whom young people delight". The Tudeley windows are inspired, said Chagall, by the words of Psalm 8, especially verses 4-8:
Over the next 15 years, Chagall designed the remaining windows, again made in collaboration with the glassworker Charles Marq in his workshop at Reims in northern France. The chancel windows were finally installed in 1985, the year of Chagall's death at the age of 98 (replacing Victorian glass, now cunningly backlit by a specially designed lightbox installed in the vestry, at the suggestion of Sir Hugh Casson). Dr Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, in his preface to Chagall Glass at Chichester and Tudeley (edited by Prof Paul Foster and available from All Saints' Church or from Chichester Cathedral bookshop) says:
* Despite some claims to the contrary, Tudeley really IS the only church in the world to have all its windows decorated by Chagall. The other contenders are the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem - but this is of course not a church, but a synagogue - and Le Saillant, Limousin, France, which is a chapel. All Saints' Church, Tudeley, Tonbridge TN11 0NZ. |
Chagall came to stained glass work relatively late in his long career. Some of his finest work in the medium is at the synagogue of the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem, depicting the Twelve Tribes of Israel - the Reuben window, in particular, prefiguring the east window at Tudeley. But Chagall was disappointed that the Hadassah windows were lit by artificial light, and so did not change with the time of day.