Restored drawings by famous artist go on display

Restored drawings by one of Jersey’s most famous artists have gone on display.

Henry Thomas Bosdet is best known for the stained-glass windows he created which are in churches across the British Isles.

The drawings were discovered at Jersey Archive and restored by conservator Lisa Oxenden-Wray as part of the work by The Glass Rainbow Trust.

It is committed to preserving the memory and works of Bosdet.

The cartoons have been placed at St Mary’s Church next to the stained-glass windows they represent.

While the word cartoon usually refers to an animation or a funny drawing, in an art historical context it can also refer to a full-scale preparatory drawing for a piece of art, according to the Royal Academy of Arts.

Charlie Malet de Carteret from the trust said it was "fantastic to be able to see the detail close up in the cartoons” and then "look at the windows and see how they've been finished off".

He added the works were "spine-tingling" and it was "an extraordinary thought" that someone from Jersey had "such a national and international reach".

Bosdet was born in St Helier in 1856 and in 1883 was appointed Curator of the Life School at the Royal Academy in London where he was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

Charlie Malet de Carteret said more people should know about the work of Bosdet

The Reverend Kirsty Allan is the Rector of St Mary’s Church and has been pleased to see the interest in the artwork.

She said she was “very privileged” to have three of Bosdet’s stained-glass windows in her church and opening them up to the wider community was “what our churches are all about”.

Ms Allan added the exhibition showed the “marrying together of faith and art” and she was moved by the “beauty of it and the creative soul of Bosdet”.

The exhibition is open until Sunday.

The Reverend Kirsty Allan said God's influence could be seen in the works of art