Arnold Wathen Robinson

Arnold Wathen Robinson was one of the leading stained glass artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement. He started his working life serving as an apprentice, and learning directing from, its foremost exponent, Christopher Whall. This is an early work, dating from around 1912-14, and is a full-size working drawing for one of a series of Arthurian stained glass panels. It clearly shows the influence of Whall's work and also of the Pre-Raphaelites, who were a profound influence on the designers within the Movement.

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While in Whall's studio he met and became friends with fellow artists Karl Parsons and Edward Woore. Most of his early commissions were for churches and institutions in Bristol, where the Robinson family were well known and influential. In particular, and working with Woore, he undertook commissions for the firm Joseph Bell and Sons, which he later became a director of. Especially well known in Bristol are the Civil Defence windows that Arnold Robinson designed for Bristol Cathedral and his Bunyan and Tyndale windows in Tyndale Baptist Church. Robinson was also heavily involved with the Bristol Guild of Applied Art. Established in 1908 by followers of William Morris's Arts and Crafts creed, it was co-operative of skilled workers offering hand-crafted work to replace mass-produced goods, and seeking to improve the relationship between the worker and his work.