Outhwaite Windows

To see more details of the four windows - click on each of them.

One of St Mark's lesser-known treasures is a set of four painted glass windows by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, featuring children's illustrations. These are in the Outhwaite Room of the Community Centre building. Once the children's library of the St Mark's Social Settlement, this room is used every Sunday by the Sunday School, thereby maintaining its link with children. These delightful windows are the only known essays onto painted glass by Ida Outhwaite.

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite was one of Australia's most brilliant children's illustrators. Born in Melbourne in 1888, her father Laurence Rentoul was Professor of New Testament Greek Literature and Christian Philosophy at Melbourne University. Her first published illustrations were a set of six Christmas cards in 1903, when she was fifteen years of age.

Ida received international recognition for her images of fairies, pixies, elves and witches, usually combined with illustrations of Australian flora and fauna. She held exhibitions in Australia, England and France, and wrote and illustrated six children's books, including Blossom, The Enchanted Forest, and Little World of Elves and Fairies.

There is an oil portrait of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite by Amalie Colquhoun (1894?-1974) in the National Library of Australia.

The Outhwaite Windows

The Outhwaite windows in St. Mark's Community Centre are the only stained glass windows created by the artist Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. They are unique and priceless, and deserve to be better recognised.

Why These Windows?

The four windows are in the St Mark's Community Centre Lounge, which is open as a drop-in lounge each weekday. St. Mark's Community Centre is a ministry of St. Mark's Anglican Church.

The building was erected in 1926 by the Vicar of St Mark's, Brother Bill Nicholls, and his people in the height of the depression, to minister to the needs of the people of Fitzroy, who were so grimly effected by the Depression. It was known as St. Mark's Social Settlement. From the Social Settlement emerged a great variety of social and welfare work, including:

• Hot lunches for school children
• Gymnasiums and sporting groups
• A country farm for inner-city people to saty at
• Movies in the church
• A talk back radio programme
• A children's library

It was this Children's Library which was situated in the corner room which now serves as the Community Lounge. We believe that it was the first Children's library in Australia. The library was given by a Mrs J.T. Hackett, in memory of her late husband, and contained over 3,000 books, as well as magazines and even comics.

How Did The Windows Come To Be Here?

Brother Bill Nicholls, who established St. Mark's Social Settlement, had a wonderful ability to involve people, and obtain donations of help. Many businessmen of Melbourne in the 1920's responded to his requests for help. The Social Settlement building could only be erected because of those who gave their donations of one thousand pounds - a very generous amount indeed in those days. The windows were Ida Rentoul Outhwaite's contribution - and what an enduring contribution it was!

The only other public works executed by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite were a series of panels in the Children's Wards of Prince Henry's Hospital. These panels were in water-colour, with pencil underdrawing. Four women artists decorated the walls of these wards with their panels, when the wards were opened in 1910. Ida was the only one of the four who had no professional training in art, and her style is quite individual.

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite was born in 1888 and died in 1960. Although her work was hardly recognised at the time of her death, during the 1920s she was well recognised as an illustrator of children's books. Indeed, she began at a very early age - an illustration appeared in an unidentified magazine when she was just 13. Two years later came her first professional appearance - in the New Idea of August 1903. They were illustrations for some Australian fairy stories written by her sister, Annie Rentoul. Christmas Cards soon followed, and the following year her first book was published, Mollie's Bunyip.

Ida's career then progressed - 18 exhibitions, not only in Australia, but also in London & Paris. Publications of her work followed in England & America. Her last major series of illustrated books, Bunny and Brownie, was published in 1930. The 1930's saw a decline in this area of work, and it virtually died out with World War 2.

A Review By Robert Holden

The only known book on Ida Rentoul Outhwaite is: The Fairy World of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, by M. Muir and R. Holden, published by Craftsman.

Robert Holden is Australia's leading authority on Australian Children's book Illustrators, and author of several books on the subject. He has also been Director of Sydney's Museum of Childhood. He has studied our windows, and made the following comments:

"These windows are of importance not just to Melbourne, they are of National, and even International significance. They are the Australian equivalent of well-known and well-loved images of childhood overseas, such as the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, London, the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, and Beatrix Potter's cottage. These are all icons that people who are interested in children and childhood make pilgrimages to see."

"The Outhwaite windows are one of Australia's great hidden treasures, hidden because it is necessary to enter the little-known building to see them. They are a great national asset. They are absolutely unique, being the only examples of stained glass in Australia dealing with the theme of Childhood. In addition, they are of great artistry and were actually hand-painted by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, not merely designed by her. They are the only example of stained glass work by this famous illustrator."

"If the windows were in Europe or America, people would flock to see these national treasures. I am sure that when the Australian public becomes aware of their importance and beauty they will wish to see them for themselves."

Robert Holden, February 1993

 

See them yourself!

The windows are in the Community Centre Lounge which is open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between Noon and 4.00pm. Just make yourself known at the Reception desk.

They are also able to be seen after the Sunday morning Mass when the Lounge is open for Morning Tea.