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Rowan LeCompte's Sanctuary

 
Filmmaker and photographer Peter Swanson is creating a new online catalogue raisonné of the works of the late artist Rowan LeCompte, whose stained glass windows decorate churches from North Carolina to Maine. Closest to home, the Little Sanctuary features several of his works, photographed below by Swanson.

LeCompte created his first window for the Little Sanctuary in 1956. Known as the Wick Window, it tells the story of John Wick, a St. Albans alum who died when his plane plunged into the ocean during a military training flight. The window uses the colors of sea glass and LeCompte’s modernist style to suggest roiling water and a wide and starry sky. Stars in the top half of the window are reflected below to represent “creatures of every shape and hue which live in the ocean.” 

One year later, LeCompte designed the Sheldon Window to fill a large opening originally used to carry supplies in and out of the Sanctuary. In contrast to his previous work, it is dark, complicated, and chaotic. Though abstract, it can be seen as a meditation on a phrase attributed to William of Wykeham, “Manners maketh man.” Faces hidden within the window represent men of good manners and noble character, including St. Albans teacher Reverend James B. “Pop” Henderson and alumnus Remson Ogilby ’35. According to LeCompte, its dizzying swirl of color represents the “fiery spirit” of the school. 

Some of LeCompte’s most interesting work is his sequence of five windows created in the early 1960s. Together, they depict the life of Saint Alban himself, beginning with his sheltering of a priest and ending with his martyrdom. The windows rely on bold colors, texture, and chiaroscuro. Each window is divided with a cross into four irregular sections. However, they are each quite different visually, from the stunning blue flower of fire against red in “The Trial of Saint Alban,” to the bleak gray punctuated by shards of sunset in “Saint Alban Taken to Martyrdom.” The latter also features orcs from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of The Rings,” meant to represent Saint Alban’s brutal persecutors. The inclusion of the fantastic monsters may seem incongruous, but LeCompte was an ardent fan of Tolkien’s oeuvre (recommended to him by St. Albans school chaplain the Rev. Craig Eder, who helped design the windows).
Rowan LeCompte's Windows, Little Sanctuary
Everyone who’s passed through the Little Sanctuary will recognize the Manger Window, set in the wall behind the altar. The arrangement of light and dark glass creates a cross “with arms upraised” to suggest a descending bird, perhaps the dove of peace. At the bottom of the design, deep red glass embodies the fire of the Incarnation, while yellow glass interspersed near the top represents heavenly light. Around the edges, the faces of witnesses are circles of brown and tan.

In 2003, LeCompte returned to make two more windows, less abstract than his earlier work and intended to convey particular messages. The first, “Environmental Protection,” depicts two figures planting a tree. The colors of nature, “earth, plants, water, and sky…intertwine” with the people, suggesting the harmony of man and creation. The other window, “Working Together,” shows a diverse group of boys playing soccer and overcoming obstacles, represented by green and purple blocks. With these two works, LeCompte exhorts us to work towards a better future, and, as with all of his windows, inspires each visitor to the Little Sanctuary to pause and contemplate the beauty of Creation.




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Located in Washington D.C.,  St. Albans School is a private, all boys day and boarding school. For more than a century, St. Albans has offered a distinctive educational experience for young men in grades 4 through 12. While our students reach exceptional academic goals and exhibit first-rate athletic and artistic achievements, as an Episcopal school we place equal emphasis upon moral and spiritual education.