Pollen, Anne
John Hungerford Pollen 1820-1902.
London, John Murray 1912.
Full Description
8vo. x + 396pp, 30 photo plates, text ills, (12)pp publisher’s adverts. Publisher’s cloth, a little minor wear.
A fascinating biography of John Hungerford Pollen, an ordained Church of England clergyman and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, who had become a Roman Catholic convert in 1852 and who had in consequence to turn his abilities to architecture and interior decoration. In this role he was to design a remarkable Byzantine-style church for the Catholic University in Dublin and executed a number of interior commissions for aristocratic clients in Britain and Ireland, but what was most remarkable was the breadth of his friendships, encompassing Cardinal Newman, Ruskin, Millais, William Morris and many others, including, rather surprisingly, Thackeray, who secured him the appointment as Assistant Keeper at the South Kensington Museum, 1863-76.