New Leonard French window illuminates his iconic ceiling
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In the 1960s, Australian artist Leonard French created a monumental stained-glass ceiling for the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne. Recently, the NGV installed another of French’s works, a stained-glass window originally commissioned for a private home by businessman Gordon Barton, at its Ian Potter Centre.
French gained recognition for his art, appearing on the covers of The Bulletin and Life (Australia) magazines.
Barton commissioned the window after seeing French’s work at the National Library of Australia in Canberra, and it was installed in his Sydney home around 1972. After changing hands, a philanthropist purchased the window at auction and donated it to the NGV in 2020. Conservators restored the window by removing paint added by previous owners, revealing French’s original colours and luminosity.
The new window acts as a companion piece to the Great Hall ceiling, offering viewers a closer look at the imagery of turtles, serpents, fish, and birds. French’s composition in the window shows a progression from land to water to sky, representing renewal and completeness. The artist’s family recalls a fortune teller predicting he would “decorate the heavens,” a prediction that came true with his famous ceiling.
