Reuben & Fonse Mathews

I've had a fascination with watercolours since I was a teenager, and I know why. My father, Maurice Mathews, had eight uncles. The sixth uncle was Henry Matthews but was always called Harry. While his surname is spelt with one "T" upon entering the US via Elis Island the immigration clerk wrote down the surname with two"TT"s and that was that. Henry learned his trade as a stained glass artist under Harry Clarke's tutelage. When he was 27 he emigrated, setting sail in Jan 1928 on the RMS Celtic bound for Boston. USA.  He stayed in the stained-glass business in America, working for Willet Stained Glass Studios in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. His works adorned the chapels of Princeton University, US Military Academy, West Point, St. Joseph's and Rosemount Colleges and St Denis Church, Havertown.

His younger brothers, Reuben and Fonsie, also worked in the Harry Clarke Studios. Reuben rose to the position of Chief Artist and has many commissions installed all over the world. 

Both Reu and Fonse were talented watercolour artists, and in their later years, they would holiday in Killarney in the summer at the Lake Hotel, spending their time painting and playing the piano to entertain the hotel guests, and if they sold a painting or two, they would stay an extra week.

I'm lucky to have some of their watercolours, which are photographed on this website. 

Reuben Mathews was born in 1904 in Dublin. He passed away in 1995. He lived in the latter part of his life in Leo Avenue near the Mater Hospital with his brother Alphonsus, known as Fonsie. Reuben spent all his working life in the Harry Clarke Studios in Frederick Street. 

He met the well-known artist Pauline Bewick, who wrote a wonderful article principally on the Bewleys Cafe in Grafton Street, in which she relates a couple of stories Reuben had told her over tea and buns in Bewleys. A copy of the article is at the bottom of this page.

Fonsie worked for a short period in Harry Clarks too as well as being a very competent watercolour artist he was by all accounts a wonderful pianist.