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 in the Harry Clarke Studios. When he was 27 he emigrated, setting sail in Jan 1928 on the RMS Celtic bound for Boston. USA.  He stayed in the stain glass business in America working for Willet Stained Glass Studios, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. His works adored the chapels of Princeton University, US Military Academy West Point, St Josephs 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 in the Harry Clarke Studio and has had 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 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 know as Fonsie. Reuben spent all his working like in the Harry Clarke Studios in Frederick Street. He was the Chief Artist after the death of Harry Clarke and many of his installations went all over the world. 

He met the well know 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. 

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.