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National Gallery of Ireland Resource for Teachers and Schools Supporting Ireland : Centenary Programme

1916 Through The National Collection National Gallery of Ireland Resource for Teachers and Schools

Supporting Ireland

Cover Image (detail) Edmond Delrenne, (Belgian)fl. 1915 - 1918 Sackville Street in Ruins, 1916. Charcoal and watercolour with white highlights on paper, 17.1 x 26 cm. Presented, Dr Brendan O’ Brien, 1982. NGI.18486.

: Centenary Programme

2016 marks the centenary of the Easter Rising in 1916, a seminal moment in Ireland’s History. As part of the national programme commemorating this event, people of all ages, in Ireland and overseas are invited to actively engage in a diverse range of historical, cultural and artistic activities facilitating reflection, commemoration, debate and analysis. National Cultural Institutions hold many key artefacts which can support discovery of the nation’s past and indeed assist in imagining its future. The National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) houses a small, but significant number of objects which pertain not only to the Rising, but also events leading up to the insurrection and the turbulent times that followed. This publication brings together drawings, prints and paintings along with sculpture and descriptive texts from the National Collection (Permanent and on loan) depicting key figures, iconic scenes and vivid accounts from the time. Information on both artist and work is provided so that each artefact may be considered in its own right, in relation to 1916 and in the wider context of the artist’s life. While not all the works listed are on display, all are available to view on NGI’s e-museum via the main website www. nationalgallery.ie and a number (marked with ) feature in the 2016 Spring exhibition; James Stephens, the 1916 Rising and the National Gallery of Ireland. This compact resource is designed to assist teachers and schools in facilitating engagement with the 1916 rising as a subject of investigation. Through providing accessible information on related people and objects, it can support research for projects in other disciplines and allow art to be considered in broader contexts. Studying these works could encourage class discussion on topics such as the role of art in war, document vs imagination, public and private personas or artefacts and their preservation. Practical investigations may also take place informed by the variety of disciplines featured, for example sketching on site, expressive portraiture, drawing from historic photographs, creative writing or producing icons. Above all however, we hope this resource will be used to consider this incredible time in a new light.

Sinéad Kathy Rice Education Officer, Teachers, Schools and Youth.

JAMES STEPHENS, Dublin 1890 – 1950 London The Insurrection in Dublin. publication. dublin: maunsel & co. 1916.

James Stephens was born in Dublin, the second son of Francis and Charlotte Stephens. His father died two years after his birth, and this event coupled with the poverty his family endured led to his subsequent committal to the Meath Protestant Industrial School for Boys. Stephens’ early adulthood was a period defined by the hardship that would eventually inform his later writings on Dublin tenement life. In 1905 he began contributing stories to the Nationalist Journal; United Irishman, edited by future president of the Irish Free State, Arthur Griffith. Stephens’ stories were well received and he gained a reputation in literary circles as a capable writer. His best known novel, The Crock of Gold, published in 1912, was broadly classified as children’s literature though its underlying themes reflected the authors own spiritual and social concerns. Following the novel’s success, Stephens moved his family to Paris, where they remained until 1915. Upon returning to Dublin he succeeded in obtaining an appointment as registrar of the National Gallery of Ireland, and working at the gallery’s premises on Merrion Square afforded him prime position in the capital to view the unfolding events of the Easter Rising. Stephens recorded his personal experience of Easter week into a book; The Insurrection in Dublin, and published the same year. He was a supporter of the rebels, and explored themes of Celtic Revival in his writings up until the 1920’s.

He resigned from his post at the National Gallery in 1925 and moved to London, gradually becoming disillusioned with the political and literary scene in post-civil war Ireland. In his later years Stephens’ literary output dropped-off and his relationship with the new Irish state remained ambivalent. He died in 1950 at his home in London. The Insurrection in Dublin is a vivid contemporaneous account of the 1916 Rising written in the form of daily diary. Stephens records the ensuing confusion during the takeover of the city by the rebels; examining various captured locations and reporting sweeping danger and hostility on the streets. Graphic details of the collateral effects of the insurrection are presented along with references to institutions including the National Gallery of Ireland and several wellknown cultural and political figures. Though he mentions the prevalent mood felt during the week was mostly “Anti-Volunteer”, Stephens ends his book with a touching word on the execution of leaders of the Rising and pre-empts the postinsurrection eulogizing of them as martyrs. He sees them not as men of action, but as thinkers, accepting the unfortunate destiny to take charge “of bloody and desolate work”.

EDMOND THOMAS QUINN, Philadelphia 1868 – 1929 New York James Stephens (1883-1951), Poet and Novelist, c.1920. bronze, 29cm. presented, mrs ramsay, 1928. ngi.8002.

Born in Philadelphia in 1868, Edmond Thomas Quinn studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins and sculpture in Paris under Jean-Antoine Injalbert. His early work consisted mostly of portrait paintings though in his later career he would become known primarily as a sculptor. Quinn is remembered for his enduring artistic relationship with the New York based National Academy of Design where he began exhibiting his painting works in 1891. It was not until 1908 that Quinn showed a sculpture work at the Academy, though from thereafter it was the only artform he submitted. One of his best known works depicts the famous Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth as a brooding Hamlet. The success of this sculpture had an immediate impact and garnered a lot of praise as Quinn was then elected as a member of the National Academy. He died in New York in 1929 and has retained a posthumous reputation as an accomplished and reliable portraitist in both painting and sculptural forms. The bronze bust of James Stephens was likely arranged by the well-connected and influential Irish-American lawyer, John Quinn. Based in New York, the wealthy John Quinn was an important patron in both literary and artistic Modernist circles.

He advanced the cause of many leading Irish literary figures, including James Joyce, George Russell, and James Stephens. Quinn was also a good friend to the Yeats family, sponsoring the elderly John Butler Yeats’ career during his time in America and increasing recognition of Jack B. Yeats through exhibiting his paintings at the landmark Armory show in 1913. A few hours after the death of John Butler Yeats, John Quinn had Edmund Thomas Quinn complete a death mask of the painter. In a similar case, John Quinn would likely have commissioned Edmund Thomas Quinn to create a likeness of one of his benefactors, in this case James Stephens. The bronze bust is very simple in composition which may suggest it was done from a photograph, though the author is immediately recognisable by his famously parted and reclining hairline. The bust was gifted to Ireland in 1928 by a Mrs. Ramsay, who was based in New York. Its transfer to Ireland was facilitated by George Russell, then editor of the Irish Statesmen. The bust resided in the Municipal Gallery of Art (now the Hugh Lane Gallery) until Stephens’ death, whereupon it was transferred to the National Gallery of Ireland.

KASIMIR DUNIN MARKIEVICZ, Ukraine 1874 – 1932 Poland The Artist’s Wife, Constance, Comtesse de Markievicz (1868-1927), Irish Painter and Revolutionary, 1899. oil on canvas, 205 x 91 cm. purchased, 1952. Count Kasimir Dunin Markievicz was born in 1874 to a landowning Polish family in the Ukraine. He studied law in Kiev for two years before pursuing his dream of becoming an artist. Kasimir arrived in Paris in 1895, aged twentyone, and made quick progress into the artistic world after studying in the Ecole des Beaux Arts. His early work in portraiture was exhibited at the Salon which soon established his reputation across the city. This relatively successful early arts career was complemented by a bohemian lifestyle for which he would become legendary. At one of the many Parisian balls he visited, Kasimir met the young Irish artist Constance, of the wealthy ascendancy Sligo family; the Gore-Booths. They quickly fell in love, and, after the death of Kasimir’s first wife, they married in London in 1900. In the early years of their marriage they continued to live a bohemian lifestyle in Dublin where Kasimir became a well-known and liked artist and playwright about town, renowned as a raconteur and centre of parties. However, the marriage grew distant as Constance became increasingly involved in the Irish Nationalist movement. Though the relationship was ultimately strained by her fervent patriotism they never developed hostile feelings towards each other and Kasimir was largely supportive of her efforts. In 1913 he left Ireland, returning only once in 1927 for Constance’s funeral.

He spent his later life travelling through the Ukraine, Poland and Russia. After a spell in the Polish military he resumed his writing and although he never stopped painting it was a largely a secondary endeavour in his later life. Kasimir died in 1932 in Warsaw, Poland. This delicate profile portrait of the famous nationalist figure Countess Constance Markievicz is at odds with the revolutionary firebrand image she is typically associated with. Originally titled ‘Constance in White’, the portrait was intended to commemorate Constance as the muse of her future husband Count Kasimir Markievicz. In Kasimir’s tender portrayal, the Countess is presented as a society belle in a long flowing white dress. The simplicity of the composition and setting allows for a greater appreciation of Constance’s youthful beauty as she stands classically poised in profile by an elegant chair and table. Kasmir’s style is in keeping with contemporary portraiture as he strips back any hint of narrative and focuses on capturing a graceful and affectionate rendering of his wife. The serenity presented contrasts sharply with the fervent nationalism that would define Constance’s later life, her image and name becoming synonymous not only with the 1916 rising but the civil war and early political scene that followed.

JACK B. YEATS, London 1871 – 1957 Dublin Bachelor’s Walk, In Memory, 1915.

oil on canvas, 45.7 x 61 cm. on loan from private collection. l.2009.1. ©estate of jack b. yeats. all rights reserved, dacs, london/ivaro, dublin 2016. Jack B Yeats was born in London in 1871 to Susan Pollexfen and John Butler Yeats, a newly established painter. Though the Yeats family were based in London, Jack spent a great deal of his childhood in his mother’s hometown of Sligo. These formative years in the west of Ireland greatly influenced his later artworks and created deep sympathetic feelings towards the land. Yeats returned to London at the age of seventeen and attended various art schools. He developed a natural talent as a draughtsman and found early success as an illustrator for comic periodicals and sport journals. After settling with his wife, Cottie, in Devon, Yeats worked on an eclectic variety of painted scenes from life to be exhibited at the Clifford Gallery in London. These well received paintings highlight Yeats’ interest in a wide range of subjects from sports such as racing, boxing, and sailing to more genteel depictions of fairgrounds, cider-making, and children playing. Yeats’s subsequent work however, was defined by his time in Ireland as he and his wife took up residence in Wicklow in 1910. Bachelors Walk a painting from this period subtly suggests the burgeoning political and social upheaval in Ireland at that time and shortly after, View from O’Connell Bridge records the destruction of the capital during Easter week.

Yeats was never as directly involved in politics as his brother William, but he harboured sympathy to nationalist causes. In the 1920’s he absorbed the modernist influences of the continent as his paintings took on a wildly original and fluid style. Though he painted in a strikingly vivid manner, the subject matter of Yeats’ work remained grounded in Irish life. Later paintings attest to his enduring affinity to Ireland and its people, while demonstrating his unique style and brilliant use of colour. Though he was an intensely private man, no other artist matched Yeats in public esteem at the end of his life. He died in Dublin in 1957 and his reputation has continued to grow since his death. Bachelor’s Walk, in Memory is a poignant representation of an incident predating the 1916 Rising by almost two years but serving as a clear indicator of the changing mood in the capital. On 26 July 1914, having intercepted a party of Irish Volunteers transporting arms from Howth, a detachment of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers encountered a hostile crowd in central Dublin. Responding with panic, the soldiers opened fire, killing four people, and injuring over thirty. Yeats did not witness the event, but executed a sketch on the spot the following day which resulted in the final painting.

JACK B. YEATS, London 1871 – 1957 Dublin Dublin from O’Connell Bridge, May 12th 1916.

graphite on paper, 9cm x 12.5cm. sketchbook 185: dublin & some greystones (old), (1916) – 1925. ngi archives: ngi/yi/jy/1/1/185. ©estate of jack b. yeats. all rights reserved, dacs, london/ivaro, dublin 2016. Yeats’ sketch of Dublin from O’Connell Bridge in the immediate aftermath of the Rising is an effective evocation of the destructive capacity of war. The historical avenue in Dublin, then known as Sackville Street., is shown torn apart with only the GPO building and Nelson’s Pillar left as remnants of the street’s former glory. Groups of people are found scattered about the foreground like little black ants, perhaps surveying the damage or simply continuing on with their lives as was necessary. Yeats’ uniquely loose yet definite manner of sketching creates the scene, and although the graphite lines are quickly drawn they convey detail and skill indicative of his talents as a draughtsman. Yeats was an avid sketcher of everyday life, and this work is just one of many, with the artist amassing a collection of over two hundred individual sketchbooks by the end of his life.

EDMOND DELRENNE , (Belgian)fl. 1915 - 1918 Sackville Street in Ruins, 1916.

charcoal and watercolour with white highlights on paper, 17.1 x 26 cm. presented, dr brendan o’brien, 1982. ngi.18486. Very little is known of the Belgian artist Edmond Delrenne other than he was a refugee of the First World War and arrived in Dublin c.1914. While in Dublin he gave his address as care of Dermod O’Brien, the president of the RHA at that time and future director of the National Gallery. His artwork was well received as he exhibited at the RHA consecutively in 1915 and 1916. O’Brien seemingly took a liking to his work as Delrenne’s watercolour painted in the immediate aftermath of the 1916 rising, was amongst his estate and presented to the National Gallery of Ireland by his son, Dr Brendan O’Brien in 1982 following his father’s death. This extremely rare contemporaneous painting of the destruction of Dublin is perhaps all the more poignant given Delrenne’s own personal experiences of war on the continent. Also, it is understood that while the artist was taking cover in a doorway during Easter week, a man sheltering beside him was killed by a stray bullet . . . conceivably another reason Delrenne felt compelled to record the scenes of destruction around him, as the few known artworks of Delrenne’s in Ireland are depictions of the capital after the rising. Records show he stayed with O’Brien at his other residence in Limerick for a period after 1916, though his later career remains shrouded in mystery.

Delrenne’s watercolour of Sackville Street in Ruins, is a carefully composed study of the destructive aftermath of the Easter Rising in Ireland’s capital. The shadowy mass of the GPO stands in the distance with its façade in-tact, though it is a bare shell of the original structure. Loosely indicated piles of rubble in earthy tones fill the foreground, capturing the brutal devastation caused by the British gun boat Helga which sailed up the River Liffey and tore down buildings on the waterfront. The viewer is given opportunity to peer through these ruins to the only two things apparently still standing: the GPO and Nelson’s Pillar. Rendered in an austere grey colour, these iconic symbols represent British presence in the city, however, the flag of the Irish Republic a top the GPO anticipates the future of the country and the transformation of the building into a nationalist symbol. There is a subtle sympathy to Delrenne’s watercolour that belies his own experiences fleeing the First World War on the continent; he lays bare the trauma of war and seeks to document a time of chaos.

FLORA MITCHELL, Nebraska 1890 – 1973 Dublin Henry Street after Sinn Féin Rebellion 1916, pen and ink on paper. Middle Abbey Street after Sinn Fein Rebellion 1916, pen and ink on paper. private collection. both works courtesy of mr. james walsh. Flora Mitchell was born in 1890 into a wealthy American family from Omaha, Nebraska who had ties with the famous Jameson whiskey distillers of Dublin. After the family left the U.S for Ireland toward the end of the 19th century, Flora attended school in London where her artistic talent was encouraged. In 1910 she enrolled in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and developed a technique for rendering highly detailed pencil drawings of topographical urban views. Mitchell worked in a unique manner, highlighting sketches done earlier in Indian ink before painting over them with watercolour; thus producing a very singular and inimitable style. She worked as a volunteer in Dublin during the First World War and remained on through the Easter Rising in 1916, an experience she documented in letters to her family. Mitchell spent time in Canada teaching before finally settling in Dublin and devoting herself to painting in the 1950s. A selection of her familiar painted views of Dublin were compiled for a popular publication in 1966 titled Vanishing Dublin. Mitchell’s work documented Dublin at a time of huge change and her family presented the National Gallery of Ireland with a large collection of these works after her death in 1973. In 1999 the exhibition Flora Mitchell, Views of Dublin was held at the NGI to acknowledge her considerable contribution to Irish art.

Flora Mitchell’s drawings of the aftermath of the Easter Rising were most likely copied from two contemporary photographs of the events. Even though she was present in Dublin at the time of the Rising, Mitchell had not yet become an established artist. It is commonly thought she came across the photos shortly after and saw them as ideal compositions for her manner of working. The meticulous detailing of the ruined buildings and the barren, debris ridden streets is highly refined and reflects the belief that Mitchell carefully studied Mr. T. W. Murphy’s 31 photos titled Dublin after the Six Days Insurrection, converting two of them into drawings. She retains the grand sense of destruction of the originals while adding a haunting atmospheric quality by removing any trace of figures from either scene. The visceral depiction of the devastation suggests sympathy with the Irish people, however, a letter from her mother, vividly accounts the family’s horror at the destruction in the city and their support for the British forces. Across her oeuvre Mitchell always affectionately depicted the streets of Dublin and these two drawings of the ruined buildings of Henry Street and Abbey Street are evidence of her dismay and disappointment at the destruction of her adopted home.

HARRY AARON KERNOFF, London 1900 – 1974 Dublin James Connolly and the Citizen-Army, Dublin (Executed 1916), 1947. letterpress block print 14 x 9.5 cm. ngi.11932.14.

Harry Aaron Kernoff was born in London in 1900 to a father of Russian-Jewess descent and a mother of an old Spanish-Jewess family. The young Kernoff showed an interest in art from an early age and after the family moved to Dublin in 1914, he attended night classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. Awards and scholarships followed and he pursued a full time art education supported and encouraged by established painters such as Patrick Tuohy and Sean Keating. Kernoff ’s artistic style differed from others of the time as it reflected a social conscience and sympathy for the problems faced by Dublin’s poor and unemployed. His precocious talent for depicting the lives of Dubliners with great clarity meant that he was soon regularly exhibiting at the RHA before elected to membership in 1936. Though he painted an exceptionally broad range of subjects, from landscapes to decorative works, he is probably best remembered for his distinct woodcut portraits of leading Irish figures. His simple but expressive rendering of the iconic features of well-known individuals such as W.B Yeats and James Joyce, demonstrate a deep understanding of the character he was portraying. He enjoyed wide success and consistently exhibited in Ireland as well as internationally. He died in Dublin 25 December 1974.

Kernoff ’s block print of socialist and revolutionary, James Connolly, depicts a resolute military leader in front of rows of his marching comrades beneath a black sky peppered with stars. Another similar version of this print was also produced including Liberty Hall, the tri-colour and a street lamp illuminating the soldiers in the background. Originally from Scotland, James Connolly moved to Dublin in the latter half of the nineteenth century and would go on to become one of the central figures of the 1916 Rising. He mobilised the socialist movement in Ireland and worked tirelessly with Jim Larkin for the trade unions in order to improve working conditions for the exploited lower classes. Connolly’s prominent position at the forefront of national and socialist issues led to him commanding a small band of the Irish Citizens Army from the Transport Union headquarters at Liberty Hall into the 1916 Rising. Injured in battle he was sentenced to execution along with the other leaders of the insurrection. Kernoff ’s posthumous portrait print of Connolly with furrowed brow and bushy moustache has a particular resonance given the two men shared a sympathy for the working classes. The work is emotive and expressive; a platoon of men marching toward their fate as their uniformed leader looks stoically out of the composition, grimly aware of his destiny.

National Gallery of Ireland Education Department 2016 Produced and edited by Sinéad Kathy Rice, Education Officer: Teachers, Schools and Youth. Research and content contributions: Mike Palmer, Education Intern 2015-2016 Design and layout: Luke Page ([email protected]) © National Gallery of Ireland 2016