Making Their Mark Author(S): Angela Griffith and Anne Hodge Source: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol

Irish Arts Review

Making their Mark Author(s): Angela Griffith and Anne Hodge Source: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 36, No. 1 (SPRING (MARCH - MAY 2019)), pp. 100- 103 Published by: Irish Arts Review Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/45198164 Accessed: 10-06-2021 08:07 UTC

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This content downloaded from 86.59.13.237 on Thu, 10 Jun 2021 08:07:35 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dermod O'Brien, organised one of the largest survey

In O'Brien, the exhibitions 1910, Royal organised the Hibernian of of newly-elected printmaking printmaking one Academy, of the ever largest ever president staged Dermodstaged survey of in in Ireland or Britain. O'Brien, though not a printmaker, was a collector of prints. The purpose of the display was to demonstrate to the Irish public 'what really fine prints can be' and included Mark a wide range of works from 15th-century Old Irish painter-etchers looked abroad for their Master prints to contemporary impressions.1 Ultimately, it inspiration, direction and markets from the was hoped that the exhibition would encourage young Irish artists to take up the medium and to stimulate a new mar- and 1880s, writes Angela Griffith Anne Hodge ket for contemporary fine art print in Dublin. O'Brien's intention to encourage printmaking in Ireland reflected an already flourishing market in modern etching in Britain, Europe and America. Originating in France in the mid- 1800s, leaders of the Etching Revival wanted artists and the public to recognise printmaking as a creative medium. While the history of art is punctuated with renowned artists who made prints - such as Mantegna, Dürer, Rembrandt and Goya - the majority of prints produced were reproductive.

100 SPRING 2019 VOLUME 36(1)

This content downloaded from 86.59.13.237 on Thu, 10 Jun 2021 08:07:35 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Etching Revival ^EXHIBITION

Professional engravers were engaged by publishers to make copies of paintings by other artists, or designs for illustration. These images, often technically skilful, were produced on a commercial scale. Etching Revivalists argued that these prints were not art, as the engraver had little or no creative input in the production of such images. Instead, they emphasised the value of the original or 'artist's print', a work that was con- ceived and executed by the hand of the 'painter-etcher' (a new term they coined), where the vagaries and the possibilities offered by the medium of etching would be creatively explored. Although Dermod O'Brien set out to encourage printmaking in Ireland, in truth there already existed a small but dedicated number of artists with Irish affiliations working as painter-etchers from the 1880s. These artists, given a lack of support in Ireland for printmaking, looked abroad for their inspiration, direction and markets. 'Making their Mark - Irish Painter-Etchers' brings together, for the first time, the work of those artists who elected to express them- selves in what Charles Baudelaire described as a most modern medium.2 The prints on display will comprise works from the National Gallery of Ireland's own collection together with loans from public institutions in Ireland and the UK: Crawford Art Gallery; Dublin City Gallery: Hugh Lane Gallery; the National Library of Ireland; Trinity College Dublin; the British Museum and The Hunterian, University of Glasgow. The most influential figure within the Etching ReyivalTn England was undoubtedly James Abbott McNeill Whistler. When studying in France in the 185Gs, Whistler began ta engage with the principles of the Realist movement: working directly from nature and presenting an individualistic response to scenes and figures encountered. Whistler's mod- ernist subjective interpretations of the world, which would abandon the strictures of the academic approach, were applied not only to his paintings but also to his etchings. His plates, often created en plein air, were distinguished by compositions that combined select areas of detail with other motifs merely suggested or omitted altogether. His work became the paragon of Etching Revival principles (Fig 3). Amongst Whistler's most ardent followers in Ireland was the amateur artist William Booth Pearsall. A member of the Dublin Sketching Club (DSC), Pearsall was directly involved 1 EDWARD L LAWRENSON 2 MYRA HUGHES (1877-1918) 3 JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL ( 1 868- 1 940] SOGNEFIORD, 1 924 SACKVILLE STREET, c. 1 9 1 0 WHISTLER (1834-1903) in bringing an exhibition of Whistler's work to Dublin in Colour aquatint and soft ground Etching, 15.9x16.2 cm EAGLE WHARF, 1859 etching, 30.3x40.2cm © The Trustees of the British © The Hunterian, University of 18 84. 3 Four years earlier, along with other DSC members, © The Trustees of the British Museum, 1919,0528.8 Glasgow 2019, Inv. 46731 Museum, 1924,1112.7 including William Fitzgerald, Pearsall exhibited a series of etchings that followed the principles of the Etching Revival. His work included depictions of Dublin's docklands echo- their training on the continent. In 1881, Joseph Malachy ing the maritime theme of Whistler's celebrated Thames Set , Kavanagh, Walter Osborne and Roderic O'Conor trav- published in 1871. Later in the 1890s, the Dublin Art Club, elled to the Académie Royale in Antwerp to study under where Pearsall was a founding member, would exhibit the the Belgian Realist painter Charles Verlat. Verlat was also work of leading painter-etchers working in Britain - includ- a keen etcher and his students were encouraged to explore ing Whistler, Alphonse Legros, Walter Sickert and Frank the artistry of the medium.4 Kavanagh was the most commit- Short - bringing their work to Irish audiences. ted printmaker of the three and catalogues from the 1890s Another group of Irish artists produced prints following demonstrate that he regularly exhibited prints in the RHA

VOLUME 36(1) SPRING 2019 101

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and DAC exhibitions. Diverging from Etching Revivalist principles, Kavanagh produced compositions that were finely detailed, with light, texture and perspective rendered with academic precision. It appears that Walter Osborne only made two prints. These were student exercises but they reflected his interests at that time. One etching is of a charm- ing 'portrait' of a terrier while the other is a realist study of a Belgian peasant woman (Fig 4). Osborne also painted the sitter, naming her Modenke Verhoft. He never exhibited the prints but years later his friend Pearsall gifted them to the British Museum. Roderic O'Conor created a series of Post-Impressionist etchings when in Brittany, under the guiding hand of Armand Séguin, a fellow member of the Pont Aven School, whose titular head was Paul SURPRISINGLY, Gauguin. Under Gauguin's influence, the group HOWEVER, presented imaginative and emotional responses to THE SINGLE nature, as seen in O'Conor's bold linear and tonal LARGEST etchings of subjectively reduced forms. COLLECTION The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers (RE) was OF IRISH founded in London by Francis Seymour Haden PRINTS FROM to champion and showcase the art of the paint- THIS PERIOD er-etcher. Its membership included a number of Irish IS HOUSED IN artists who went to London in search of training, THE BRITISH recognition and a more expansive (and informed) MUSEUM market. Among them were Francis S Walker, Myra K Hughes and Percy Gethin. While Walker's style was more in keeping with a richly detailed illustrative tradition, Hughes and Gethin embraced the spontaneous and interpre- tative approach of Whistler and the Etching Revival. Both made etchings of Irish subjects, Hughes of Dublin city (Fig 2), and Gethin of rural Ireland. Like Gethin and Hughes, many painter-etchers travelled across Europe and beyond in search of subject matter, as did Robert Goff, Edward Millington Synge and Edward Louis Lawrenson. Goff travelled widely, recording landscapes and people using a selective, Whistlerian approach. Synge, also a follower of Whistler, adapted his style to the dictates of the subject, moving from richly detailed views to summary, atmospheric sketches. Lawrenson's work is dis- tinctive in that he was among a small group of etchers who printed in colour. Lawrenson's work comprises fluid, textural, chromatic effects printed on a larger scale, which increases

4 WALTER OSBORNE their visual impact (Fig 1). Each of these artists enjoyed crit- (1859-1903) THE FLEMISH CAP c. 1880 ical success, exhibiting their work regularly in London and Etching 21.4x15cm, © The Trustees of featuring in art periodicals including The Studio . Although, the British Museum 1902,0107.22 on occasion their work featured in Irish exhibitions such as 5 SARAH CECILIA the RHA and the Oireachtas, their reputations were forged Harrison (1863-1941) STUDY OF A MAN'S and sustained in Britain and Europe. HEAD 1880s Etching 20x1 5cm Collection: In 1914 Cork-born George Atkinson was appointed to the The Hugh Lane Gallery. © The Hugh staff of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (DMSA) and, Lane Gallery, Dublin for the first time, Irish students had access to a trained print- 6 PERCY F GETHIN (1874-1916) maker. Atkinson had studied under Frank Short in London. TRAVELLING CIRCUS, COUNTY CLARE The DMSA provided intaglio printing facilities to its stu- Etching and Drypoint, 21.2x25.5cm dents and, it seems, to artists working in Dublin. Estella © National Gallery of Ireland 11619 Solomons, who was the most prolific etcher in Ireland until

SPRING 2019 VOLUME 36(1)

This content downloaded from 86.59.13.237 on Thu, 10 Jun 2021 08:07:35 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms the foundation of Graphic Studio Dublin in 1960, began to century prints in Irish institutions came from donations - make prints at this time. It appears that Atkinson taught and for example etchings by Percy Gethin in the NGI collection supported her until she purchased her own press around were gifted by his teacher and mentor Frederick Burridge 1920. 5 Atkinson and Solomons represented a small, but (Fig 6). Surprisingly, however, the single largest collection of 'home-grown', generation of Irish printmakers, their work Irish prints from this period is housed in the British Museum. dominated by Irish subject matter for an Irish audience. In the spirit of Dermod O'Brien, this exhibition aims to However, despite the artistic achievements of this group of bring the work of these forgotten artists to new audiences, artists, they are largely forgotten today. A significant contrib- to encourage a new appreciation for fine art print and its uting factor to this circumstance is the fact that fine art prints heritage in Ireland and to provide new insights into the were not then collected by national cultural institutions. A cultural and social networks that existed between Ireland, small number of primarily British contemporary prints were Britain and Europe. ■ included in the inaugural exhibition of the Municipal Gallery Making their Mark: Irish Painter-Etchers 1880-1930, National Gallery of Ireland, until 30 June. of Modern Art in 1908. These comprised of donations from Angela Griffith is an assistant professor in the Department of History of Art and artists and works gifted by Hugh Lane and his associate, the Architecture in Trinity College Dublin. Anne Hodge is the Curator of Prints and Drawings artist Sarah Cecilia Harrison (Fig 5). Nearly all early 20th at the National Gallery of Ireland.

1 Royal Hibernian Academy, Catalogue of a Jonathan Mayne), Art in Paris 1845-1862, 4 Julian Campbell, The Irish Impressionists: loan of Prints, (Dublin, 1910) (London, 1965) Irish Artists in France and Belgium 1850- 2 Charles Baudelaire, 'Painters and Etchers 3 Ronald Anderson 'Whistler in Dublin', 1914 (1984), 115 first published in 1862. See Charles The Irish Arts Review, Vol. 3, 1986, 5 TCD, O'Sullivan / Solomons Archive MS 4632 - Baudelaire (translated and edited by 45-51 511 and MS 4644 - 3453

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