Nineteenth-Century Irish Sculpture: Native Genius Reaffirmed

Paula Murphy, the leading expert on Irish sculpture, offers an extensive survey of the history of sculpture in Ireland in the nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on the large public works produced during the Victorian period. The works of such major figures as Patrick MacDowell, John Henry Foley, Thomas Kirk, and Thomas Farrell are discussed as well as works by a host of lesser-known sculptors, including John Edward Carew, Christopher Moore, James Cahill, and Joseph Robinson Kirk. Lavishly illustrated, the book covers the work of many Irish sculptors who practiced abroad, particularly in London, and the work of English sculptors, including John Flaxman, Francis Chantrey, E. H. Baily, and Richard Westmacott, who were located in Ireland. Murphy makes extensive use of contemporary documentation, much of it from newspapers, to present the sculptors and their work in the religious and political context of their time.