For the final WORK OF THE WEEK of 2020, we’re sharing an image of celebration!And Conor Tallon and Assistant Curator Michael Waldron virtually clinked glasses to the year's end in honour of

The Drunken Faun (1826) by John Hogan.It depicts a mythological figure in the midst of a Bacchanal, an ancient festival to the wine god. Falling backwards in intoxication, the faun is surrounded by attributes including pan pipes, cymbals, and wine jug, while a goat skin covers his modesty and serves as a reminder of his species. 

Intriguingly, this plaster Neoclassical sculpture was the product of a challenge set by Welsh sculptor John Gibson (1790-1866). Ever one to rise to the occasion, Hogan countered painter Vincenzo Camuccini’s claim that all original poses in sculpture had been exhausted with this dynamic triangular composition. The faun’s left arm supports the weight of his entire upper body, as his right leg is outstretched, and vine leaf-entwined head falls back.

Although he may have been inspired by the ancient Barberini Faun or Johan Tobias Segrel’s faun of 1771, Hogan succeeded in his task and firmly proved both Gibson and Camuccini wrong. The finished work even prompted Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) to declare it ‘a miracle of Art.’

The Drunken Faun was exhibited at the Royal Irish Institution in 1829, and subsequently in The Great Exhibition (1851) at the Crystal Palace in London’s Hyde Park. It has been in the Crawford Art Gallery collection for over 130 years.

The Drunken Faun by John Hogan (1800-1858) is featured in RECASTING CANOVA in The Crawford's Sculpture Galleries.

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Conor Tallon speaks to Michael Waldron about this weeks featured Work of The Week from the Crawford Art Gallery...

Strike up the band! This WORK OF THE WEEK is a real winter warmer.

Soon, up Aloft, the Silver, Snarling Trumpets 'gan to Chide (c.1923) by Harry Clarke gives us the best seat in the house, as we are placed front and centre before the artist’s strange septet or musical ensemble.

This watercolour study is dominated by the dramatic figure of the conductor of this not-quite orchestra. Rather than remaining faithful to his poetic source – “The Eve of St Agnes” (1819) by John Keats, in which angelic decorations are described ‘with hair blown back’ – Clarke has instead incorporated the image into the conductor’s appearance.

Occupying a gallery space, the musical ensemble contributes to the Eve of St Agnes festivities, which are detailed in an associated watercolour study. Each figure has its own personality sketched out and evoked by the artist.

Nicola Gordon-Bowe (1948-2018), the late great Clarke scholar, has suggested a source for the theorbo (long-necked lute) or sitar-playing figure to the right of the conductor: his balding head and pointed ears resemble the vampiric Count Orlok from F.W. Murnau’s contemporaneous silent film Nosferatu (1922)!

Harry Clarke (1889-1931), one or Ireland’s most renowned illustrators and stained-glass artists, loved literature and music. At the time of making this watercolour study in 1923, he attended a Franz Liszt recital given by Tilly Fleischmann at the Abbey Theatre.

Find out this and more in our new online exhibition HARRY CLARKE MARGINALIA, which runs until 14 February 2021.

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Conor Tallon and the Crawford Gallery's Assistant Curator Michael Waldron celebrate this week's

WORK OF THE WEEK… cos it’s a kind of homecoming, like!

Sun sets over a maritime city, as river waters ripple in the wake of a seagoing vessel. Like the tide itself, Paddle Steamer Entering the Port of Cork (1842) is all about comings and goings.

Approaching Cork by water was once much more commonplace than today and it was a sight that artist George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson (1806-1884) knew well. A native of Cobh, he grew up in Cork Harbour and spent his early career at sea as a ship’s carpenter. Upon his return, he became Government Surveyor of Shipping and Emigrants, as well as a self-taught painter.

In this warm and welcoming painting, the artist depicts a paddle steamer making its way upriver to the Port of Cork. The historic Bonded Warehouses may be picked out at the centre of the scene, while dozens of masts break the skyline on both channels of the river, emphasising the importance of the harbour to the city’s commerce, prosperity, and identity.

Flanking the river on either side, the church steeples of St Anne’s, Shandon and St Patrick’s (right) and old St Fin Barre’s Cathedral and city hall (left) can be readily identified. The fine offices of the St George Steam Packet Company (Penrose House) can also be glimpsed between moored vessels at Penrose Quay (centre right).

Wherever you may be this festive season, we wish you all safe harbour, fair winds and following seas.

Paddle Steamer Entering the Port of Cork (1842) is featured in STATIO BENE: Art and Ireland’s Maritime Haven until April 2021.

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This week Conor Tallon and Curator Michael Waldron are looking at Grace Henry's Claddagh Market, Galway...

Around this time of the year on the 8th of December we see the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping calendar in Ireland. Known as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, in years past the day saw rural shoppers visiting large towns and cities.

Although not essentially a Christmas scene, Claddagh Market, Galway (1916-18) by Grace Henry captures the hustle and bustle of open-air shopping in the West of Ireland. The rounded forms of women in patterned shawls contrast with the geometric shapes of the market stalls, as thatched cottages of The Claddagh can be seen in the background.

The Claddagh, a fishing village across the river from Spanish Arch and Galway city, is perhaps best known today for the ring – with hands, heart, and crown – that takes its name.

Scottish artist Grace Henry (1868-1953) painted Claddagh Market, Galway during the decade she spent living on Achill Island with then husband, and fellow artist, Paul Henry (1876-1958). Post-Impressionist in style, this relatively small painting modulates strong brushwork with earth tones and sparing use of bold colour.

Emily Grace Mitchell (Henry) hailed from a coastal town north of Aberdeen, but was to study at the Académie Delécluse in Paris. In 1920, she was a founding member of the Society of Dublin Painters with Letitia Marion Hamilton, Paul Henry, Mary Swanzy, and Jack B. Yeats.

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Francis Bindon, Portrait of Jonathan Swift, c.1735,

‘I’m as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.’

This week's Work had the brief of....being brief...due to time pressure on the show...Imagine Conor Tallon's surprise when Curator Michael Waldron told him it would be Swift indeed!

For this WORK OF THE WEEK we’re marking the anniversary of one of Ireland’s most celebrated writers, Jonathan Swift, who was born in Dublin on this day in 1667!

In a diary entry from June 1735, and then in his late sixties, Swift mockingly wrote that ‘I have been fool enough to sit for my Picture at full length by Mr. Bindon.’ In fact, the artist was a friend of Swift and made several portraits of the satirist and author of Drapier’s Letters (1724), Gulliver’s Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729).

Dating to c.1735, Portrait of Jonathan Swift by Francis Bindon shows its subject less formally than in other portraits. Depicted without his customary wig, for instance, Swift (1667-1745) seems to display the melancholy he felt during this time. He kept this likeness close to him in the deanery of St Patrick’s Cathedral and later bequeathed it to his housekeeper, Mrs Ridgeway. He would also go on to endow what is now St Patrick’s Mental Health Services.

A native of County Clare, artist and architect Francis Bindon (c.1690-1765) was independently wealthy and travelled to Italy with his cousin, Samuel Burton, in 1716. He subsequently trained under court painter Sir Godfrey Kneller and was described by Swift as ‘the greatest painter and architect of his time in these kingdoms.’ In later life, he became MP for Ennis and a Freeman of the City of Limerick.

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