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Title:
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Erin
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Artist: |
Baron Carlo Marochetti
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This colossal statue of Erin, a personification of Ireland, shown with her traditional attributes of a harp and a wolfhound, and seated on a rock , was commissioned by the Marquis of Dufferin, when he was Lord Lieutenant of County Down, and completed in 1863. A picture taken in Marochetti's studio, by the photographer Camille Silvy, shows the plaster model, in which the group is still monochrome. A copy of this is in Camille Silvy's record books, held in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Photographs which record the finished work, show that while most of the group was in marble, the harp was of a darker tone, presumably in bronze. The art historian, Paula Murphy, has said of this work that it "suggested the wild beauty of Ireland", and furthermore that "beyond staid heroism or sentimentality, his [Marochetti's] timeless figure was poetic and free, rather than constrained by issues of politics and identity". (Art and Architecture of Ireland, vol.III, Sculpture, Yale University Press, 2014. p.442). This is certainly for its time a most daring conception, with its use of different materials, the wildly blown hair, sweeping drapery, and the Michelangelesque effect of the roughly textured rock, emblematic of the island of Ireland, from which the smoother figure emerges. Before the end of the 19th century, the statue came into the possession of the Duke of Sutherland, and for some time it replaced a figure of a Sibyl by Rinaldo Rinaldi, at the top of the first short flight of stairs in the magnificent entrance hall of Stafford House, London (now Lancaster House), The Sibyl had been placed there by the 2nd Duke of Sutherland and his wife Harriet. When Stafford House was sold in 1913, the statue of Erin was purchased by W.H.Lever, later Lord Leverhulme. It was never included in the collection displayed at Port Sunlight, but is recorded as having been displayed on the garden verandah of Lever's London home, "The Hill", in Hampstead. After Lord Leverhulme's death, "The Hill" became the property of Lord Inverforth, but was later used as a hospital, and then fell into complete disrepair. It is not known what became of the Erin. The height of the statue given here is taken from Lord Leverhulme's inventory.
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Material(s): |
Bronze and Marble
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Medium: |
Unassigned |
Finish: |
- |
Technique: |
Carved |
Genre: |
Unassigned
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Location: |
Unknown, , ,
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Colours: |
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Year: |
1863 |
Height: |
2.13 metres |
Width: |
0 metres |
Depth: |
0 metres |
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Key: |
5757 |
Acc. No.: |
5757 |
Col. No.: |
5757 |
Number of views: |
2630 |
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