A Clerihew for National Poetry Day

Today is National Poetry Day and so – as Shane and I continue to read the epic poetry of Milton, consider its impact on Forde’s work, and prepare exciting new ventures – to celebrate we thought we’d share this wonderful clerihew composed as a gift by our witty and talented friend Donna Maria Alexander.

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A clerihew is defined as a humorous verse, usually consisting of two unmatched rhyming couplets with the scheme aa-bb, about a person whose name generally serves as one of the rhymes.

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Donna Maria Alexander is an Irish Research Council postgraduate scholar conducting a doctoral thesis on Chicana Poetry in the School of English and the Department of Hispanic Studies at University College Cork, Ireland. Why not visit her Americas Studies website to find out more!

Dublin Calling, or, Raiders of the Lost Ark-ives!

Recently I took a trip to the Representative Church Body (RCB) Library and Archive in Churchtown, Dublin, to see if I could learn anything further about Forde’s birth or death and burial. The RCB Library is the repository for Church of Ireland records, including baptisms, marriages, and burials, as well as minute books which record church appointments and significant decisions made by individual parish churches.

Unfortunately, I was unable to uncover any additional information about Forde, but it was an enjoyable experience to look through the manuscripts and read the accomplished and ornate hands that filled the minute books. Another reward was the very friendly and helpful staff there. I arrived knowing what I wanted to find, but having no idea how to go about it or what precise sources I should be requesting. However, after just ten minutes, Forde’s dates, and some uncertain suggestions about where he may have worshiped, I had the St Finbarre’s registry in front of me and was checking the baptismal and burial records for Forde’s name. No luck, as above, but the archivists very helpfully supplied me with contemporaneous material from other Cork churches in case he had been attached to another congregation. Again, no joy. However, I left with much good advice and encouragement – a very positive research experience.

Later that afternoon I headed to the National Library of Ireland to read an anonymous memoir of Forde in the Dublin University Magazine of 1845. This lengthy piece turned out to be a goldmine of personal insight and knowledge into Forde’s person and his life. Alas, no author’s name attached. Could it even have been Daniel Maclise, years later lamenting his short-lived friend?! Of all the noteworthy items in this piece, the most striking was that Forde was indeed buried in St Finbarre’s churchyard, but under a stone bearing the name Henry Murrough!

Later, I sat with Mike in a small restaurant on Carey’s Lane in Cork, just by the site of the chapel Forde sat in for hours contemplating the copy of Guido Reni’s Crucifixion, and told him everything I’d found! So many anecdotes about Forde, his contemporaries, and the life of the School of Art itself. We agreed that the revelation about Forde’s burial calls for a return visit to the RCB to establish when Henry Murrough was buried. Is it possible that Forde was buried under a different name? And what was his association with Henry Murrough? To the Batcav-, I mean, RCB!!!

(This is not the RCB...)

(This is not the RCB…)

Forde, Paper, Angels: Our First Anniversary!

One year ago today, Shane and I had an encounter with a piece of art by a little-known artist that in the intervening period has developed into a fascination and the basis for this project.

On 29 August 2012, having had lunch at the Crawford Café, we wandered through the adjoining sculpture gallery and from beyond the Canova Casts emerged Samuel Forde’s Fall of the Rebel Angels (1828). As we stood before this canvas measuring nearly three metres by two-and-a-half, I provided some of the basic information that I then knew about the work (which, in hindsight, was very little) while Shane became intrigued by how the artist represented his subject (particularly Forde’s depiction of Heaven). We spent the better part of an hour perfectly captivated and thought how interesting it would be to investigate the artist and painting further and maybe even write an article. Famous last words!

At first sight: Samuel Forde's Fall of the Rebel Angels among the Canova Casts, Crawford Art Gallery

At first sight: Samuel Forde’s Fall of the Rebel Angels among the Canova Casts, Crawford Art Gallery

A year on from that day we have certainly come a long way. That original after-lunch musing on a short collaborative work has become The Samuel Forde Project. The project has given us the great experience of working together, bringing our varied knowledge and qualities to the mix and blending our different approaches; a true collaboration! On a personal level it has opened our eyes to the benefits, challenges and pleasures of collaborative research; to be able to share in a common interest and to work towards a common goal.

From our initial meeting with the curator at the Crawford Art Gallery in September, the official start of the project in November, and the launch of this blog in February, we have developed our small idea into a campaign to reclaim Samuel Forde (1805-28) not only in the artistic cannon but also in the public imagination. In this, his 185th anniversary year, we have so far included Forde in the Bealtaine Festival events at the Crawford Art Gallery (where it took the theme of ‘Rebel Angels’ in honour of Forde’s masterpiece), presented a paper focusing on Forde’s literary and artistic influences at University College Cork’s annual Bookends conference, and delivered a free public lecture on Forde and his contemporaries as part of National Heritage Week at Triskel Christchurch.

So where do we go from here? Most immediately, this blog will continue to celebrate all things Forde (and Forde-related); indeed, from public archives to country churches, our next number of blog-posts will focus on the research trips we have conducted this summer. Beyond the electronic world and our own research adventures, we will also be announcing new events for later this year in addition to very exciting developments for 2014!

And so, as a closing note, the first anniversary is usually marked by the gift of paper. Perhaps unbeknownst to him, Samuel Forde has already given us the extraordinary gift of his surviving works, some of which are executed on paper. We hope that he will accept a belated gift of a celebration of him and his great artistry that will be committed to paper in the near future. If ever there was a time to watch this space…

29 August 2013, First ‘Paper’ Anniversary of The Samuel Forde Project

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To learn more about how and where this project began why not return to our very first blog entry: A Chance Encounter… A Project is Born!

Minerva’s Wisdom! Defending the art of Vernon Mount

Earlier this week Shane and I gave a free public lecture on art and patronage in nineteenth-century Cork in which we highlighted the role of the city’s merchant princes in promoting art and supporting artists such as Samuel Forde. Over the course of our lecture – part of the Heritage Week events at Triskel Christchurch – Shane explored the fine houses of the city’s leading families during Cork’s ‘Golden Age’ (c.1780-1830), some of which are now sadly lost or are on the verge of being so. One such house, Vernon Mount, is the subject of a new public lecture series commencing this week.

Vernon Mount

Vernon Mount

Vernon Mount and Sir Henry Browne Hayes

Vernon Mount, a Georgian neoclassical villa which commands one of Cork’s southern hills, was built in the 1780s as a retirement home by Attiwell Hayes, a brewer and Freemason. Hayes subsequently leased Vernon Mount to his eldest son, Sir Henry Browne Hayes, who set about decorating it in a lavish manner. Among the glories of the house are several murals and a rare ceiling canvas by the noted Cork artist Nathaniel Grogan (1740-1807). In 1797, and then a widower, the imprudent Browne Hayes sensationally abducted a local heiress, forced her into a hasty marriage and then fled, becoming an outlaw for two years. He later stood trial for his crime and was transported as a convict to New South Wales in 1802. Nonetheless, in the following year he commenced building Vaucluse House in Sydney. A supporter of Governor William Bligh, Browne Hayes was later pardoned and returned to Ireland, where he died in 1832 and was buried at Christchurch in his native Cork.

Nathaniel Grogan's Minerva throwing away the Spears of War at Vernon Mount

Art at Vernon Mount: Nathaniel Grogan’s Minerva throwing away the Spears of War

Throwing away Grogan’s Minerva

While Sir Henry Browne Hayes’ colourful life story lends Vernon Mount a certain celebrity, its unusual Masonic design quirks coupled with Grogan’s paintings (which remain in situ) make this a true gem of Irish Georgian art and architecture. Today, however, the house exists in a precarious state. Boarded up and a shadow of its former self, in 2008 Vernon Mount was included on the World Monuments Fund‘s 100 Most Endangered Sites Watch List. Along with the house Grogan’s two-hundred-year-old paintings, including Minerva throwing away the Spears of War, are under serious threat of being lost to us. Which begs the questions: how would Grogan feel about us throwing away his Minerva? And what would Minerva, herself, goddess of wisdom, sponsor of the arts and defense, and who adorns Vernon Mount’s ceiling, have to say about this prospect?

The current state of Vernon Mount

The current state of Vernon Mount

Preserving our Heritage

Given that it was once owned by one of Cork’s most affluent families, Vernon Mount holds added significance as it is very likely that a generation of ‘Golden Age’ artists – including Samuel Forde (1805-28), Daniel Maclise (1806-70) and John Hogan (1800-58) – had access to the house and its artistic treasures, as they did other houses such as Woodhill. That house has now been lost to us but, as passionate supporters of our local heritage, we at The Samuel Forde Project are among a growing number who believe that there is still time to save Vernon Mount and to defend its endangered art.

The Vernon Mount Lecture Series is an initiative of the Grange Frankfield Partnership, conducted in association with Cork City Libraries, which aims to highlight aspects of this great house, its history and its significance to Cork, Ireland and, indeed, internationally. The inaugural lecture, entitled “Conservation and Vernon Mount House – can the twain meet?,” will be given by landscape architect and conservationist David Bosonnet on Thursday 22 August at 7pm in Douglas Library.

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View the World Monument Fund’s listing for Vernon Mount (2008) or learn more about this architectural gem at Vernon Mount in Cork.

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Image sources: 1. corkindependent.com, 2. sirhenrybrownehayes.com, 3. archiseek.com, 4. wmf.org

Spirit of genius at Heritage Week

In conjunction with the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, Mike and I are pleased to announce our upcoming National Heritage Week talk, ‘Spirit of genius: art and patronage in nineteenth-century Cork’, to be delivered on 20 August at 1pm in Triskel Christchurch.

While our project is primarily concerned with Forde’s artistic milieu, this talk will look at nineteenth-century Cork’s wider civic and cultural landscape, of which he was a part. In particular, we want to show how the city’s leading families of the time, such as the Penroses, the Sainthills, and the Crawfords, interacted with and nurtured the first generation of students that passed through the Cork School of Art.

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This patron/artist relationship is particularly significant for understanding developments in Cork art and culture of this period, especially the shift from art’s private to public consumption. Long before government funding, Arts councils or advocacy groups, these merchant and political elite acted as private benefactors and supporters for the city’s artistic, architectural and intellectual talent. As such, they left an indelible mark on Cork that reflects both their personal tastes and preserves the best of contemporary creative potential. Although we see this legacy every day, even in the plan of our streets, we often take this contribution to our city’s heritage for granted. So why not join Mike and I as we explore this legacy and what it means for Cork’s heritage!

For further details visit our event page or the Heritage Week website.

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Note: Composite image includes photo of Triskel Christchurch (Michael Waldron), and details from (left to right) Charles Hutton Lear’s Portrait of Daniel Maclise (© National Portrait Gallery, London), Samuel Forde’s Self-portrait (© Crawford Art Gallery, Cork), and Richard James Lane’s Portrait of Richard Sainthill (© National Portrait Gallery, London).

Samuel Forde, 5 April 1805 – 29 June 1828

Today marks the 185th anniversary of Samuel Forde’s death. At just twenty-three, this makes him one of Ireland’s true lost talents. Although his limited portfolio reflects his floruit, it promises what could have been a timeless talent. Quite apart from his technical ability, his engagement with other mediums like literature, and indeed an extant Cork tradition of art, reveals a curious and independent mind unwilling simply to follow the trends and zeitgeists of the day. As that is the focus of our investigation, Mike and I have devoted this post to marking Forde’s memory rather than his work.

Samuel Forde's Self-Portrait (Portrait of the Artist). Image: © Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. Photo: Dara McGrath.

Samuel Forde’s Self-Portrait (1828, oil on board). Image: © Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. Photo: Dara McGrath.

Knowing at twenty-three that death is imminent is something none of us want to imagine, but Forde’s experience has been a primary point of reference for us from the very start. We don’t know exactly when, or indeed where, Forde contracted TB, but he first speaks of his affliction in October 1827. His condition appears to have deteriorated steadily during late 1827 and spring of 1828, to the point where he is seriously debilitated by March and regularly commenting on his weakened state. His awareness of what lay ahead is seen in the fervent burst of energy that saw him complete busts of Milton and Shakespeare for exhibition, recorded in his final diary entry on 17 May. However, the dedication he showed to Fall of the Rebel Angels in his final weeks is nothing short of exemplary; working on the canvas night and day, even painting by candlelight to pin down as much of his vision as he could before he became too weak to continue. His final diary entry reveals a sincere regret at his own mortality, and a disappointment in work to be left unfinished by a life cut short. It remains one of the most poignant things we have ever read.

I am very weak.

For us, these few words capture so much of the human spirit: a drive to create, to realise an ambition even against the ultimate odds, a love for one’s art that exceeds even their care for life itself, and the desire to leave a legacy—to be gone but not forgotten. Yet this has so nearly been Forde’s fate: ‘Fall’ lost for so long, thankfully recovered and restored, his sketches unseen, and his life reduced to snippets from his diary or the observations of contemporaries. The man himself leaves us so little, not even a grave or memorial to tie his life to his legacy. That is why we came to St Fin Barre’s churchyard today to visit the place where Forde would have been laid to rest, and at least mark the life behind his legacy.

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June 29th, feast day of Ss Peter and Paul.

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Rebel Angels: Festival Focus on Forde

On a recent visit to Rome with European Art History students from University College Cork, one of the main attractions on our itinerary was Il Gesú, the Jesuit mother church. In this church there is a side chapel, the Cappella degli Angeli, which is dedicated to the angels. Among its adornments are a series of frescoes and canvases by Federico Zuccari (c.1540/1-1609), one of which depicts the Defeat of the Rebel Angels (below). This rather bright and static example of Mannerist art nonetheless made me think of the virtuoso treatment Samuel Forde (1805-28) gave to the subject in the year of his death. This painting, his final and lasting masterpiece, was recently the focus of an event at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork which not only served to celebrate Forde but also the creativity of all involved.

Zuccari - Defeat of the Rebel Angels (Il Gesu)

The Bealtaine Festival is a national series of events which celebrates creativity as we age. As part of the Crawford Art Gallery‘s contribution to Bealtaine this year, a series of weekly tours and workshops running throughout May has been organised and collected by the gallery’s education officer, Emma Klemencic, under the theme of Rebel Angels. This theme is derived from Samuel Forde’s Fall of the Rebel Angels (1828), one of the highlights of the gallery’s collection, which fittingly became the focus of the opening week of Bealtaine. Located in the ground floor sculpture gallery at the Crawford, Forde’s unfinished masterpiece captivated our Bealtaine group not only through the artist’s tragic story but also through the triumph of his spirit and ambition as evidenced in Fall. Having introduced the little known artist to the group and discussed his monumental composition, we retired to the gallery’s education room for refreshments and a drawing workshop lead by artist Julie Forrester.

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The workshop took its lead from Forde’s compositional handling of light and dark, his strong diagonal emphasis and the thematic delineations between these. Equipped with two types of charcoal and putty erasers – and utilising images of Forde’s preparatory sketches as a guide – the group set to work on creating their own versions of Fall of the Rebel Angels. First working up the areas of dark and light on our pages, we steadily began to articulate and layer tonal variations and to add shades of grey between areas of extreme dark and light. Slowly, winged figures started to emerge from the shadows and the full chaos of the Fall began to unfold in different ways in each of our interpretations. Much like Zuccari differs from Forde, the variety in these only served to highlight the diversity in creativity within our own group of Rebel Angels.

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Getting our hands suitably dirty with the charcoals, it wasn’t long before we had to wrap up our session on Forde, on good and evil, light and dark. To prevent the charcoal from rubbing off the paper we sprayed each completed piece with fixative (hairspray!) and then placed them on the education room wall, less than one hundred metres from Forde’s own work. What was striking about this experience was how quickly we came to appreciate the extraordinary talent, labour and commitment Forde must have had and given in attempting to complete (in oils, not charcoal) his monumental canvas on this theme. Completed close to his and the painting’s 185th anniversary, our works are all derived from his and each speak of our engagement with the young and tragic artist, who was born in this city and died aged just twenty-three. We are all older than he was when he died and yet, through the Bealtaine Festival, we have all had the opportunity to connect with him, be inspired by him and his art, and to embrace and develop our own creativity, irrespective of age.

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17 May 1828

On this day 185 years ago, Samuel Forde made what appears to be his final diary entry. Having spent much of April 1828 engaged in bringing his Fall of the Rebel Angels (oil on canvas, Crawford Art Gallery) toward completion, these final words speak of the increasingly bed-bound artist’s struggle to continue working while succumbing to the fatal effects of tuberculosis.

In the course of the week (always in bed until past the middle of the day) I was enabled to finish the heads of Milton and Shakespeare, and sent them to the exhibition room. I am very weak.

Samuel Forde would die a little over a month later, aged just twenty-three. His poignant final written words carry the immense weight of defeat even as he attended to securing his legacy. In addition to sending these portraits of Milton and Shakespeare (whose current whereabouts are unknown) to be exhibited, in the final months of his life Forde had brought three large-scale paintings to completion – with a fourth (Fall of the Rebel Angels) almost completed – and also committed his own image to canvas in a self-portrait (below). His emphasis on making his name early in 1828 is by the time of this final diary entry supplanted by an attempt at preserving his own memory.

Samuel Forde's Self-Portrait (Portrait of the Artist). Image: © Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. Photo: Dara McGrath.

Samuel Forde’s Self-Portrait (Portrait of the Artist). Image: © Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. Photo: Dara McGrath.

Over the coming months and in collaboration with the Crawford Art Gallery, we at The Samuel Forde Project (that’s Michael and Shane if you don’t already know) are committed to honouring his memory and celebrating his artistic legacy. So watch this space for exciting developments, stories of research trips, trivia and events yet to be announced…!

Michael and Shane

World Art Day: Samuel Forde in Context

To celebrate World Art Day (15 April) we thought we’d do something a little bit different…

As an historical, art historical and literary hybrid, our project’s date range is relatively neat, spanning the length of Irish artist Samuel Forde’s twenty-three-year life from April 1805 to June 1828. Less than half of that life was given over to artistic activity, while Forde’s active career is represented by a still shorter period of three to four years. The wider scope of our project is to explore the artistic and literary cultures that Forde fed out of and, indeed, fed into and while much of that research is yet to be done, here’s a little taster of the artist in context.

John Butts' View of Cork (1755). Image: © Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. Photo: Dara McGrath.

John Butts’ View of Cork (1755). Image: © Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. Photo: Dara McGrath.

Although, as of yet, we know comparatively little of Forde’s early life and influences, native Cork artists James Barry (1741-1806) and Nathaniel Grogan (1740-1807) were active right up until his birth, while Daniel Maclise (1806-70) and John Hogan (1800-58) were his friends and contemporaries. Indeed, Forde studied a collection of Greco-Roman sculptural casts (now housed at the Crawford Art Gallery) alongside Maclise and Hogan in the, then, newly founded Cork School of Art. The creation of these had been supervised by the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822) by order of Pope Pius VII and were unique in Ireland at that time. Beyond his art school studies, Forde is said to have frequented a local church on Carey’s Lane where a fine copy of the Italian Baroque artist Guido Reni’s Crucifixion hung above the altar. From excerpts from his (fabled, possibly lost) diaries, we also know that he was aware of the great artists that preceded him, marveling as he did in February 1828 at a print of the Fates which was then commonly attributed to Michelangelo (1475-1564).

February 25.—Yesterday saw Michael Angelo’s Fate shadowed for the first time—saw a small outline of them nine or ten years ago. I remember I did not think them Fate at all then. Though there is not majesty and terror enough about them, and the conception is certainly not adequate to the dignity of the subject; yet there is enough of power in it to proclaim the author possessed of great requisites in his art, requisites most lamentably wanting now a-days. Compared with this work all that I have done, almost without an exception, appears weak and inefficient, vapoury and unreal—practical, perhaps, but unsubstantial and insipid.—That would never do for me.

From this assessment by Forde we gain a clear insight into the mind of a young and ambitious visual arts practitioner of the early nineteenth century. Laying bare his artistic concerns and ambitions, Forde here subjects his own work to the harshest criticism and yet, it is revealing that he is also unafraid to pass judgment on such an Old Master as Michelangelo. Bridging the gap between the Old and Modern Masters, Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) was a Spanish contemporary of the Irish Forde. Moreover, dying in the same year as Forde (1828), today marks the 185th anniversary of Goya’s own death.

The passing of both of these artists within a few short months of each other and in very different circumstances and locations nonetheless offers a pleasant resonance. Although cut down before he had yet achieved very much, Forde’s small oeuvre attests to his varied interests, including darker subjects such as the crucifixion, the war in heaven and the veiled prophet. Apart from his portraits and nudes, Goya is now well-known for his dark depictions of conflict, both physical and mental.

As a celebration of World Art Day then, considering the great Goya and forgotten Forde together in the wider context of 1828 it is perhaps fitting, by way of a stimulating (and rather striking) comparison, to allow their respective works speak for themselves: Goya’s Fire at Night (1793-4) and Forde’s Fall of the Rebel Angels (1828).*

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*Goya’s Fire at Night (Private Collection) is in the public domain. Forde’s Fall of the Rebel Angels is here shown in detail and low resolution, image © Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (photo: Dara McGrath).

Happy Birthday Samuel Forde!

On this day in 1805 Samuel Forde was born in Cork, Ireland, making this his 208th birthday!

Happy 208th Birthday Samuel Forde!

Happy 208th Birthday Samuel Forde!

Here we are celebrating this auspicious (even frabjous) day with cake and candles! (Although, judging from the picture, Mr Forde clearly has us worn out.)

As of yet, we know comparatively little about Forde’s family and early life… that is, until we can conduct more research at the Cork City Archives and the RCB (Representative Church Body) Library in Dublin. What we do know is that his father, also named Samuel Forde, experienced some difficulties, deserted his family and emigrated to America while the young Samuel was still a child. The artist’s elder brother William was a musician of some talent and supported him in his education. At the age of just thirteen Samuel enrolled in the newly formed Cork School of Art and was set on his artistic vocation.

Samuel Forde's Self-Portrait (Portrait of the Artist). Image: © Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. Photo: Dara McGrath.

Birthday Boy! Samuel Forde’s Self-Portrait (Portrait of the Artist). Image: © Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. Photo: Dara McGrath.

Obviously Forde’s arrival into this world is the most significant event of Friday 5 April 1805 (!), but on the very same day Charles Lamb did happen to write a letter to William Wordsworth and, preparing for its onward journey, the Lewis and Clarke Expedition received a visit from the Mandans of the Missouri River.

Beyond 5 April, here’s what else was happening in the year of Samuel Forde’s birth…

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1805

  • George III was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon I) was Emperor of the French, and Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States
  • the birth of artist Samuel Palmer (27 January) and writer Hans Christian Andersen (2 April)
  • the first Trooping the Colour ceremony was held at Horse Guards Parade in London (4 June)
  • the Lewis and Clarke Expedition sighted the Great Falls of the Missouri River (13 June) and later reached the Pacific Ocean (7 November)
  • the Irish rebel leader Michael Dwyer (Society of the United Irishmen) was transported from Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin to New South Wales, Australia as an unsentenced exile (August)
  • the French forces of Napoleon fought in the Battles of Elchingen, Ulm, Trafalgar, Dürenstein, Schöngrabern, and Austerlitz
  • the British naval fleet led by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated the French and Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October)
  • the death of Horatio Nelson (21 October) at the Battle of Trafalgar aged 47
  • the French and Austrians signed the Peace of Pressburg (26 December)

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The Art of 1805

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The Literature of 1805

  • Charlotte Dacre’s Confessions of the Nun of St Omer
  • Denis Diderot’s Le Neveu de Rameau (Rameau’s Nephew)
  • Maria Edgeworth’s The Modern Griselda
  • Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville’s Le Dernier Homme (The Last Man)
  • Elizabeth Helme’s The Pilgrims of the Cross, or The Chronicles of Christabelle de Mowbray
  • William Henry Ireland’s The Confessions of William Henry Ireland
  • Ellis Cornelia Knight’s Description of Latium, or Campagna di Roma
  • Matthew Gregory Lewis’ The Bravo of Venice
  • Mary Tighe’s Psyche, or The Legend of Love

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Learn more about Samuel Forde

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Click here for more on the year 1805