Table Of ContentBoston hblit lira
ry
Bruce Arnold
was born in London and educated at
Kingham Hill School, Oxfordshire, and Trinity College,
Dublin,wherehetookadegreein ModernLanguages.Heis
currently Literary Editor of the Irish Independent and has
written articles on aspects ofIrish art for a wide range of
publications.
(J^j)
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ART
IRISH
a concise history
REVISED EDITION
Bruce Arnold
179 illustrations, 20 in colour
T&H]
THAMES AND HUDSON
BR BR
N6782
.A8
1977
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Firstpublishedin GreatBritain in ig6g
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5
Contents
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE
The Celtic era
CHAPTER TWO
From the Viking invasion to 1700 37
CHAPTER THREE
The age ofSwift 56
CHAPTER FOUR
Ireland her own 68
CHAPTER FIVE
Landscape into art 93
CHAPTER SIX
The Celtic revival 11
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jack Yeats and the moderns 134
Bibliography 175
Acknowledgments 177
Index 77
1
-
Introduction
There is a widely held fallacy that Ireland's contribution to the art of
the world has been almost exclusively in the realm of the written
word. This book is an attempt to prove otherwise. For example, itis
difficulttosaywhich ofthe two Yeatsbrothers was thegreaterartist,
Jack the painter, or William the poet. The question is answerable in
more thanjust personal terms. The fine early drawings repeatedly
strike echoes in the lyrics of the rhymer. And a great poem like
'Sailing to Byzantium' can almost be taken as a direct comment on
77/. 1 the shadowy world ofa great painting like About to Write a Letter. In
the painting the vision of the artist has become universal and
immensely powerful. Andin thepoem thesamethinghashappened.
The two can strike chords in each other, and it is even possible to
imagine the pensive, hesitant figure in oil paint speaking the lines
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
Andfastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; andgather me
Into the artifice ofeternity.
Yeats the poet was a figure to be reckoned with at the turn ofthe
century. He was a legend in his own lifetime, and while his brother
wasstill only understood andlovedby a small group ofadmirers, the
poetwasregardedasoneofthegreatwritersofthetwentiethcentury.
There has been some change in this state ofaffairs during the last ten
or fifteen years, yet still Jack B. Yeats remains an under-rated and
unexplored artist, and, what is more important from the point of
view ofthis book, he is to a great extent regarded as a unique and
uncharacteristic phenomenon in a country which has little or no
traditionofvisualart, andno artistsinthepastofcomparablestature.
ThevisualartsinIrelandduringtheearlyChristianperiodarewell-
known andjustly celebrated. What is not accepted to anything like
the same extent is the fact that various artistic traditions were
established during the intervening centuries since the golden ages in
Ills. 21-3, which the Book ofKells, the Ardagh Chalice and the Cross ofCong
14,31-2 wei 1 produced, and that these traditions grew, expanded and
4 '
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i jack b. yeats About to Write a Letter
enriched themselves, and ultimately produced artists ofconsiderable
stature. Various forces, however, have operated against the
emergence ofany clear idea ofIrish art, with a character and style of
its own. History has given to most ofthe artists ofthe seventeenth,
eighteenthandnineteenth centuries theunfortunatelabels of'Anglo-
Irish', 'Ascendancy' or 'Plantation'. Many ofthe better Irish artists
havebeenforcedby circumstance, orpersuadedby ambition, to seek
a better fortune in London, and their reclamation here may seem
impertinent. Still others are known by a mere handful ofpaintings,
the majority of their work having been re-attributed, and their
pictures now masquerading in public collections under more illus-
trious names.
In spite ofthe temptations to be greedy about individual artists in
pinning Irish nationality upon them, my first concern has been with
the idea ofan Irish art, developing, changing and enriching itselfin
spite ofhistory rather than because ofit. Artists tend to be the least
patriotic of men, and the question of nationalism is not one with
which they are greatly concerned. Yet in many areas landscape.
topography, portraiture, historical painting, silver, glass, even
architecture-adistinctivenationalstyleandcharacter, adifferenceof
light, a sense ofhistory evolving and ofpeople being involved in it,
are all contributory factors to the overall idea which has been the
mainspring ofthis book.
In a number ofareas it covers ground which has not been touched
on before. While the art of early Christian Ireland has been
extensivelystudiedbyMileFrancoiseHenryandotherscholars, there
is no general history covering either the period since then or any
considerable section of it. Invaluable work has been done on
individualartists, notablybyW. G. StricklandinhisDictionaryofIrish
Artists andby Thomas Bodkin, but their works arehard to comeby,
and, in the case ofthe former, tend to be rather academic in appeal.
Much ofthe other published material is listed in the Bibliography.
I would like to thank the many people who gave me help and
advice in the writing ofthis book.
Revised Edition
It is eight years since the first edition ofthis book appeared. In that
time much new materialhas come to light, particularly covering the
eighteenth century, butalso onotheraspects ofIrishart. Forthemost
part the aim in revising the book has been to put right fact and
emphasiswheretheseareaffectedbynewdiscoveries, andthoughthe
temptation has been there to make wider changes, economic
considerations have confined these. I am particularly grateful to Miss
Ann Crookshank, ofthe FineArt Departmentin Dublin University,
andtoMrTedHickey, oftheArtDepartmentintheUlsterMuseum,
for their practical help and encouragement.
Bruce Arnold
