R.Larkin
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@Graham Hickey wrote:
Maybe you could answer R.Larkin – did John Smyth ever live up to his father’s skill and reputation? Often thought he must have been a hard act to follow 🙂
Who was the finer sculptor of the two do you think? What other work in Ireland is his, as you never hear much about him aside from the GPO and Pro, unlike Edward who crops up everywhere! Thanks.
H.Potterton thinks the son is a better sculptor of church monuments than the father. There are monuments by Smyth in St Patrick’s Cathedral (several),St Werburgh’s, St Ann’s,Dawson St.,St George’s,Hardwick Place (2),Lisburn Cath.,Goresbridge,Co.Kilkenny,Ferns Cath.,Armagh Cath.,Newry (several), andSt Peter’s,Drogheda (2) all C.of I.Some of these monuments are quite accomplished for example the monument to John Ball in St Patrick’s.He had a talent for portraiture evidenced in some of his classical medallion style low reliefs on monuments. The Ascension in the Pro seems to be the most unsatisfying of all his work; I think one would have to see it from above. From the door it seems to get lost.
The freestanding statue of George Ogle M.P. in St Patrick’s Cathedral,though unsigned, is attributed to him. I think this is his most interesting work. He seems to have captured the character of this rather controversial man who also features in Francis Wheatleys painting of the Irish House of Commons.
There is also a signed monument by Smyth in Holy Trinity Church,Newport, Rhode Island.
J.Smyth carved the figures and the tympanum over the College of Surgeons and several busts still in the possession of the college. St Andrew over the church in Westland Row is also attributed to him, the first statue outside a Catholic church since penal times. An uncharacteristic crucifixion at the back of St Michan’s R.C. church is by him. His father had carved a wooden crucifixion for the then chapel in Navan in the 1770’s. This still exists.
The G.P.O. figures have now been replaced by casts. The originals are in the O.P.W. store. One authority has attributed these to Thomas Kirk but most think they were by J.Smyth. The Royal Arms at the entrance to the Kings Inns have been credited to both himself and his father. Since his father died in 1812 it seems more likely that this was the work of the son.
Smyth worked with his father on the carvings of the Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle and completed the work since his father died two years before it was finished. The heads on the rear garden wall of Francis Johnston’s house at 64 Eccles St bear a strong likeness to the heads at the Chapel Royal. One of these heads is George III. John Smyth’s first exhibited work was a bust of George III, A joint work with his father. This house has been discussed on another thread.The low reliefs on the front of the house may be by Smyth. He was master of the R.D.S. modelling school for 24 years. These are fairly weathered at this stage but they strongly resemblre the style of a charming low relief of Venus and Cupid by Smyth in marble, now hanging in the members’ bar of the R.D.S. It forms a pair with a low relief by Thomas Kirk called ‘The Drunken Banditti’!
It happens that where you find Francis Johnston you will also find one of the Smyths. The little church in Goresbridge was also by Johnston. Edward Smyth did a bust of Johnston. Some people believe that the companion bust of Johnston’s wife was by John. These are now in the possession of the Ulster Museum.
J.Smyth did the keystone heads at the bridge et the Four Courts, (Richmond,now O’Donovan Rossa Bridge).These have also suffered from weathering.
John Smyth was commissioned by the Apprentice boys of Derry to carve a statue of Rev. George Walker,hero of the siege. This was mounted on a massive pillar resembling Nelson’s Pillar. It was possible to climb steps within it to the top. It looked out threateningly over the Bogside until it was finally blown up in 1973. The Walker Memorial was the biggest landmark in Derry until that date.
In the past few days I have discovered that Smyth worked on the carving of the Gothic dining room in the neo-Gothic Gosford Castle,Co Armagh. I am trying to establish its condition. It was derelict for some time but I believe some attempts were made to restore it. Anyone know anything about this place? The same architect (Thomas Hopper) did work at Slane Castle and also designed the gothic conservatory at Carlton house. could Smyth have done some stucco at Slane?
Smyth’s descendants continued to work as monumental sculptors based in North Brunswick St. ,later Pearse St, down to the 1930’s. The last member of the family I see mentioned repaired the statue of Liberty over the Bank of Ireland (portico at Westmoreland St. side) in 1946. He restored her rod and cap which had disappeared in 1803. Look for Liberty’s cat at her feet when next you pass. This man was George Edward Smyth, great-great grandson of our Custom house man Edward Smyth. I think he may have lived in Sandymount,off St John’s Rd. towards the end of his life. There must be members of this family still around. It would be very exciting to track them down.@Praxiteles wrote:
The Pro-Cathedral Church of the Conception of the Virgin Mary was built on the site of Lord Annsley’s town house at Marlborough Street and Elephant Lane, which had been acquired by Archbishop Thomas Troy in 1803 for £5,100. The building commenced in 1814 and was completed in November 1825. Plans for a church in the revivalist Greek Doric style, submitted by an architect who signed himself “P”, won the commission. It is accepted that the architect was George Papworth (1781-1855). Born in London, he moved to Ireland in 1806, and won commissions for Grattan Bridge, King’s (Heuston) Bridge (1828), Camolin Park, Wexford (1815), the Dublin Library in D’Olier Street (1818-1820) and Sir Patrick Dunn’s Hospital and was eventually Professor of Architecture in the Royal Hibernian Academy. The Pro-Cathedral contains monuments to Cardinal Paul Cullen and his immediate predecessor Archbishop Daniel Murray by Thomas Farrell. The apse is decorated by an alto-relief of the Ascension by John Smyth. Thomas Kirk (1781-1845) supplied a monument for the Reverend Thomas Clarke: two figures of Religion and Charity bewteen an urn which was his first exhibited work at the Society of Artists (as Piety and Chastity) in 1813. A relief of the Good Shepherd and a monument to William and Anne Byly are also attributed to Kirk. The organ is by the Dublin organbuilder John White. Its present architectural case was build by WIlliam Hill c. 1900. The great artistic treasure of the Pro-Cathedral, however, was the High Altar by Peter Turnerelli (1774-1839). Born in Belfast, Turnerelli had been deeply influenced by Canova (who much admired Turnerelli’s bust of Grattan (1812). From 1798-1803 drawing master to the princesses of George III, he was appointed Sculptor in ordinary in 1801. While his busts of George III, Washington and Wellington (1815), Louis XVIII (1816), Henry Grattan (1812 and Daniel O’Connell (1829) are well known, his master piece was the High Altar of the Pro-Cathedral with its splendidly proportioned mensa, reredos and ciborium. In 1886, rather incongrously, three stained-glass windows were installed behind the High Altar. Archbishop Dermot Ryan introduced a reordering to the Pro-Cathedral in the late 1970s. The architect for the re-ordering was Professor Cathal O’Neill . In an act beggering civilized belief, he demolished Turnerelli’s High Altar and reredos. The praedella of the altar mensa was salvaged and re-used to form a new altar erected on a lower plain in a hum drum extended sanctuary covered with carpet. The neo-classical altar rails were removed. The canopied and dignified neo-classical Throne was dismantled. The pulpit was reduced to the redundancy of a side aisle and a few surviving vestiges of the High Altar scattered about the interior. The Ciborium of Turnerelli’s High Altar was conserved and placed on a squat disproportioned plinth on a lower plain. The result has been the complete loss of the graceful, proportioned, symetrically articulated dimensions of the Apse and of the building itself which now lacks a central focus and suffers from the same focal void as Longford and Thurles. It seem strange that nobody seems to have realized that the High Altar was custom built to a location it occupied for 150 years. Attempts to relieve the focal void by drapery have not been convincing. It is suggested that at the time of the reordering, the significance of the High Altar and its provenance may not have been known to the architect responsible for its demolition. In Irish circumstances, the destruction of such a major work of art may possibly have cultural significance not too dissimilar to the bombing of Monte Cassino or the feuerblitzing of the Frauenkirche in Dresden.
Hi Praxiteles,
Just registered. Wonderful information on the Cathedrals. Many thanks. I wondered whether the image of the sculptor was Turnerelli? For one exciting moment I thought it might be John Smyth (c1773-1840) on whom I am doing M.A. research. As you mentioned he executed the Ascension in the Pro. Have you come across any image of him? I feel that this Ascension is somewhat unsatisfying when viewed from the door. Do you think that the reordering of the sanctuary might have accentuated this impression? Anything on John Smyth from anyone would be most welcome.
R.Larkin
