[Illustration: THE MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF DR DOYLE, BY HOGAN.]
In presenting our readers with a drawing, made expressly for the purpose,
of the Monumental Sculpture intended to memorise the mortal form of an
illustrious Irishman, who was beloved and honoured by the great mass of
his countrymen, and respected for his talents by all, we have done that
which we trust will give as much pleasure to most of our readers, as it
has afforded gratification to ourselves.
This monument is indeed a truly interesting one, whether considered in
reference to its subject--the character of the distinguished individual
whose memory it is designed to honour--the circumstances which have given
it existence--or, lastly, as a work of high art, the production of an
Irishman whose talents reflect lustre on his country. It is, however, in
this last point of view only, that, consistently with the plan originally
laid down for the conduct of our little periodical, we can venture to
treat of it; and considered in this way, we cannot conceive a subject
more worthy of attracting public attention or more legitimately within
the scope of one of the primary objects our Journal was designed to
effect--namely, to make our country, and its people, without reference to
sect or party, more intimately known than they had been previously, not
only to strangers, but even to Irishmen themselves.
In our present object, therefore, of lending our influence, such as it
is, to make the merits of a great Irish artist more thoroughly known
and justly appreciated, by our countrymen in particular, than they have
hitherto been, we are only discharging a duty necessarily imposed upon
us; and the pleasure which we feel in doing so would be great indeed,
if it were not diminished by the saddening reflection that it should
be so necessary in the case of an artist of his eminence. But, alas!
the scriptural adage, that no man is a prophet in his own country, is
unfortunately nowhere so strikingly illustrated as in Ireland, and of
this fact Mr Hogan is a remarkable example. Holding, as he unquestionably
does, a high place among the most eminent sculptors of Europe, he is as
yet unpatronized by the aristocracy of his native country--is indeed
perhaps scarcely known to them.
Mr Hogan is not, as generally supposed, a native of Cork: he was born at
Tallow, in the county of Waterford, in 1800, where his father carried on
the business of a builder. He is of good family, both by the paternal
and maternal sides; his father being of the old Dalcassian tribe of the
O’Hogans, the chiefs of whom were located in the seventeenth century at
Ardcrony, in the county of Tipperary, four miles and a half to the north
of Nenagh, where the remains of their castle and church are still to
be seen. By the mother’s side he is descended from the celebrated Sir
Richard Cox, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in the reign of William and
Mary, and Lord Chancellor in that of Queen Anne, his mother, Frances Cox,
being the great-granddaughter of that eminent individual.
Having received the ordinary school education, he was placed by his
father, in the year 1812, under an attorney in Cork, named Michael
Footte, with a view to his ultimately embracing the legal profession,
and in this situation he remained for two years. This was the most
unhappy period of his existence; for, like Chantrey, the greatest of
British sculptors, who was also articled to an attorney, being endowed
by nature expressly to become an artist, the original bias of his mind
to drawing and carving had by this time become a passion; and despite of
the frequent chastisements his master bestowed on him, in the exuberance
of his zeal to curb what he considered his idle propensities, his whole
soul was given, not to law, but to the Fine Arts, and an artist he became
accordingly. His father and his master seeing the utter uselessness of
any further attempts to divert his mind from its apparently destined
course, he was released from his irksome employment, and at the age of
fourteen entered the office of Mr Deane, now Sir Thomas Deane, of Cork,
as an apprentice, where he was soon employed as a draughtsman and carver
of models, with a view to his becoming ultimately an architect. In Mr
Deane he found a master who had the intellect to enable him to appreciate
his talents, and the good feeling to induce him to encourage them; and
the first use he made of the chisels with which his patron supplied him,
was to produce a carving in wood of a female skeleton the size of life,
on which Dr Woodroffe for a season was able to lecture his pupils, as
if it were, what it actually seems, a real skeleton in form and colour.
Under the instruction of this gentleman Mr Hogan studied anatomy for
several years, during which period he made for his improvement many
carvings in wood of hands and feet, and also essayed his talents on a
figure of Minerva the size of life, which still remains over the entrance
of the Life and Fire Insurance Office in the South Mall.
But though Mr Hogan was thus employed in pursuits congenial to his
tastes, and to a great degree conducive to his future eminence as a
sculptor, the idea of embracing sculpture as a profession did not occur
to him for several years after, nor were the requisite means of study
for that profession provided for the student in Cork at this time. There
was as yet in that city no Academy of Arts or other institution like
those in Dublin, provided, for the use of students, with those objects
which are so essential to the formation of a correct taste in the
higher departments of the Fine Arts, namely, a selection of casts from
the antique statues: and until such subjects for study were acquired,
the efforts of genius, however ardent, in the pursuit of beauty and
excellence, were necessarily blind and fortuitous. Happily, however,
this desideratum was at length supplied in Cork, where a Society for
Promoting the Fine Arts was formed in February 1816; and to this
Society the Prince Regent, in 1818, through the intercession of the
late Marquis of Conyngham and other Irish noblemen who had influence
with him, was induced to present a selection of the finest casts from
the antique statues, which had been sent him as a gift by the Roman
Pontiff, and the value of which the Prince but little appreciated. The
result was not only beyond anything that the most sanguine could have
anticipated in the rapid creation of artists of first-rate excellence,
but also in establishing the fact that among our own countrymen the
finest genius for art abundantly exists, and that it only requires
the requisite objects for study, with encouragement, to develope it.
The presence of these newly acquired treasures of ancient art, which
consisted of one hundred and fifteen subjects selected by Canova, and
cast under his direction, kindled a flame in Mr Hogan’s mind never to
be extinguished but with life, and he immediately applied himself to
their study with his whole heart and soul. Thus occupied he remained
till 1823, surrounded and excited to emulation by the kindred spirits of
Mac Clise, Scottowe, Ford--the glorious Ford!--Buckley the architect,
equally glorious--Keller, his own brother Richard, and many other of
lesser names--many of whom, alas for their own and their country’s fame!
paid the price of their early distinction with their lives. Well may the
people of Cork feel proud of this constellation of youthful genius--a
brighter one was never assembled together in recent times.
The period, however, had now arrived when the eagle wing of Hogan was
to try its strength; and most fortunately for him, an accident at this
time brought to Cork a man more than ordinarily gifted with the power to
assist him in its flight. The person we allude to was the late William
Paulett Carey, an Irishman no less distinguished for his abilities as a
critical writer on works of art, than for his ardent zeal in aiding the
struggles of genius, by making their merit known to the world. In August
1823, this gentleman, on the occasion of paying a visit to the gallery of
the Cork Society, “accidentally saw a small figure of a Torso, carved in
pine timber, which had fallen down under one of the benches. On taking
it up,” to continue Mr Carey’s own interesting narrative, “he was struck
by the correctness and good taste of the design, and the newness of
the execution. He was surprised to find a piece of so much excellence,
apparently fresh from the tool, in a place where the arts had been so
recently introduced, and where he did not expect to meet anything but
the crude essays of uninstructed beginners. On inquiry he was informed
it was the work of a young native of Cork, named Hogan, who had been
apprenticed to the trade of a carpenter under Mr Deane, an eminent
builder, and had at his leisure hours studied from the Papal casts, and
practised carving and modelling with intense application. Hogan was then
at work above stairs, in a small apartment in the Academy. The stranger
immediately paid him a visit, and was astonished at the rich composition
of a _Triumph of Silenus_, consisting of fifteen figures, about fourteen
inches high, designed in an antique style, by this self-taught artist,
and cut in bas-relief, in pine timber. He also saw various studies of
hands and feet; a grand head of an Apostle, of a small size; a copy of
Michael Angelo’s mask; some groups in bas-relief after designs by Barry;
and a female skeleton, the full size, after nature; all cut with delicacy
and beauty, in the same material. A copy of the antique _Silenus_ and
_Satyrs_, in stone, was chiselled with great spirit; and the model of a
Roman soldier, about two feet high, would have done credit to a veteran
sculptor. A number of his drawings in black and white chalks, from the
Papal casts, marked his progressive improvement and sense of ideal
excellence. The defects in his performances were such as are inseparable
from an early stage of untaught study, and were far overbalanced by their
merits. When his work for his master was over for the day, he usually
employed his hours in the evening in these performances. The female
skeleton had been all executed during the long winter nights.”
Becoming thus acquainted with Mr Hogan’s abilities, Mr Carey, with that
surprising prophetic judgment with which he was so eminently gifted,
at once predicted the young sculptor’s future fame, and proclaimed his
genius in every quarter in which he hoped it might prove serviceable to
him. He commenced by writing a series of letters, which were inserted
in the Cork Advertiser, “addressed to the nobility, gentry, and opulent
merchants, entreating them to raise a fund by subscription, to defray the
expense of sending Hogan to Italy, and supporting him there for three
or four years, to afford him the advantages of studying at Rome.” But
for some time these letters proved ineffectual, and would probably have
failed totally in their object but for Mr Carey’s untiring zeal. Acting
under his direction, Mr Hogan was induced to address a letter to that
noble patron of British genius, the late Lord de Tabley, then Sir John
Fleming Leicester, and to send him at the same time two specimens of his
carvings, “as the humble offering of a young self-taught artist.” This
letter, which was backed by one from Mr Carey himself, was responded
to at once in a letter written in the kindest spirit, and which
contained an enclosure of twenty-five pounds as Sir John’s subscription
to the proposed fund. This was the first money actually paid in, and
subscriptions soon followed from others. Through Mr Carey’s enthusiastic
representations, the Royal Irish Institution was induced to contribute
the sum of one hundred pounds, and the Royal Dublin Society to vote
twenty-five pounds for some specimens of his carvings which Mr Hogan
submitted to their notice. These acts of liberality were honourable to
those public bodies; yet, as Mr Carey well observed, it was to Lord de
Tabley’s generosity that Mr Hogan’s gratitude was most due. Here, as he
said, “was a young man of genius in obscurity, and wholly unknown to his
lordship, rescued from adversity in the unpromising morning of life--a
self-taught artist built up to fame and fortune by his munificence--a
torch lighted, which I hope will burn bright for ages, to the honour of
the empire. HOGAN may receive thousands of pounds from future patrons,
but it is to Lord de TABLEY’S timely encouragement that he will be
indebted for every thing.”
The subscriptions collected for Mr Hogan amounted in all to the sum of
two hundred and fifty pounds; and thus provided, he set out for Italy,
visiting London on his way, for the purpose of presenting letters to
Sir Thomas Lawrence and Sir Francis Chantrey, which Lord de Tabley had
given him, in the hope that they would procure him recommendatory letters
from those great artists that would be serviceable to him in Rome. But
these introductions proved of little value to him. Chantrey expressed
regret that he knew no one in the “Eternal City” to whom he could give
him a letter; and though Lawrence kindly gave him an introduction to
the Duchess of Devonshire, that distinguished lady had died a few days
before Mr Hogan reached Rome; “so that,” as Mr Carey remarks, “he found
himself an entire stranger, with little knowledge of the world, without
acquaintance or patron, and incapable of speaking the language, at the
moment of commencing his studies in Italy.”
But the young sculptor, on leaving his native country, was provided by
Lord de Tabley with something more valuable than these letters to British
artists--namely, a commission to execute a statue in marble for him, as
soon as he should think himself qualified by his preparatory studies for
the undertaking.
The statue, which was to launch the young sculptor into professional life
in Italy, was commenced soon after, but was not completed before his
noble patron had paid the debt of nature. Its subject, which is taken
from Gessner’s Death of Abel, is EVE, who shortly after her expulsion
from Paradise picks up a dead bird, which being the first inanimate
creature that she has seen, fills her with emotions of surprise, terror,
and pity. This statue, which is the size of life, and which is of
exquisite beauty, is now at Lord de Tabley’s seat in Cheshire.
While this statue was in progress, Mr Hogan conceived the subject and
completed the model of his second great work--one in which the peculiar
powers of his genius were more fully developed, and on the execution of
which, from peculiar circumstances, he entered with the most excited
enthusiasm. During the first year of his residence at Rome, Mr Hogan
happening to be present at an evening meeting of artists of eminence, the
conversation turned on the difficulty of producing any thing in sculpture
perfectly original; and to Mr Hogan’s astonishment, the celebrated
British sculptor Gibson stated as his opinion that it was impossible
now to imagine an attitude or expression in the human figure which had
not been already appropriated by the great sculptors of antiquity. This
opinion, though coming from one to whom our countryman then looked up,
appeared to him a strange and unsound one, and with the diffidence of
an artist whose powers were as yet untried, he ventured to express his
dissent from it; when Gibson, astonished at his presumption, somewhat
pettishly replied, “Then let us see if _you_ are able to produce such
an original work!” The challenge thus publicly offered could not be
refused by one of Hogan’s temperament; and the young sculptor, stung with
the taunt, lost no time in entering upon a work which was to test his
abilities as an artist, and to rescue his character from the imputation
of vanity and rashness. Under such feelings Mr Hogan toiled day and
night at his work, till he submitted to the artists in whose presence
the challenge had been offered, the result of his labours--his statue
of the Drunken Faun--a work which the great Thorwaldsen pronounced a
miracle of art, and which, if Hogan had never produced another, would
have been alone sufficient to immortalize his name. It is to be regretted
that this figure, which has all the beauty and truth of the antique
sculpture, combined with the most perfect originality, and which Mr Hogan
himself has recently expressed his conviction that it is beyond his
power to excel, should never have been executed in marble; but a cast of
it, presented by Lord de Tabley to the Royal Irish Institution (though
intended by Mr Hogan for the Dublin Society), may still be seen in their
deserted hall.
We have given these, as we trust, not uninteresting details of Mr Hogan’s
early life, at greater length than the limits assigned to our article
can well allow, and we must notice his subsequent career in briefer
terms. Though enrolled now among the resident sculptors in Rome, his
difficulties were not yet over; and in spite of the most enthusiastic
efforts on his part, they might and probably would have been ineffectual
in sustaining him, if no friendly aid had come to his assistance. In two
years after his arrival in Rome, or at the end of the year 1825, Hogan
found himself again in a state of embarrassment, without a commission,
his funds exhausted, or at least reduced to a state inadequate to the
necessary outlay of a sculptor in the purchase of marble, the rent of a
studio, and the payment of living models. For his extrication from these
difficulties he was again indebted to the liberality of Lord de Tabley
and the zeal of his advocate Mr Carey, by whom a second subscription was
collected, chiefly in England, amounting to one hundred and fifty pounds;
of which sum twenty-five pounds was contributed by Lord de Tabley in the
first instance, and twenty-five pounds by the Royal Irish Institution.
Trifling as this amount was, it proved sufficient for its object, and Mr
Hogan was never again necessitated to receive pecuniary assistance from
the public.
He applied himself forthwith to the production of a marble figure
intended for his friend and former master Sir Thomas Deane, but which
when finished his necessities obliged him to dispose of to the present
Lord Powerscourt, and for which he received one hundred pounds, being
barely the cost of the marble and roughing out or boasting. This statue,
which is about half the size of life, is now preserved in Powerscourt
House; and we may remark, that it is the only work of our countryman in
the possession of an Irish nobleman. His next important work was the
exquisite statue of the Dead Christ, now placed beneath the altar of
the Roman Catholic church in Clarendon Street. This work was originally
ordered for a chapel in Cork by the Rev. Mr O’Keeffe; but that gentleman,
on its arrival in Dublin, not being able to raise the funds required for
its payment, permitted Mr Hogan to dispose of it to the clergymen of
Clarendon Street, who paid for it the sum originally stipulated, namely,
four hundred and fifty pounds; and we need scarcely add, that this statue
is one of the most interesting objects of art adorning our metropolitan
city. Mr Hogan subsequently executed a duplicate of this statue, but with
some changes in the design, for the city of Cork; but we regret to have
to add that he has been as yet but very inadequately rewarded for his
labours on that work, a sum of two hundred and thirty-seven pounds being
still due him, and the amount which he has actually received (two hundred
pounds) being barely the cost of the marble and rough workmanship.
The execution of this statue was followed by that of a large sepulchral
monument in _basso relievo_ to the memory of the late Dr Collins, Roman
Catholic Bishop of Cloyne--a figure of Religion holding in her lap a
medallion portrait of the bishop. For this work Mr Hogan was to have
received two hundred pounds, but there is still a balance of thirty
pounds due to him.
We next find Mr Hogan engaged on a second work for our city--the _Pieta_,
or figures of the Virgin and the Redeemer, of colossal size, executed in
plaster for the Rev. Dr Flanagan, Roman Catholic Rector of the chapel in
Francis Street, which it now adorns. Of this work, an engraving, with a
masterly description and eulogium from the pen of the Marchese Melchiori,
a great authority in matters of critical taste in the fine arts, has
been published in the _Ape Italiana_--a work of the highest authority,
published monthly in Rome; and we should state for the honour of our
country, that our own Hogan and the sculptor Gibson are the only British
artists whose works have as yet found a place in it.
Mr Hogan’s subsequent works, exclusive of a number of busts, may now
be briefly enumerated. First, a marble figure of the late Archbishop
of Paris, about two and a half feet high, executed for the Lord de
Clifford; second, the Judgment of Paris--two figures in marble about the
same height as the last--for General Sir James Riall, an Irish baronet
resident in Bath; third, a monumental _alto relievo_ to the memory of
Miss Farrell of Dublin, executed for her mother, and considered by
Gibson as the best of all our sculptor’s works; fourth, a _Genio_ on a
sarcophagus, a monument for the family of the late Mr Murphy of Cork;
and, lastly, the Monument to Dr Doyle, on which we have now to utter a
few remarks.
Of the general design of this noble monument our prefixed illustration
will afford a tolerably correct idea; but it would require more than one
illustration of this kind to convey an adequate notion of its various
beauties and merits, for there is scarcely a point in which it can be
viewed in which it is not equally effective and striking. The subject,
as a sculptural one should be, is of the most extreme simplicity, and
yet of the most impressive interest--a Christian prelate in the act of
offering up a last appeal to heaven for the regeneration of his country,
which is personified by a beautiful female figure, who is represented in
an attitude of dejection at his side. In this combination of the real and
the allegorical there is nothing obscure or unintelligible even to the
most illiterate mind. In the figure of the prostrate female we recognise
at a glance the attributes of our country, and there existed no necessity
for the name “Erin,” inserted in very questionable taste upon her zone,
to determine her character. She is represented as resting on one knee,
her body bent and humbled, yet in her majestic form retaining a fullness
of beauty and dignity of character; her turret-crowned head resting on
one arm, while the other, with an expression of melancholy abandonment,
reclines on and sustains her ancient harp. In the male figure which
stands beside her in an attitude of the most unaffected grace and
dignity, we see a personification of the sublime in the Episcopal
character. He stands erect, his enthusiastic and deeply intellectual
countenance directed upwards imploringly, while with one hand he touches
with delicate affection his earthly mistress, and with the other,
stretched forth with passionate devotion, he appeals to heaven for her
protection. This is true and enduring poetry; and, as expressive of the
sentiment of religious patriotism unalloyed by any selfish consideration,
is far superior to the thought which Moore has so exquisitely expressed
in the well-known lines--
“In my last humble prayer to the spirit above,
Thy name shall be mingled with mine!”
Such is the touching poetical sentiment embodied in this work, which,
considered merely as a work of art, has merits above all praise.
In the beauty of its forms, its classical purity of design, its
simplicity and freedom from affectation or mannerism, its exquisite
finish and characteristic execution, and its pervading grace, truth,
and naturalness, it is beyond question the finest production of art in
monumental sculpture that Irish genius has hitherto achieved; and, taken
all and all, is, as we honestly believe, without a rival in any work of
the same class in the British empire.
We regret to have to state that Mr Hogan is, as we are informed, as yet
unpaid for this great national work, or that at least there is more than
a moiety of the sum agreed for, which was one thousand pounds, remaining
due to him. But surely his country, which has the deepest interest in
sustaining him in his career of glory, will not suffer him to depart from
her shores without fulfilling her part of a compact with one who has so
nobly completed his. We cannot believe it.
It will be seen by a retrospective glance at the details which we have
given of Mr Hogan’s labours during the past seventeen years in which
he has been toiling as a professional artist, that those labours have
been any thing but commensurately rewarded; they have indeed been barely
sufficient to enable him to sustain existence. But brighter prospects
are opening upon him for the future. His character as a sculptor is now
established beyond the possibility of controversy. His merits have been
recently recognised and honoured by the highest tribunal in the City of
the Arts with a tribute of approbation never before bestowed on a native
of the British Isles: he has been elected unanimously, and without any
solicitation or anticipation on his part, a member of the oldest Academy
of the Fine Arts in Europe--that which enrolled amongst its members the
divine Raphael, and all the other illustrious artists of the age of
Leo, and which holds its meetings upon their graves--the Academy of the
Virtuosi del Pantheon. His fellow-countrymen are also beginning to have a
just appreciation of his merits, and are coming forward nobly to supply
him with employment for future years; and when he returns to his Roman
studio, it will be to labour on works worthy of his country’s liberality,
and calculated to raise her fame amongst the civilized nations of the
world. Need we add, that he has our most ardent wishes for his future
success and happiness!