Clúdach: Cover

A year ago, in the Autumn 2016 issue, New Hibernia Review had the pleasure of presenting a suite of ekphrastic poems by Belfast’s Frank Ormsby written in response to the works of Irish Impressionist painters; one “Pursuing His Gentle Calling,” spoke in the voice of artist Joseph Malachy Kavanagh. With this issue, we have the further pleasure of presenting one of Kavanagh’s paintings, Woodland Pastures, on our cover—continuing our series of nineteenth-century works representing animals that are to be found in the rich collections of the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. Woodland Pastures was painted c. 1890, and is an oil on board work measuring 35.6 cm × 25.1 cm.

Kavanagh (1856–1918) was born in Dublin, and was a noteworthy prodigy. He had a painting accepted into the Royal Hibernia Academy’s annual show at age twelve, and in the same year he won the silver medal in the Royal Dublin Society Christmas competition. Kavanagh went on to study at the Metropolitan School of Art from 1877 to 1878, where he became friends with the Irish artists Nathaniel Hill, Roderic O’Connor, and especially Walter Osborne, with whom he is frequently discussed. In the 1880s, Kavanagh, Osborne, and Hill studied in Antwerp under Charles Verlat; later, he traveled to Brittany with Osborne, becoming part of the colony of Irish artists there, with a particular focus on landscapes. After returning to Ireland, Kavanagh settled in Clontarf, where he painted many scenes of Dublin and its surrounding areas. A prolific painter, much of his work was tragically destroyed when the RHA’s premises on Abbey Street were burned during the 1916 Rising.

The Crawford Art Gallery is one of the cultural jewels of Cork City. The permanent collection comprises almost 4,000 works, ranging from eighteenth-century Irish and European painting and sculpture to cutting-edge contemporary work. At the heart of the collection is a collection of Greek and Roman sculpture casts brought to Cork in 1818 from the Vatican Museum in Rome. Through its permanent and its temporary exhibitions, publications, and education programs, the Crawford Art Gallery is committed to fostering recognition, critical assessment, and acknowledgment of historical and contemporary Irish and international art practice.

We thank the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, for kind permission to reproduce this work, and hope that many of our readers will visit the gallery when traveling in Ireland.