Native Genius Reaffirmed Nineteenth-century Irish Sculpture Paula Murphy

Paula Murphy, the leading expert on Irish sculpture, offers an extensive survey of the history of sculpture in Ireland in the nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on the large public works produced during the Victorian period. The works of such major figures as Patrick MacDowell, John Henry Foley, Thomas Kirk and Thomas Farrell are discussed - as well as works by a host of lesser-known sculptors. Lavishly illustrated, the book covers the work of many Irish sculptors who worked abroad, particularly in London, and the work of English sculptors, including John Flaxman, Francis Chantrey, E. H. Baily, and Richard Westmacott, who worked in Ireland. Murphy makes extensive use of contemporary documentation, much of it from newspapers, to present the sculptors and their work in the religious and political context of their time.

Paula Murphy is a Senior Lecturer in Art History at University College Dublin. She is the leading expert on Irish sculpture, and the editor of the sculpture volume for the Royal Irish Academy Art and Architecture of Ireland project, forthcoming from Yale University Press.

"Murphy’s book is beautifully produced and sensibly organised…this is going to be a standard text on the subject for many years." -Fintan Cullen, Irish Times

"Paula Murphy’s handsome volume gives a comprehensive account of Ireland’s many monuments, statues and busts." -John Sankey, Victorian Web

"Murphy’s narrative is fluent and accessible." -Sorcha Coleman, Irish Examiner

"Well-researched and engagingly written book." -Philip Ward-Jackson, Burlington Magazine

"The book is beautifully illustrated, cleverly deploying early photographs of Dublin to demonstrate the original effect that monuments had……Murphy has the rare ability to write well about sculpture – with feeling and descriptive verve, but also with an acute awareness of historical context and commendable critical distance."—William Laffan, The Victorian

"An extensive and erudite account…..This is a really fine book, and published to the impeccable standards we expect from Yale University Press – clearly laid out and amply illustrated with well integrated photographs and archival material."—Paul Harron, Perspective

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