Patrick Joseph Tuohy, Irish, 1894-1930
Title: Portrait of James Stephens (1883-1951), Poet and Novelist
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
112 x 87 cm
Signed: lower left: Tuohy
Credit Line: Purchased, 1945
Object Number: NGI.1126
DescriptionJames Stephens, born into hardship in Dublin, published his first short story in 1905, in Arthur Griffith’s nationalist newspaper the United Irishman (renamed Sinn Féin later that year), and subsequently contributed poems, essays and propaganda to that journal. With the publication in 1908 of Where the Demons Grin, a collection of visionary poems, he became associated with the Irish literary revival and acquainted with many of its principal personalities. He was one of the founders of the Irish Review, a periodical that promoted the Irish arts, and in 1912 published his first novel The Charwoman’s Daughter. This was followed later that year by The Crock of Gold, his most popular book. In 1915, while living in Paris, Stephens was controversially appointed Clerk at the National Gallery of Ireland, and subsequently became Registrar. With his Reincarnations (1918), translations of the poems of three Gaelic poets, and the novel Deirdre (1923), based on the legend of Tristan and Isolda, Stephens continued to introduce Irish culture to an English-speaking audience. He moved to London in 1925, where he remained for the rest of his life, mixing in literary circles, and focussing on lecture tours in England and the United States, and broadcasting.
ProvenancePurchased, Miss Bride Tuohy, 1945
Exhibition HistoryExhibition, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island; Boston; National Gallery, Ottawa, Canada, 1950
Ierse schilders der 19e en 20e eeuw, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1951
W.B. Yeats. A Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1965
Ireland's Literary Renaissance, 20th Century Portraits, Chicago, September 1980
Ierse schilders der 19e en 20e eeuw, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1951
W.B. Yeats. A Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1965
Ireland's Literary Renaissance, 20th Century Portraits, Chicago, September 1980