Edward A. McGuire, Irish, 1932-1986
Title: Portrait of Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), Poet
Date: 1974
Medium: Tempera on panel
Dimensions:
31 x 23 cm
Signed: lower right: E McG 1974
Credit Line: Purchased, 1974
Object Number: NGI.4112
DescriptionBorn in Co. Derry, Seamus Heaney obtained a degree from Queen's University, Belfast. In 1972 he moved south, settling first in Ashford, Co. Wicklow. His first collections Wintering Out and North, were published in 1972 and 1976 respectively. During the next twenty years he held teaching posts in Dublin, Belfast and at Berkeley, California. In 1984 he was elected to the Boylston Chair of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard, and served as Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1989-94. Heaney won many literary awards, including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. Like W.B. Yeats, Heaney encouraged an interest in poetry among the general public. The meticulous execution of this portrait of the young poet, typical of McGuire's work, is an exemplar of technical skill. McGuire was known to arrange his colours with scientific accuracy.
Label TextSeamus Heaney’s poetry, often inspired by his rural upbringing and love of classical literature, came to public attention in the 1960s. For much of his career he divided his professional energies between writing and lecturing, and occupied prestigious posts at several universities. He received many accolades, among them the Nobel Prize for Literature (1995), and was elected a Saoi of Aosdána, of which he was a founding member. He was a director of Field Day Theatre Company, and highly respected worldwide as a writer, teacher, thinker, and advocate for human rights.