Patrick MacDowell
, Irish, 1799-1870
Title
A Girl ReadingDate1837
MediumMarble
Dimensions
141 x 52 x 62 cm
SignedMAC.DOWELL SCULPT 1838
Credit LinePurchased, 1980
Object numberNGI.8250
DescriptionContemplative subjects of this kind were popular in Victorian Britain, and Macdowell, one of the most accomplished Irish sculptors of his generation, returned to them many times during his career. Success came to him relatively late, when works like A Girl Reading, exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1838, received appropriately serious and positive recognition. The collector who first purchased this work, J. Emerson Tennent, became a significant patron and champion of the artist. Macdowell subsequently undertook some significant public commissions, including the continent group Europe for the Albert Memorial in London. His compatriots John Henry Foley and John Lawlor also contributed to that high-profile monument. Macdowell, who settled in London in 1811, brings all his creative sensitivity and understanding of his media to bear on this elegant, classically inspired sculpture. The gentleness of the girl’s expression and the delicate finish of the drapery are particularly impressive. The work was highly praised when shown at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855. The versatility of figurative sculpture and the hardiness of marble are borne out by the fact that before being acquired by the Gallery, this work stood for many years in a garden in County Limerick.
March 2016
ProvenanceExecuted for T. Wentworth Beaumont, M.P., the statue has been in a garden in County Limerick; purchased, Private Collection, Limerick, July 1980 Exhibition HistoryRoyal Academy of Arts, London, 1838
Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1843
Recent Acquisitions 1980-1981, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 5 August - 27 September 1981
Label TextContemplative subjects of this kind were popular in Victorian Britain, and MacDowell, one of the most accomplished Irish sculptors of his generation, who settled in London in 1811, returned to them many times during his career. Success came to him relatively late, when works like A Girl Reading, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837, received appropriately serious and positive recognition. MacDowell subsequently undertook some significant public commissions, including the continent group Europe for the Albert Memorial in London. His compatriots John Henry Foley and John Lawlor also contributed to that high-profile monument.