THE FOGGY DEW 2

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At last, the catalogue for The Foggy Dew is available. Regular readers will know that this exhibition blew my mind when I first saw it at the beginning of 2016.

The catalogue is quite an ingenious production. As well as including shots of the exhibition it gives us an insight into its assembly, somewhat on the lines of those additional features that come on film DVDs. There is also an essay by Ciaran O'Neill, Ussher Lecturer in History at TCD, setting out some of the background.

The exhibition itself ran from 15 January to 21 February 2016 in the RHA. It then went on to the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ballycastle, and the Ballina Arts Centre, Co. Mayo from 16 July to 21 August 2016. I would like to thank the artist and author for permission to use the material below.

Extract from Mick O'Dea's copybook 1970/71

Mick O'Dea is from Ennis, Co. Clare, and his views of 1916 were formed by his environment and particularly the hubris of the national celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1966.

Fortunately he has kept some of his school copybooks from the period and the catalogue gives us some very interesting illustrations from these.

The format of the catalogue is itself reminiscent of one of those special hard cover copy books we had in school, more often than not for science subjects.

Finishing off Britannia

The shot of Mick putting the finishing touches to Britannia gives a good idea of the scale of the project and the materials used in the three dimensional elements of the exhibition. The crudity and anonymity of cardboard was cleverly crafted and, when combined with some excellent bespoke lighting, really hit you for six.

British troops awaiting capitation.

The use of bodies suspended in the air and simulating the after effects of explosions capped the whole thing with a sense of movement.

Daniel O'Connell and friend

Ciaran's essay is great background to both the artist and the events he portrays.

I have two (small) bones to pick with him, however.

My experience of birds on O'Connell's head has been of seagulls and not pigeons and I suspect that the image here is closer to one of the former. I can't speak for what they do in Ennis and, anyway, I don't think my sight would stretch to the elevation down there.

The scene well in advance of the 1916/1966 parade.

Ciaran says that the 1966 celebration parade "marched past the stump of Nelson's column". A very poetic evocation of independence gazing down on shattered empire. Except he does an injustice to both the Defence Forces and the Corpo. There was no stump by then. The scene was as if Nelson had never been there - gone, obliterated.

While Britannia's Huns
with their long range guns
sailed in through the foggy dew.

I'll leave you with this powerful image of Britannia and, hopefully the words of that powerful song ringing in your ears

Gordon Brewster and the 1916 Rising

Gordon Brewster at his desk in Independent Newspapers
Courtesy of the Brewster family

This is the year where everyone drags up whatever connections they can muster to the 1916 Rising and exposes them to the light of day. I don't really have any such connections myself but I would like to avail of the opportunity to remember a forgotten artist who had.

Gordon Brewster vanished from the public consciousness after his sudden death in 1946. Perhaps the fact that his parents and two of his three brothers had died by then and his widow and children lived in England afterwards had something to do with his public oblivion.

And if he has been brought back into the spotlight more recently, through the acquisition by the National Library of Ireland of a collection of originals of some 500 of his cartoons, it is as a cartoonist rather than an artist that he is likely to be recognised.

But Brewster was primarily an artist. He had been trained in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (now NCAD) and in 1916, aged 27, he had exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA).

List of Brewster's exhibits at Royal Hibernian Academy

In fact, he exhibited there in both 1916 and 1917 and his exhibits in both those years were connected with the Rising.

RHA on fire during 1916 Rising
Courtesy of Mick O'Dea, artist.

Unfortunately his 1916 exhibits were destroyed during the Rising as an unmanned rebel barricade close to the RHA premises was shelled by British Forces. In the course of this attack the RHA building, in Lower Abbey Street, was gutted and all 500 exhibits in the annual exhibition, along with much other precious material, were lost.

That was the end of Brewster's The Tavern Fire and The Wayfarer.

Former RHA building as it is today

Francis Johnston's elegant building is now minus its ground floor elegance and hosts a SPAR shop and some CIE offices.

Note on use of shrubbery for cover in
St. Stephen's Green during the Rising
Courtesy of Bureau of Military History

So what about Brewster's 1917 exhibit and its connection to the Rising which was well over by then?

This was a painting of a dead rebel whom he saw in St. Stephen's Green during Easter week.

While the trees and shrubbery in St Stephen's Green gave some initial cover to the rebels, this was devalued when British Forces opened up with machine guns from the Shelbourne Hotel and the rebels had to retreat to the College of Surgeons building. They left one of their dead behind. Brewster came across him and later did a painting of him.

The Dead Rebel was listed in the 1917 RHA exhibition at more than twice the price of his two earlier exhibits which suggests it was a larger canvas.

The Grove, Sutton, where The Dead Rebel hung 1920 - 1946

The Dead Rebel survived that year's exhibition and hung on the wall of his house in Sutton until his sudden death in 1946. I have not been able to trace it and the fear is that it was destroyed in the general clear out after his death.

So what of Brewster's other artistic output?

Irish Peasant Woman,
only known extant painting by Brewster
Courtesy of Dr Margarita Cappock, Hugh Lane Gallery.

At this remove, the only piece I could trace was this portrait of an Irish Peasant Woman which is stored in the Hugh Lane Gallery in Parnell Square.

This painting, along with his having exhibited two years running in the RHA, should copperfasten his reputation as an artist, but I suspect that, of necessity, it will be through his cartoons that his reputation will live on from this point.

I know that, for his descendants, he is primarily Gordon Brewster the artist, and clearly that will remain the case.

There is, however, nothing wrong with being remembered as a cartoonist when your cartoons are of such exceptional quality.

Selfie?
Courtesy of National Library of Ireland

You can read more about Gordon Brewster's life and his cartoons here.

I have also done a talk on him recently on his home ground on the Howth peninsula which was the subject of a dramatic report by O'Brien, here.

Gordon Brewster

With thanks to the National Library of Ireland

With the approach of Bloomsday on Monday next (16/6/2014) I am reminded of Gordon Brewster, who died in my mother's shop on that day in 1946.

I have blogged on the excellent NLI blog about his wonderful cartoons and have set out on my webpage some of his family story based around his gravestone in Kilbarrack cemetery.

I hope to be doing a talk in the National Library in November, based mainly on an introduction to, and an analysis of, his cartoons between 1922 and 1932. This is the period covered by the collection recently acquired by the NLI. It is a very interesting period in the history of the nation, spanning a decade which saw the formation and consolidation of the new state. While the cartoons take a poke at the Irish politicians of the day, mainly those in government, they also deal extensively with British politics and in some cases beyond that. There are quite a few references to Gandhi, for example.

One of the things that distinguishes Brewster from many of the other cartoonists of his day is that he was an actual artist and he exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy. He also became art editor at Independent newspapers.

I had the good fortune to meet his daughter, Dolores, recently. She is a delightful lady, now in her eighties. She is not only full of fun but she has a pile of stories about her father, whom she adored.

The wider family is also of interest. Gordon's father was secretary and then MD of Independent Newspapers and his brother was in charge of the Cork office of that company.

His other brother Richard was killed on the Somme towards the end of WWI and I gather that neither Gordon nor his father ever got over the loss.

Richard Gardiner Brewster, as you will see at the link above, is commemorated on the family gravestone in Kilbarrack though his remains were never recovered from the battlefield. His name also figures on the Pozières Memorial near where he died. But the most dramatic memorial is in St. George's (former) church in Dublin's Hardwicke Place. It is on a panel in a stained glass window devoted to those who fell in WWI. The former church is currently up for letting.

With thanks to Eugene O'Connor