Terence Farrell, Sculptor

Irish Arts Review

Terence Farrell, SculptorAuthor(s): Paula MurphySource: Irish Arts Review Yearbook, (1991/1992), pp. 73-79Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20492670 .

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW

TERENCE FARRELL, SCULPTOR

I rish sculpture in the nineteenth century is usually presented as having been

dominated by the work of two men, John Hogan and John Henry Foley, both of whom worked outside the country, the former creating his best work in Rome and the latter working in London. Their escape from insularity, added to their talent, gives them a certain superiority over the local sculptors. However, this is to ignore the talent and achievements of the sculptors who remained in Ireland through the century, notably the Kirk and Farrell families. This is the first of two art icles devoted to the Farrell family, and in particular to aspects of the life and career of Terence Farrell and his son, Sir Thomas Farrell. There can be no question that Thomas was the more prominent of the two, with an extensive and very public career. However, Terence, largely over shadowed today by his son's fame in the se cond half of the nineteenth century, was a sculptor of considerable merit in his own right and head of a family sculpture yard, with all of his six sons following his profession.

Terence Farrell' was born in 1798 into a Roman Catholic family in the townland of Creve, two miles outside Longford town. He trained as a sculptor in Dublin,

working as both pupil and assistant in the studio of Thomas Kirk, (1781-1845), who had an established practice, carving por trait busts, ideal works and monumental statuary. Farrell's first exhibited work at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1826, a

miniature bust of George IV, was directly connected to work current in the studio Sketches and plaster models of the king would have been plentiful, as Kirk was working on two commissioned portraits of the king.

On 1st August 1819, at the age of twen ty one, Terence Farrell married Maria

Ruxton2. The couple lived on the south side of the River Liffey, in the Parish of St Bride, a market area of the city, and a poor residential quarter, where it seems likely that home and studio were one. This becomes even more probable with the knowledge that all of their sons3 became sculptors. One imagines them as children learning while they played in the work shop and handling both the sculptor's tools and materials from infancy. As Farrell became established, he moved to the north side of the city to join the

majority of sculpture-yards, opening a premises in Lower Mecklenburgh Street4

Paula Murphy discusses the work of Terence Farrell, the nineteenth century Dublin

sculptor, of merit in his own right and father of six sculptors, including the more famous

Sir Thomas Farrell.

Terence Farrell, Bartholomew Lloyd, D.D., Provost of Trinity College, Dublin.

Carved from life in 1836. Miniature (hit 22 cm.) bust. Collection ofjohn Gilmartin, Dublin.

in 1841. The Farrell family workshop would remain in this area until the family died out, moving only from Lower Meck

lenburgh Street to North Gloucester Street Lower' in 1851.

In 1834, a firm of monumental sculp tors, called the Glasnevin Marble Works, Farrell and Son, opened at the gates of the new cemetery. It has traditionally been assumed that Terence Farrell established this sculpture-yard. However, although

Terence and his sons were commissioned on occasion to carve tomb monuments, this firm was set up by another branch of the Farrell family, probably Terence's

brother, who had been working in Dublin as a stone-cutter. 6

Through the 1830s Farrell was establish

ing a reputation as a portrait sculptor, ex

hibiting a number of commissioned busts at the Royal Hibernian Academy each

year, and working often on miniature rather than full-sized busts. An excellent

example of Farrell's miniature bust por traiture is the likeness of Bartholomew Lloyd, DD, Provost of Trinity College, (Collection of John Gilmartin, Dublin), carved from life in 1836. This tiny herm like classical portrait reveals a deftness of handling and an attempt to convey character. Interestingly, Thomas Kirk was working on a full-size marble bust of Lloyd at the same time.

Although Farrell's practice was largely restricted to bust portraiture, he also had the experience of training his two eldest sons, James and Joseph, and when the post of Master of the Modelling School became vacant in 1840 on the death of John Smith, Terence, then aged forty two, applied for the job. The other ap plicants were Constantine Panormo, John Gallagher, and William Smith; this last, the eldest son of John Smith had at tended the Modelling School and trained

with his father. Gallagher and Panormo had the more extensive experience, both having been distinguished pupils at the Royal Dublin Society Schools and with subsequent study periods in London and Rome. Panormo was the successful appli cant, which must have been a disappoint

ment to Farrell. However, it is interesting to note that, although Panormo succeed ed at this stage, it was Terence, amongst the four applicants, who was to enjoy the

most successful career. Gallagher and Smith, of whom nothing is known after the 1840s, went to London, where they did little to distinguish themselves. Panormo died in 1852.

By the end of the 1830s, Farrell's two eldest sons, James and Joseph, were already working in the sculpture-yard, both independently and in collaboration with their father. A Bust of the Late Dean Dawson, exhibited at the Royal Hiber nian Academy in 1842, and entered under the names of both Terence and James reveals this collaboration. Terence Farrell did several studies and carvings of Dean Dawson, who had died in 1840, and at that same exhibition he showed a design for a marble statue of the late Dean of St. Patrick's. Farrell was competing here for the commission for a monumental statue

which was to be placed in the Cathedral. This would have been prestigious recogni tion, at this stage in his career. However, it was difficult for a sculptor of miniature

busts to convince patrons that he could work on a monumental scale and the com mission went instead to E H Baily, an

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acknowledged master in this area. Farrell did, however, carve the Dean's memorial tablet in the church at Castlecomer, Co.

Kilkenny, and it is probable that the wall tablet in St. Patrick's is also his work.

These were not Farrell's first commissions for memorials. Earlier examples, fre quently including a miniature profile bust, can be seen in other churches in Dublin, such as the memorial to Father Kenrick, PP, in the Church of St. Nicholas of Myra in Francis Street.

Having restricted the sculptural ex perience of his two eldest sons to his own workshop, Terence Farrell decided to send his third son, Thomas, to the Modelling School in 1842. There are a number of possible reasons for this, none of which can have been financial, since in the 1840s instruction at the Modelling School was free for all students. It may be that Thomas was the first of his sons to display sufficient talent to be accepted in to the school, and with James and Joseph

working in the studio there was not the same need for him to join the family shop.

Thomas was also a prize-winner at the Royal Irish Art Union, where his eldest brother James won the First Premium in 1845 for a work entitled The Pet Dove's Return.

Terence Farrell continued to exhibit bust portraits at the Royal Hibernian Academy through the 1840s, with the ma jority of his patrons either members of the clergy (both Catholic and Protestant), or

members of the nobility, one of whom was Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey, Lord Lieu tenant of Ireland between the years of 1841 and 1844. In his official capacity de

Grey commissioned a bust from Farrell early in the decade. Farrell's introduction to the Lord Lieutenant may have come through Thomas Kirk, who carved two ideal works for de Grey between 1841 and 1843. The contact between the Earl and Terence Farrell was particularly fortuitous as de Grey's recognition of the talent of this Irish sculptor soon led to further

English patronage. De Grey left a description of Terence

Farrell's character,7 indicating that, when he offered him work, Farrell was in such poor financial circumstances that it seemed almost a charity to employ him. He found him clever, modest and unob trusive. De Grey described a man who was clearly not a self-publicist, a man who would hardly seek commissions, but who rather had to be sought out. Farrell was in

Terence Farrell, Father Kenrick, P.P. Died 1827. Memorial tablet in Church of St. Nicholas of Myra, Francis Street, Dublin.

~~~> "

Terence Farrell, Monument to the Very Revd Henry Richard Dawson, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. Died 1840. Castlecomer Parish Church, Co. Kilkenny.

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his early forties when he met de Grey, by which time he had been in receipt of a steady stream of commissions for portrait busts over a period of nearly twenty years. This cannot have been particularly pro fitable if his financial circumstances were such that they merited comment by the Earl. Farrell was certainly in the happy position where he did not have the finan cial responsibility of regular wages to assistants in the work-shop, because his sons worked with him. There would also have been a considerable saving in the running of a family sculpture-yard, rather than several individual premises. This did

mean, however, that the commissions they received had to provide a living for the whole family. De Grey's observations reveal that it was not much of a living.

De Grey was so impressed with this gen tle and diffident, but clearly experienced,

man that he commissioned statues from him for the garden at Wrest Park, in spite of the fact that the only sculptural work he had seen by Farrell was his bust por traiture. He had been searching for ap propriate garden statuary for some time.

'I looked through London for certain objects which I required. I not only searched through all London, but had inquiries also

made in various places abroad, but without success. Since I came to Dublin I have met

with what I wanted; and am now to be supplied with it, by a modest, unassuming, diffident man of the name of Farrell,... This artist has shown taste and talent, which have met with my fullest wishes.'8

Wrest Park, built in 1834-36, was com pletely French in style and fittingly ac companied by a formal garden, decorated with several pavilions and much statuary. The garden front of the house opened onto a terrace from which steps led down to the parterre and it was for these two areas, close to the house, that Farrell's work was required. The commission com prised two sculptural groups of children: Children with a Dog and Children with a Goat, and two separate groups of in dividual male figures, four representing the seasons and a further four repre senting the elements.9 The groups of children and animals were awarded First Premium in the category 'Modelling in Clay or Plaster' at the Royal Irish Art Union in 1844.'0 This type of sculptural group was very popular in nineteenth cen tury Irish art, with several sculptors ex

ploring the theme, the source of which ultimately derives from antiquity.

'CK

Terence Farrell, Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1841-44. Marble bust.

Royal Dublin Society, Dublin.

Farrell's two groups, with their mytho logical, pastoral and genre reference, were situated on a low wall at either end of the terrace, close to the steps leading to the parterre. It was in the parterre that his re maining works were to be found, position ed on pedestals, at the extremities of the flower-beds. The figures representing the elements were placed closest to the house, while the seasons were positioned at the opposite end of the beds. These naked youths were described by W. Treacher in 1899, with an indication of the various sympols used by the sculptor: 'Fire, by a boy with a poker; Air, by a boy with a bird;

Water, by another pouring from a vessel; and Earth, by a boy turning it with a spade; Spring, by a lamb over a boy's shoulder; Summer, by a basket of grapes; Autumn, by a boy carrying a wheatsheaf; and Winter, by the mantle covering the figure." Treacher has confused the symbols of Summer and Autumn, as Summer would surely have been represented with a

wheatsheaf, while Autumn carried the basket of grapes.

When de Grey resigned his position as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1844 for health reasons, the Royal Dublin Society deemed it proper to commission for their premises a marble bust of the Earl, the former chairman of the Society. Terence Farrell had earlier modelled the Earl's

head in clay at the request of the Countess de Grey. This clay model was considered a successful likeness, and the Society, anxious to commission the bust from Far rell, as he was considered the Earl's per sonal discovery, chose to have this model carved in marble.12 The bust, which is a lively portrait revealing a gentle person,

was highly praised both by the Society and later when it was exhibited at the Dublin Exhibition in 1853.

De Grey was instrumental in promoting the Farrell name, and stated in the book that he had taken 'opportunities of men tioning him. He got into repute, and I believe has had much employment, in dependent of his work for me'."3 One such commission received by Farrell in this period was a wall monument to the first Baron Vivian of Truro, to be placed in St. Mary's Parish Church in Truro."4 The Baron, Sir Richard Hussey Vivian, once Commander of the Forces in Ireland, had died in 1842, and is commemorated by a simple white marble monument support ing a portrait bust, and accompanied by

winged cherubs. Farrell was much occupied with work

for Earl de Grey during the 1840s and a gap of five years during which he did not exhibit at the Royal Hibernian Academy probably reflects this. It was at this time that he also became involved with The Society of Irish Artists, an insular body founded in 1842. He exhibited at the Society's first exhibition in 1843. This was to be a platform for Irish artists only, unlike the Royal Hibernian Academy which accepted work submitted by English artists as well. According to Strickland, the Society was established 'for the protection of the interests of their (the artists') profession, for the encour agement of Irish art, and for the avowed and determined purpose of refuting the aspersions cast upon Irish artists by English critics'.'5 This seems an unlikely association for an artist whose career was to develop greatly as a result of recogni tion by an Englishman. It must be assum ed, therefore, that Farrell had committed himself to the group before being in troduced to the Earl. The Society was an early manifestation of the nationalism that would become more apparent in the Irish art world as the century progressed.

On this occasion such nationalism was short-lived, with Farrell appointed audit or in the year of its demise, 1849.

In 1851 Terence Farrell was made an

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associate member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, and in the same year the Farrell sculpture-yard moved from Lower Meck lenburgh Street to North Gloucester Street Lower. Although the new premises was not very far from the old one, only one street away, this may, nonetheless, be an indication of both a new prosperity and a need for more working space, with the young Thomas now trying to establish himself. His subsequent success, in 1853, in the competition for the monument to

Archbishop Daniel Murray, a very signifi cant commission, was evidence of his in creasing artistic independence. Michael, the second youngest of the boys, was at tending the Modelling School. A prize

winner at the School in 1852,16 he must have appeared to be following in his brother, Thomas's, foot-steps. Such hopes were cut short when he died in 1855, aged only twenty. The youngest boy, William, must still have been at the learning stage, perhaps also at the Modelling School.17 It would be 1860 before he exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy. The three remaining brothers, James, Joseph and John continued to exhibit occasionally at the Academy. Their work was mainly religious or ideal sculpture. They did not have the talent to create separate careers for themselves in the way that Thomas was doing, but they did receive individual commissions and must also have been im portant assistants to their father, who was having to deal with more numerous and more varied commissions as a result of his connection with Earl de Grey.

Two such commissions for Terence Farrell in the early 1850s, both tomb mon uments, were exhibited in model form in the Great Industrial and Art Exhibition in Dublin in 1853. The first of these was to commemorate Henrietta Frances, wife of Earl de Grey, who had died in 1848. Far rell executed a deeply emotional relief

monument for the de Grey Mausoleum in the Church of St. John the Baptist at Flit ton in Bedfordshire. This is a large wall

monument incorporating many figures in both very high and very shallow relief. The strong linear quality of the carving enables a clear reading of the work. Dif fering emotions are conveyed in the upper and lower registers. Earthly and profound grief is portrayed in the lower section where the family are presented in sor rowful mourning, with the Earl standing behind the draped coffin and the two daughters weeping helplessly over it. To

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kt WK- '.lt\ -

A~~~~~~~ttA

Terence Farrell, Monument to Henrietta Frances, Countess de Grey. Died 1848. Church of St. John the Baptist, Flitton, Bedfordshire.

Terence Farrell, Memorial to the dead of the China War, 1840-42. St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.

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Terence Farrell, Memorial Statue to John Willoughby (Cole), 2nd Earl of Enniskillen. Died 1840.

St. MacCartan's Cathedral, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh.

Terence Farrell, Memorial statue to General Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole. Died 1842.

St. MacCartan's Cathedral, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh.

the right a seated group of mother and two daughters symbolises the Countess in life. The upper section presents a more joyous spiritual scene, the flight of the soul, with the Countess, on a sea of clouds, lifted heavenwards by an angel. This scheme shows an awareness of earlier nineteenth century English tomb monuments, where sculptors like John Flaxman had made use of such a soaring figure.

The second of the models exhibited by Farrell in 1853, represented a commission by the 18th Royal Irish Regiment for a memorial for St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, commemorating the dead of the China War,'8 and illustrating the death of Colonel Tomlinson, which took place at Chappoo in 1842. In this quiet, calm and dutiful relief scene, Farrell has at tempted to contrast life and death, action and emotion. In keeping with the dedica

tion on the monument, he included the different types of soldier in the regiment, with Tomlinson positioned in the manner of a dead Christ across the foreground.

This relief scene is the central focus of an elaborate memorial to the dead of the

China War, and is flanked by a similar commemorative work to the dead of the Burma War."9 Both monuments, in the north transept of the Cathedral, are similar in all details except for the central relief scenes. In the Burma War Mon ument the scene commemorated is The Storming of the Shoe Dagon Pagoda, Rangoon, 14 April 1852. This relief is quite different in composition to that of Tomlinson, where the death of an in dividual is the focus of the work, a limited number of large figures are present and, while the relief is very high, the space is restricted. To illustrate the storming of

the Pagoda, a greater spaciousness was re quired and a larger number of figures. Therefore, the soldiers are quite small, disappearing in the distance into a serried line of helmets and the setting, natural and architectural, is more detailed.

Only the Tomlinson relief is signed by Terence Farrell, but the whole memorial is probably the work of the Farrell sculpture-yard. The differences between the two reliefs are the result of subject

matter rather than style. They have a number of similarities, such as the careful attention to composition, which results in a certain staginess, and the generalized carving style. They also both reveal an academic dryness, which may be the result of the remoteness of the subject from the sculptor's experience. The Stor

ming of the Pagoda, for example, conveys no sense of urgency or action.

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Still benefitting from the de Grey patronage, Terence Farrell received com missions for portrait statues for the town of Enniskillen during the 1850s: a monumental statue of General Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, Commander of the 27th Regiment in the Peninsular War,

which was to be placed on the column in Forthill Park, and a statue of John

Willoughby (Cole), 2nd Earl of En niskillen for the Anglican Cathedral of St. MacCartan. The de Grey connection in this instance was through his late wife,

Henrietta Frances Cole, daughter of the 1st Earl of Enniskillen. The two men to be commemorated were her brothers.

General Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, who died in 1842 at the age of seventy, is por trayed leaning on his sword and holding his cloak draped over his shoulder. The statue is placed at such a height that only the pose of the figure and the deep folds of the drapery can be read from the ground. All other detail is illegible. However, there is a statue of Cole in St. MacCartan's Cathedral which is virtually a replica of the column figure. It, presumably, is also by the hand of Terence Farrell. Both this and the statue of the 2nd Earl of Enniskillen flank the chancel. The Earl died in 1840 and the statue may date to the early 1850s, as Farrell ex hibited a miniature bust of the Earl of En niskillen in 1853, and it is probable that he was working on both bust and statue together. The Earl presents a more robust figure than the General and Farrell has used drapery for compositional interest in both cases.

The esteem with which Terence Farrell was held as a sculptor in Dublin in the 1850s is evident from the range of com

missions he received. The influence of the Earl de Grey was far-reaching and ex tended even to the completion of the

Wellington Testimonial in the Phoenix Park, which in its unfinished state was considered an insult to the Duke, who had recently died, and to the citizens of

Dublin. In January 1857 Farrell was re quested to make a design in accordance with suggestions made by Earl de Grey.20 Farrell replied to the request with an estimate and drawings in March 1857. He suggested that four colossal military trophies would be placed on each angle of the monument, with a fifteen-foot statue of the Duke of Wellington flanked by statues of Victory and Peace, and the finishing of the panels at the base, the

Terence Farrell, Memorial

cropped column to Lady St. Germans. Died 1862. Aras an Uachtarain, Phoenix Park, Dublin.

whole to be carved in Portland stone, at a cost of 3800 pounds.2' The Duke of Leinster replying from Carton House said that bronze was preferable to marble for relief panels,

'as I find marble does not stand the weather in this country. Some little statues in the

front of this house were decaying so fast, that Mr. Farrell had to go over the entire surface of them, which on a bas-relief could not be done.'22

Although Terence Farrell was involved in the initial arrangements for the com

pletion of this monument, by the follow

ing year his son Thomas seemed to have taken his place and received the commis sion for the bronze panel of the Battle of

Waterloo. It may be that the decision to work in bronze resulted in the changeover from father to son. There is no record of

Terence having worked in bronze before this and at the age of sixty he was, perhaps, unwilling to break new ground. If the 'forties and 'fifties were years of ex pansion and development for Terence Farrell, the 'sixties see him taking a sec ondary role, with Thomas becoming the prominent member of the family. The Earl de Grey died in 1859 and some of Terence's patronage must have died with him. He continued to receive a number of commissions for portrait busts and to ex hibit these works at the Royal Hibernian Academy, where he became a full member in 1859, just one year before Thomas.

Both men were to serve as council members, and Thomas was to be ap pointed President in 1893.

Farrell received an unusual commission in the early 1860s from yet another Lord

Lieutenant, Lord Carlisle, who wished to commemorate his sister, Lady St. Ger

mans. The lady had planted a tree in Vice Regal Lodge, in the Phoenix Park, and, in 1862, both lady and tree died. The

memorial, a cropped column encircled by a garland of flowers, is placed amongst the trees in the grounds of the former Vice

Regal Lodge, now Aras an Uachtarain. The monument is of such extreme simplicity that it has little sculptural

merit. Yet the very simplicity of the work combined with its lonely isolation within the grounds of the house create a moving impact.

Terence lived to the age of seventy eight. He died on 19 March 1876 at Thomas's residence in Warrington Place and was buried in the crypt of the Church of St. Andrew in Westland Row. The ob ituary notices are a sad indication of how he had been neglected in the last fifteen years of his life and how little he was remembered at the time of his death. The Irish Builder in a very short notice in dicated his death and described him as 'a gentleman highly respected and esteem ed.'23 The Irish Times carried a death notice and no obituary.24

Terence Farrell's career had been largely devoted to portraiture in which he man ifested considerable skill. He was a ded icated sculptor, whose opportunity to develop, with the new commissions and patronage opened to him by the Earl de Grey, came perhaps too late. Weighed down with responsibilities and com mitments from early in his career, there was no scope for him to be adventurous.

While Farrell's carving shows diligent

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craftsmanship and sculptural talent, there is little creative expression manifest in the work and it lacks the spirit which

will be found in the work of his son Thomas.

Terence was at the head of a very exten sive workshop in which a great variety at

work was modelled. Reviewers of the Royal Hibernian Academy exhibitions had a daunting task when the Farrell fam ily was on form.25 As a family of sculptors,

all of whom were Catholic, commissions from the Catholic Church were plentiful and the Farrell name became increasingly prestigious in sculptural circles as the cen tury progressed. Thomas Farrell was very

much the dominant figure and was well established and highly esteemed as a sculptor before his father died. Such was his talent that his brothers were com pletely overshadowed by him. These six brothers lived and worked together and

all remained bachelors, with the result that the family firm did not survive be yond them. The family legacy is in the statuary of Thomas Farrell, landmarks of monumental sculpture, particularly throughout the city of Dublin.

Paula Murphy

Paula Murphy is a Lecturer in History of Art in

University College Dublin.

NOTES

1. Strickland includes an entry for Terence

Farrell in A Dictionary of Irish Artists, Vol.1,

pp. 333-35.

2. The marriage was registered in the Church of

St. Andrew, Westland Row, Dublin.

3. James, Joseph, Thomas, John, Michael and

William Farrell were born between 1820 and

1839.

4. Lower Mecklenburgh Street ran between

Gardiner Street Lower and Buckingham Street Lower and is now called Railway Street. The Farrell sculpture-yard was at

No.88 Lower Mecklenburgh Street from 1841

until 1845 and at No. 85 from 1846 until 1859.

5. North Gloucester Street Lower ran parallel to

Lower Mecklenburgh Street and was situated

between Gardiner Street Lower and North

Strand Road. The family had two different

premises in this street: No. 132 between the

years 1851 and 1872 and No. 106 between the

years 1873 and 1899.

6. Farrell and Son has wrongly been referred to

as Farrell and Sons by some authors (cf. Pot

terton). This may be the reason for assuming the connection with Terence Farrell and his six sons. However, the marble-yard was

entered in the Dublin Street Directory with

the name Peter Farrell (1831-1882) and two

Farrell names appear on the legal documents, Peter and John. This last may be Terence

Farrell's brother. Although still called Farrell

and Son, the firm is no longer in Farrell

hands. When Peter Farrell died in 1882, it

passed to the manager, Peter Hynes. The last

member of the Hynes family died in 1942. The firm expanded to incorporate the

neighbouring Fitzpatrick and Sons in 1944 and is currently owned by Mr John B

Brennan.

7. Earl de Grey's A History of Wrest House was

written for his daughter, Anne Lady Cowper, in 1846. It was published by the Bedfordshire

Historical Record Society, Vol. 59, 1980. The

house is more commonly known as Wrest

Park today. 8. This is a fragment of the address of the Chair

man, Earl de Grey, at the first public distribu

tion of premiums at the Royal Dublin Society Schools on the 8 December 1842. The speech is recorded in the Proceedings of the Royal

Dublin Society, 26 January 1843, Appendix III, p.xlix.

9. These statues are no longer at Wrest Park.

They were still in situ in 1904, in which year

Country Life published an article on the

house which was accompanied by

photographs of the gardens. The Country Life records indicate that the photographs were

taken in that year. Rupert Gunnis, in his en

try on Terence Farrell in the Dictionary of British Sculptors, 1660-1851, published in

1951, stated that two of the works, the groups of children and animals, were at Studley

Royal. Earl de Grey inherited Studley Royal in 1845. They are not, however, at Studley

Royal today and the Administrators of the

estate have no record of the works or

knowledge of their whereabouts. It is possible that the sculptures were situated close to the

house which burnt out in 1946. There is no

knowledge of the present whereabouts of

either the Seasons or the Elements.

10. Strickland included these two groups in his

list of Thomas Farrell's work and stated that

it was Thomas who won the prize at the Royal Irish Art Union in 1844. This error seems to

arise from a misinterpretation of the name, Mr T Farrell, entered as a prize-winner in the

Royal Irish Art Union Report for that year. Strickland reads the initial T as Thomas, where in fact it should read Terence.

11. W Treacher, Brief History of the Church of St. John the Baptist, Flitton and the Kent

Mausoleum, 1899, p.14. This publication includes a chapter describing a stroll in Wrest

Gardens.

12. Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, 1844-1845, No. 81, Appendix IV,p.xliv.

13. op.cit. 14. St. Mary's Parish Church in Truro, Cornwall,

was replaced by the Cathedral by J L Pearson, built between 1878 and 1910. The Vivian

monument was transferred to the Cathedral

and is now situated on the west wall of the

north transept. 15. Strickland, Vol.II,p.639. 16. Michael Farrell was awarded a prize in

February 1852 for a Child's Bust, in marble, after 'Fiamingo*. Fiamingo was the seven

teenth century Flemish sculptor Francois

Duquesnoy. Michael's prize was two volumes

of Pictorial Half Hours and a copy of

Reynolds's Discourses on Art.

17. There is no record of entrance for William

Farrell into the Modelling School. The

Minutes of the Proceedings of the Royal Dublin

Society ceased to list the entrants to the

Schools in 1849. It was possible to ascertain

that his brother Michael did attend the

School, despite no record of entrance, because he was recorded as having won a

prize in 1852. There is no record of William

having won any prize at the School.

18. Britain's Opium War with China lasted two

years and ended with the Treaty of Nanjing, 29 August 1842. The inscription on the

monument indicates that the 18th Royal Irish

Regiment comprised officers, non

commissioned officers, drummers and

privates, 186 of whom died in the China War.

19. The 2nd Burmese War began in March 1852

when Britain despatched 8100 troops to

Rangoon. On 14 April the Shoe (Shwe)

Dagon Pagoda in Rangoon was captured after

heavy fighting, causing the Burmese to retire

northwards. This Pagoda, the finest in Indo

China, was a famous mecca for pilgrims. The

inscription on the monument indicates that

365 members of the 18th Royal Irish Regi ment were killed in the course of the war

which ended in December 1852.

20. 20 January 1857, letter from the Duke of

Leinster to Arthur Cane, Secretary to the

Trustees of the Wellington Testimonial: T have requested Mr Terence Farrell the

sculptor to make me a drawing to carry out

Lord de Grey's suggestions and an estimate

for doing the work'. MS 7778, National

Library of Ireland.

21. Letter from T Farrell, Gloucester Street, to

the Earl of Carlisle, 9 March 1857. ibid.

22. Letter from the Duke of Leinster at Carton

House, Maynooth, to the Earl of Carlisle, 4 November 1857. ibid.

23. The Irish Builder, 15 April, 1876.

24. The Irish Times, 19 March, 1876. 25. An example of this can be seen in the review

in The Dublin Builder, 1 June 1860. The reviewer lists Thomas's Wellington relief

model, Terence's model for the Cole statue, a

Madonna by William, a statuette of

Goldsmith by James and a Sleeping Youth by

John as 'all serving to sustain the reputation of that eminent firm'. Only three other works

by other sculptors were mentioned in the

article.

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Terence Farrell, Sculptor

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