163
119 Joseph Robinson-Kirk RHA (1821-1894)
Portrait Bust of a Young Gentleman
White Carrara marble, 65cm high
Signed J. Kirk RHA fecit
Joseph Robinson Kirk was born in 1821, the fifth child and eldest son of
Thomas Kirk R.H.A ( an important sculptor of his time ) and his wife
Eliza Robinson. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1838, at the age of
17, and took his degree in 1843. He had, while still a boy, commenced the
study of sculpture in his father’s studio, and in 1840 he sent two busts to the
Royal Hibernian Academy.
From that year he was an almost constant exhibitor at the Royal Hiberni-
an Academy’s annual exhibitions. In 1843, the year in which he took his
degree, he obtained the second prize of five pounds from the Royal Irish
Art Union for his
Andromeda
, a study from the life figure, and was commis-
sioned to execute it in marble.With the money thus earned he was enabled
to spend a year studying in Rome.
His Child listening to noise in a Shell
exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1845; his
Ruth and Naomi
,
1846, and his
Creation of the Dimple
, 1847, were all purchased by the Royal
Irish Art Union as prizes for its subscribers.
In June, 1852, he succeeded Panormo as Master of the Dublin Society’s
Modelling School; but after a tenure of two years his appointment ceased
on the reorganization of the school in 1854. He was elected an Associate of
the Royal Hibernian Academy on 22nd May, 1845, and Member on 13th
October, 1854.
During his long career as a sculptor Kirk executed not only a great number
of exceptional portrait busts, but also many important public statues and
monuments. At Banbridge is his colossal statue of
Captain Crozier,
the
Arctic explorer; at Hillsborough and Edenderry are his statues of
Arthur,
3rd Marquess of Downshire
; in Christchurch Cathedral a monument to The
Hon. C. D. Lindsay, Bishop of Kildare
, and in Trinity College the four figures
of
Divinity, Law, Medicine
and
Science
on the Campanile.The extraordinary
memorial to Sir Philip Crampton in Brunswick Street was a work of which
he is said to have been proud. On the base of the Wellington Monument
in the Phoenix Park is a bronze bas-relief of
The Siege of Seringapatam
, and
several busts by him are in the Royal College of Surgeons.
He exhibited eight pieces of sculpture in the Royal Academy between 1845
and 1862. For some years before his death his health prevented him from
actively pursuing his profession and he lived in retirement. He died on the
30th August, 1894, at his residence, Milward Terrace, Bray, aged 73, and
was buried at Mount Jerome.
€3,000 - 5,000
