WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 27th September 2021 at 6pm

138 114 Albert G. Power RHA (1881-1945) HEAD OF CONSTANCE GORE BOOTH, COUNTESS MARKIEVIC (1868 - 1927) marble 10 by 5 by 5in. (25.4 by 12.7 by 12.7cm) Some wear visible. Provenance: Mrs Albert Power; Mr John Lane to Mrs Maurice MacGonigal; Victor Waddington; Declan O’Dwyer, Cork; Private collection, Northern Ireland; Adam’s & Mealy’s, Independence Sale, 12 April 2006, lot 412; Private collection Following the practice in the 19th century by sculptors, of making mirror pieces, initially led by Camille Claudel, and then by her lover, August Rodin, all of the figurative Irish sculptors made mirror pieces. A ‘Mirror Piece’ is one intended to rest on an over-mantel or a mantelpiece reflected in the mirrored surfaces. Small busts of important,or decorative figures were in vogue with Jerome Conor, Andrew O’Connor, Oliver Sheppard, Albert Power and Rosamund Praeger. The head and neck are modelled or carved so that the piece is seen in the round, obviating the need to feel the piece. The present work is highly finished with the detail of the hair treated in the antique manner, only the hand drill marks on the back of the Herm is left rough, but this work is clearly intended to be seen from all sides,which is why so many sculptors used the Herm format of a square base and a fully realised carved detailed surface. Unsigned, it is given to Albert Power for stylistic and technical reasons, as well as the relationship between Power and the Nationalists of the period and with those artists such as Maurice MacGonigal who were members of the Republican movement. Here the artist has shown Constance Markievicz in the well known formula of the Roman Virtuous Matron. The stylised treatment of her hair and the suggestion of a tunic or dalmatic collar is one which many artists used since the days of the Roman Republic of pre Tarquinian rule to indicate an heroic and virtuous matron who makes exemplary sacrifices, usually leading to death, for her city or nation, resisting tyranny or corrupt rulers. Madam Markievicz, as she was known, was born to the family of Gore Booth who owned the great house of Lissadell, Co. Sligo. She studied painting in London and Paris, and, in 1900 married a UkranianPolish Count, Casimir Markievicz a fellow painter. After the failure of her marriage she settled in Dublin after 1903 where she associated with the members of the Gaelic League and the founders of the Abbey Theatre. In 1908 she joined Sinn Féin, and a year later she and Bulmer Hobson founded Na Fianna Éireann, an organisation for boys - a Republican vesrsion of the Boy Scouts. She joined Maud Gonne’s Inghinídhe na hÉireann (Daughters of lreland) and contributed to Suffragette and Nationalist Newspapers. In 1913 she aided James Larkin in the great Dublin lockout; in 1914 she became an Officer in the Irish Citizen Army. She fought in 1916 and was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to penal servitude for Life. Released in 1917, she was the first woman elected to Parliament at Westminster in 1918, but did not take up her seat owing to the abstentionist policies of Sinn Féin She was Minister for Labour in the first Dáil. Vehemently opposed to the Anglo Irish Treaty she supported the anti-treaty forces in the Civil War. In 1923 she was arrested for campaigning for the release of Republican prisoners and went on hunger strike. She joined the newly formed Fianna Fáil in 1926 and was re-elected to Dáil Éireann in 1927. She died a month later of post operative