On 13th June at 6.30pm I will launch this book by Jeremy Hill of Monksgrange Archives on the photographic work of Goddard Orpen. The event will take place in the Gallery at Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park Dublin. The house was formerly owned by the Guinness family and is now owned used by the Government of Ireland for various functions and as a residence for State visitors to Ireland such as Queen Elizabeth II, who stayed there in 2011.
Orpen was both a lawyer and an historian. His wife Adela Richards had inherited Monksgrange House and Estate in County Wexford, Ireland from her father. Goddard added photography to his many talents and took photographs at Monksgrange and elsewhere in Ireland and also in other countries such as Great Britain, Italy and France. He also engaged in painting and was a cousin of the famous Irish painter Sir William Orpen, some of whose work is also being exhibited at Farmleigh https://www.farmleigh.ie/events/orpens-at-farmleigh/
The prints being exhibited were taken from 5x4 inch and 5x7 inch dry glass plates with some also from film negatives. This work was done with great skill and care by Irish photographer Anthony Hobbs. The text is by Jeremy Hill who is the current owner of Monksgrange and keeper of the Monksgrange Archives https://www.monksgrangearchives.com. The book will be available from that site following publication
Orpen's photography is of a very high standard, particularly as regards both composition and his use of light. The standard is well beyond that of the usual 'gentleman amateur' of his period as this image of his daughter Iris playing the violin in 1898 shows. The handling of the light on the face of Iris would be difficult to achieve with modern equipment, let along the equipment available, even to wealthy photographers, in the 1890s
Adela, who was born in Virginia USA, was the wife of Goddard and mother of Iris and her brother Eddie and was also a painter herself. One of the exhibits in the exhibition features a scene at Rue de l 'Echaude in Paris which was photographed by Goddard and also painted by both himself and Adela, all done in 1899. Eugene Atget later photographed the same scene in 1905. Here is Adela photographed by Goddard in England in 1885
The exhibition also features many other works showing the Orpen family, the farm at Monksgrange, 19th Century trains as well as travel in Ireland, Britain, France and Italy. All of the works exhibite are of a universally high standard. The cover photograph for the book shows Adela at work in her garden with her son Eddie and some family pets beside her. At the right behind Eddie is the family observatory which contained a 6 inch Grubb telescope, made in Dublin. Anyone who has read my blog before will know my enthusiasm for anything made by Thomas and Howard Grubb and that I have a collection of their 19th Century camera lenses. In a nice piece of symmetry, the gallery at Farmleigh is just beside a large clock tower which contains a clock made by Howard Grubb c 1880 - 1885. Details are here https://www.farmleigh.ie/the-clock-tower-at-farmleigh/
I am looking foward to speaking at this event about the work of a wonderful Irish photographer, who was unknown to me until recently, unlike his more famous cousin whose work I have admired for many years. Jeremy Hill and Anthony Hobbs are to be thanked for bringing this wonderful work to our attention.
Comments
Thank you William for your wonderful comments about the exhibition and thank you for agreeing to launch the book. It was a joy to be involved with this important archive over the last several years. From scanning the hundreds of glass plates, acetate negatives and lantern slides, and making archival pigment prints, it has been a big undertaking. All the photogrphic material in the archive has now been preserved and catalogued.
Thanks Anthony. I hope that I can do justice to the great work of Goddard Orpen and the equally great work done by Jeremy and yourself on his archive.