Attributed to Robert Lowe Stopford (1813-1898) 'Extensive Landscape with Animals and Figure Chatting outside John Murphy's Pub, Co. Cork, with 5 arch viaduct beyond with carriage crossing,' watercolour. (1)
ROBERT LOWE STOPFORD (1813-1898) The Busy Interior of The Old Queen's Castle Department Store, signed lower right and dated 1848, 15'' (38cm) h x 21.5'' (54cm). (1) Note: The Queen's Old Castle was one of Cork's best known shops for over 100 years and was managed in the late 19th and early 20th century from to 1879 to 1902 by John S. Hart, the father of Vincent Hart, the owner of Lotabeg. This unique watercolour depicting the store in operation passed to the present owners by descent.
ROBERT LOWE STOPFORD (1813-1898) Irish Schooner in Choppy Waters Watercolour and bodycolour Signed and dated 1871 50.5 x 30 cms, framed and glazed £2000 - 3000
Robert Lowe Stopford (1813-1898) A Panoramic View of Cahersiveen, County Kerry with the Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church Watercolour and bodycolour, 36 x 96cm (14 x 37¾'') On reverse a label with a cutting from the Cork Constitution as cited below: When it's most famous son, Daniel O'Connell, was born on 7 August 1775, Cahersiveen was a tiny settlement of a few dwellings centered on his parents' farmhouse of Carhen. However, the growth of the town during O'Connell's lifetime and beyond was rapid as is recorded in this previously little-known panoramic view by Robert Lowe Stopford (1813-1898). Much admired in his lifetime, this is one of the major works of the Cork-based artist and as an invaluable record of Cahersiveen is an important document of small town life in County Kerry. The prominence given to the church - towering above the town like some medieval cathedral - is wholly appropriate as it shows an idealized view of the Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church, built to mark the centenary of The Liberator's death. Cahersiveen's development owed much to the new road along the coast of Castlemaine bay and through the Iveragh Mountains to Valencia Island. Looking back in 1837 when the town boasted 1,192 inhabitants, the great topographer Samuel Lewis noted that 'in 1815 there were only five houses in the entire village, but within the last ten years it has rapidly increased'. Lewis noted that the town consisted then of one principal street stretching along the main road and of two smaller streets branching from it at right angles, one of which leads down to the quay, and the other to the upper road or old village of Cahir, which consists only of mud cabins'. By contrast Lewis noted that the houses on the new road were 'neatly built and roofed with slate'. Cahersiveen's chief trade was fishing which employed four hundred people on a seasonal basis; the importation of timber, salt and iron while oats and flour were exported from some mills to the east. Overall Lewis judged that the town had a 'lively and cheerful appearance' and that 'great improvements had been made in the neighbourhood'. These included an agency for transacting business with the National Bank of Ireland, a pier and a small quay built in 1822, a national school and a fever hospital and dispensary - the latter two institutions would soon be overwhelmed as, in the decade after Lewis wrote, Cahersiveen was devastated in the Great Famine. The Iveragh Peninsula was among the worst hit areas of the country and the picture of prosperity - and the church triumphant - that Stopford offers contrasts bitterly with the short journey along the road, now known as the Paupers' Road, westward (leading from the town at the right hand side of the picture) to the workhouse at Bahaghsis. As John Crowley writes in the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine: 'The poorest of the poor who travelled this road at the height of the Famine must have been filled with fear and trepidation. Their instinct for survival would have taken them here in the hope that their admission would bring an end to the torment'. Unfortunately the Inspector at the Workhouse was the particularly brutal Colonel Clarke who saw his mission as 'to chastise the poor', and an unknown number died and are buried at the nearby graveyard at Srugreana Abbey. The artist Robert Lowe Stopford was born in Dublin but spent his career in Cork, working as an art teacher and serving as a correspondent for the Illustrated London News. He specialised in topographical views of Cork and its surrounding picturesque sights such as Blackrock Castle and Youghal Strand. He also ventured into surrounding counties exhibiting a view 'from the Drawing Room - Lismore Castle' at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1864 and also views of Killarney on two occasions. Stopford painted other locations in Kerry sending views of Brandon and Cahersiveen Bridge to the RHA (1862 and 1858). Stopford kept an album of his topographical views which he used as part of his art teaching programme in Cork but the present work is clearly not based on sketches taken when he painted Cahersiveen Bridge in 1858 and he must have revisited the South Kerry town a few years later as many of the most prominent architectural features in the view were not yet built in 1858. The Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks, for example, is the prominent turreted building on the waterside at the end of the Bridge Street, guarding access to the crossing. This was built after the 1867 Fenian uprising (which started in the town) and was strategically important as it defended Valentia Island, the end point of the transatlantic telegraph cable. The building - whose oriental appearance gave rise to the story that it had originally been planned for India and the architect's drawings were mixed up - now houses Cahersiveen Heritage Centre. Of course the other prominent building in Stopford's view is the church officially named for the Holy Cross, but known universally as the Daniel O'Connell memorial Church. It is the only church in Ireland with a lay dedicatee. Plans had been laid to start the church to mark the centenary of O'Connell's birth so close by but construction took place between 1882 and 1909 to designs by George Ashlin. The church as erected is different from Stopford's view in several respects, but most dramatically in that the spire was never built. There is a telling parallel in this with Stopford's view of Cobh - or Queenstown as was - showing St Colman's dominating the skyline complete with its spire although this was not added until after the artist's death (Crawford Art Gallery, Cork). Intriguingly, Ashlin was again the lead architect at St Colman's. It is possible that the Cahersiveen and Cobh works, showing the buildings as it was planned they would look when complete, were commissioned as promotional material in fundraising efforts in the United States. Certainly exterior and interiors view of the O'Connell Memorial Church were exhibited in the Columbian Exposition, in Chicago in 1897. Perhaps though the sheer size and amount of anecdotal and extraneous material in the Cahirciveen view argues against this. An undated newspaper cutting from the Cork Constitution attached to the reverse of the work, attests to the contemporary success of the painting: We have been shown a watercolour landscape just executed by Mr R Stopford, of this city. It represents the town and Bay of Cahirciveen, showing from the telegraph station at Valentia to the remains of the house in which Daniel O'Connell was born, the proposed new church which Canon Brosnan is endeavouring to get built to the memory of O'Connell. Also, the residences of The Knight of Kerry, Messrs Blennerhasset and Mahony - the long bridge to the Protestant Church and Police Barracks, the whole forming one of the most pleasing works that we have yet seen from this well known artist. The landscape has found a ready purchaser at a good figure. The historical, social and commemorative interest of the work should not obscure its power as a complex piece of landscape and topographical painting. The mastery of the high vantage point; the control of massing, detail and palette make for a highly accomplished piece of landscape painting.
Robert Lowe Stopford (1813-1898) St Patricks Bridge, Cork Watercolour, pencil and pastel, 47 x 78.5cm (18 .5 x 31) Signed and inscribed 'St Patricks Bridge Cork' verso of mount EXHIBITED: London, Irish Exhibition in London, 1888
Robert Lowe Stopford (1813-1898) St. Mary's Collegiate Church, Youghal, Co. Cork, Myrtle Grove to the right signed and dated 'R. L. Stopford/1850' (lower left) pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of gum arabic and bodycolour 18¾ x 26 in. (47.6 x 66.1 cm.)
Robert Lowe Stopford, a landscape with fishermen, a dog and a cottage, watercolour, signed and dated 1855, labels verso Belmont Lodge of Crookstown Co Cork, 23 x 34 cm See illustration
Robert Lowe Stopford (1813-1898) The entrance to Baltimore Harbour, Co. Cork; Sherkin Island off the Cork coast A pair, watercolour, 33.6 x 514 cm (13.25 x 20.25")
