Jerome Connor (23 February 1874 in Coumduff, Annascaul,

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the cou ...

– 21 August 1943 in

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) was an Irish sculptor.

Life

In 1888, he emigrated to Holyoke, Massachusetts. His father was a

stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. It is one of the oldest activities and professions in human history. Many of the long-lasting, ancient shelters, temples, mo ...

, which led to Connor's jobs in New York as a sign painter, stonecutter, bronze founder and machinist. Inspired by his father's work and his own experience, Connor used to steal his father's chisels as a child and carve figures into rocks. It is believed he may have assisted in the manufacture of bronzes such as the Civil War monument in Town Green in South Hadley, Massachusetts erected in 1896 and

The Court of Neptune Fountain The Court of Neptune Fountain is a group of bronze sculptures made by Roland Hinton Perry in 1897–98. Jerome Connor may have assisted in their manufacture. The sculptures are located at the Library of Congress, at Independence Avenue and 1st S ...

at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

in Washington D.C., completed in 1898. He joined the Roycroft arts community, in 1899 where he assisted with blacksmithing and later started creating

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta i ...

busts and reliefs and eventually, he was recognized as Roycroft's sculptor-in-residence. One of the most ambitious works he created was The Marriage of Art and Industry. Connor is reported to have dedicated the better part of a year on the monument's construction. With new ideas came additions, improvements, and increased weight. Connor worked on the upper floor of an old barn, and one evening, as Roycrofters and visitors relaxed on the peristyle of the Roycroft Inn, a thunderous crash was heard from Connor's studio. The beams under the second floor had given way, and Connor's Marriage fell to pieces. Fortunately, no one was hurt. After four years at Roycroft, he then worked with Gustav Stickley and became well known as a sculptor being commissioned to create civic commissions in bronze for placement in Washington, D.C.,

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, East Aurora, New York, San Francisco, and in his native Ireland. In 1910, he established his own studio in Washington, D.C. From 1902 until his death, Connor produced scores of designs ranging from small portrait heads to relief panels to large civic commissions realized in bronze. Connor was a self-taught artist who was highly regarded in the United States where most of his public works can be seen. It was felt he was heavily influenced by the work of Irish American sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens. He used the human figure to give expression to emotions, values and ideals. Many of the commissions he received were for civic memorials and secular figures which he cast in bronze, a pronounced departure from the Irish tradition of stone carved, church sponsored works Connor is a recognized world class sculptor and his best known work is Nuns of the Battlefield located at the intersection of Rhode Island Ave NW, M St & Connecticut Ave NW in Washington, D.C.,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. Nuns of the Battlefield was surveyed in 1993 by the Smithsonian for their Save Outdoor Sculpture! program. It serves as a tribute to the over six hundreds nuns who nursed soldiers of both armies during the Civil War, and is one of two monuments in the District that represent women's roles in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

.Jacob, Kathryn Allmong. ''Testament to Union: Civil War monuments in Washington, Part 3''. JHU Press, 1998, p. 125-126. The sculpture was authorized by Congress on 29 March 1918 with the agreement that the government would not fund it. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, raised $50,000 for the project. Jerome Connor was chosen since he focused on Irish Catholic themes, being one himself. but he ended up suing the Order for nonpayment. He worked in the United States until 1925 and moved to

where he opened his own studio, but, lack of financial support and patrons caused his work to slow. In 1926 he was contacted by Roycroft and asked to design and cast a statue of Elbert Hubbard who, with his wife Alice, had died in the sinking of the

RMS Lusitania RMS ''Lusitania'' (named after the Roman province in Western Europe corresponding to modern Portugal) was a British ocean liner that was launched by the Cunard Line in 1906 and that held the Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlanti ...

. It was unveiled in 1930 and today it stands on the lawn of East Aurora's Middle School across the street from the Roycroft Chapel building. Robert Emmet statue - Washington, D

While working on the Hubbard statue, Connor received a commission to create a memorial for all the Lusitania victims. It was to be erected in Cobh, County Cork where many of the victims were buried. The project was initiated by the New York Memorial Committee, headed by William Henry Vanderbilt III whose father Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, like Elbert and Alice Hubbard, perished on the Lusitania. Connor died before the Lusitania memorial was completed and based on Connor's design its installation fell to another Irish artist. Throughout his career, Connor was also known as Patrick Jeremias Connor, Jerome Conner, Jerome Stanley Connor, J. Stanley Connor, and "St. Jerome" Connor. He died on 21 August 1943 of heart failure and reputedly in poverty. There is a now a "Jerome Connor Place" in Dublin and around the corner there is a plaque in his honour on Infirmary Road, overlooking Dublin's Phoenix Park (his favourite place) with the words of his friend the poet Patrick Kavanagh:

Works

The following are some of Connor's public sculptures:

Major works in the United States

*''Civil War Memorial'', South Hadley, Massachusetts, 1897 *''

Bishop John Carroll John Carroll (January 8, 1735 – December 3, 1815) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the first bishop and archbishop in the United States. He served as the ordinary of the first diocese and later Archdiocese o ...

'', Georgetown University, Washington D.C., 1912 *''The Supreme Sacrifice'', Washington D.C., 1920 *'' Nuns of the Battlefield'', Washington D.C., 1924 *''Victory Memorial'',

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

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, 1925 *''Elbert Hubbard'', East Aurora, New York, 1930

Major works in Ireland

*''Lusitania Peace Memorial'', Cobh, begun in 1936, completed 1968 *'' Éire''.

Merrion Square Merrion Square () is a Georgian garden square on the southside of Dublin city centre. History The square was laid out in 1752 by the estate of Viscount FitzWilliam and was largely complete by the beginning of the 19th century. The demand for ...

, erected 1976

Jerome Connor Collection, Annascaul

In 1990 a ''Jerome Connor Trust'' was established in association with the National Gallery of Ireland to own eight of Connor's bronzes for inclusion in a projected gallery in Annascaul. The collection was subsequently expanded to fourteen pieces. A permanent exhibition space for the trust collection, along with six pieces in private hands, was built at the ''South Pole Inn'' in Annascaul, and was officially opened in April 2014.

Gallery

File:John_Carroll_Founder_statue_2011.jpg, ''

'' File:Éire sculpture Dublin.jpg, ''Éire'', in Merrion Square, Dublin File:Plaque in Honour of Jerome Connor - 110482 (23866613086).jpg, Plaque on Infirmary Road, Dublin File:Grave of John Alexander Joyce.jpg, Bust of John Alexander Joyce in Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

References

External links

*http://www.artnet.com/artists/jerome-connor/past-auction-results {{DEFAULTSORT:Connor, Jerome 1874 births People from the Dingle Peninsula People from Holyoke, Massachusetts 1943 deaths Irish sculptors 20th-century Irish sculptors Male sculptors 20th-century male artists