Joseph Robinson Kirk (1821 – 30 August 1894) was a noted

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

sculptor.

Life

He was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

in 1821, the fifth child and eldest son of Thomas Kirk and Eliza Robinson. He lived in Jervis Street and studied with his father and at the Dublin Society's School, alongside his brother

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and sister

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. In 1843, he spent a year in Rome, which he funded with the sale of his marble sculpture ''Andromeda''. This piece had been awarded a prize by the Irish Art Union. He entered

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

(TCD) in 1838, graduating with a BA in 1843. In 1845, he married Jane Rachel Murray. From 1843, he exhibited with the Royal Hibernian Academy, becoming an associate members in 1845, and a full member in 1854. From 1846 to 1862 he also exhibited with the Royal Academy, London. He became master of the Royal Dublin Society modelling school in 1852, succeeding from Constantine Panormo. Some of his more famous works include the figures of Divinity, Law, Medicine and Science on the campanile in TCD, a relief at the base of the Wellington Monument and a monument to the bishop of Kildare, C. D. Lindsay, in Christ Church Cathedral. He also executed the figure over his father's grave in

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. Like his father he executed a number of unique reliefs for church memorials throughout the country.Paula Murphy: Nineteenth-Century Irish Sculpture, Yale University Press, 2010. After his nephew, Thomas Stewart Kirk, was orphaned he lived with Kirk and his family. Kirk died on 30 August 1894 at his home, on Milward Terrace, Bray. He is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.

References

External links

List of known works from the University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirk, Joseph Robinson 1821 births 1894 deaths Irish sculptors Artists from Dublin (city) Burials at Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium 19th-century sculptors Irish male sculptors