Dublin Castle was the seat of English power in Ireland for over 700 years. In the eighteenth century, the medieval castle was gradually transformed into a Georgian palace for the Viceroy (the King’s representative) and the British administration.
Designed by the architect Thomas Burgh, the State Apartments formed the public rooms for official state functions, such as balls, receptions, banquets, and court gatherings.
Located on the first floor, the State Apartments followed the sequence of a grand house, with reception rooms leading to a throne room and private chambers.
On 16 January 1922, the last Viceroy handed Dublin Castle over to Michael Collins and the new Irish government. This symbolic moment marked the foundation of the Irish Free State, which would later become the Republic of Ireland.
Today the ceremonial State Apartments are used for state functions such as presidential inaugurations, official visits, and diplomatic receptions.」
“This great imperial staircase of three broad flights was a historic visual statement of power and has been immortalised with a now world-famous image of debutantes in white presentation gowns being received with choreographed elegance on the State Apartments’ landing by Ireland’s Lord Lieutenant and members of his court. Originally this castle was so ill-lit that, in their high-heeled shoes, debutantes and presentation women given to the Viceroy, often assisted by the Presentation Marshal, had to cling to the staircase walls for balance, giving the stairwell the temporary title, ‘the wailing wall.”
A Polish Artist in Bohemian Dublin (1903–1913)」 【カジミール・マルキェヴィチはダブリンの芸術・文学界(ボヘミアン・ダブリン)で活躍した ポーランド出身の画家】
「Art, theatre, and liberation: these common threads linked the lives of Casimir and Constance Markievicz.
Constance Gore-Booth (1868–1927), the daughter of Anglo-Irish gentry, was destined to become one of Ireland’s revolutionary heroines. Casimir Markievicz (1874–1932), a Polish gentleman born in Ukraine, was an artist with an irrepressible zest for life and adventure.
In Ireland, the name ‘Markievicz’ instantly conjures the figure of Constance; this exhibition seeks to bring Casimir back into the frame, re-positioning him as a central player in Dublin’s bohemian life before the Revolution.
They met as art students in Paris and married in London in 1900, and from 1903–13 ‘Casi and Con’ made Dublin their home. In a city teeming with rival theatrical factions, writers, philosophers, and visionaries of the Irish Revival, they pursued their artistic ambitions. It was a decade of competing visions of what art could be, of how theatre and art might inform politics (and vice versa), and of the uncertain fate lay ahead for Ireland as a nation.
For Casimir, this meant experimenting with new forms of artistic self-expression. For Constance, this was the beginning of her political awakening. They also found themselves in dispute with these movements of possibility and promise – some realised, and others not – and of Casimir’s place in a city where (in the words of W.B. Yeats) a ‘terrible beauty’ would soon be born.」
アイルランド聖パトリック勲章(Order of St. Patrick)の叙任式または会議の場面を 表している場面と。
「Artistic Life in Dublin
When Casimir and Constance moved to Dublin in 1903, it was a city bubbling with artistic energy and overlapping social circles. The couple’s arrival conveniently coincided with Hugh Lane’s project for establishing a gallery of modern art in Dublin, which opened in temporary premises on Harcourt Street in 1908. Their acceptance by Dublin’s artistic community was greatly aided by their friend George Russell (AE) who introduced them to some of the city’s leading artistic and literary lights. Together with Russell and others, they were co-founders of the United Arts Club in 1907. A magnet for the city’s Bohemian artists, writers and entertainers, the club was the setting for larger-than-life personalities in its gatherings.
Meanwhile, the couple were also a fashionable feature of elite “Dublin Castle” sets who attended regular balls and garden parties. Perceived as an exotic foreign aristocrat, Casimir was welcomed as a guest of honour, until politics combined with their personal lives made these two overlapping worlds no longer reconcile.」
Ellen Duncan (1850–1937) was a central figure in the promotion of visual art in Ireland. A champion of Hugh Lane and the effort to establish a gallery for modern art, she served as the gallery’s first curator from 1911–1922. Casimir and Constance were also involved with Lane’s campaign, and worked alongside Duncan on the foundation committee for the United Arts Club, with Duncan appointed the Club’s honorary secretary in 1910.」
Boleslaw Szańkowski (1873–1953) was a leading Polish portrait painter who studied in Munich under... He continued his studies in Paris before moving to St Petersburg, becoming the French court's official portraitist. He was finally to settle in Warsaw i n the 1890s.
[中略 – ピンボケで不明な部分]
Szańkowski also painted a number of works in Montparnasse, Paris, and in Warsaw. In addition to portraits, he restored a number of important works in Poland.」