Statue Known As Ghost Or Descent From The Cross Immediately To The South Of Campion House (Formerly Thornbury House)

787/0/10185 THORNBURY ROAD 06-AUG-03 Osterley Statue known as Ghost or Descent from the Cross immediately to the south of Campion House (formerly Thornbury House)

II Group of figures, known as Ghosts or Descent from the Cross, by Andrew O'Connor (1874-1941). First exhibited 1937. Portland stone. Three sinuous sculpted figures emerging from a block of rough limestone. Central figure of Christ, supported by flanking mourners, one male one female. The piece shows the strong influence of Rodin, friend and mentor of the artist, whom he met in Paris after 1905. HISTORY: this large-scale religious work was lent by the artist (whose studio was at 50a Glebe Place, Chelsea) to the Tate Gallery for the opening of its Duveen Sculpture gallery in 1937. In 1940, O'Connor requested its return to Ireland, but it was already in store. In 1950 the Tate contacted the Irish authorities. Hector O'Connor, son of the artist, negotiated through Father M.C.D'Arcy for the piece to be presented to the Jesuit community at Campion House. On 11 November 1953 it left the Tate, presumably for Osterley. Andrew O'Connor, an American artist of Irish and Scottish descent, was born in Worcester, Mass. He studied first under his sculptor father, and from 1894 in London, under John Singer Sargent whose sculptural work for Boston Public Library included a crucifixion group comparable to this piece. By 1905 he was living in Paris, where he met Rodin who strongly influenced his work. Many examples of public sculpture survive in the U.S.A. These include a bas-relief for mural of Boston Library (1894-7); Vanderbilt Memorial bronze doors, tympanum and frieze, church of St.Bartholomew', New York (1897 - 1902); equestrian figure of General Lafayette, Baltimore (1924); bust of Lincoln, Royal Exchange, London; Triple Cross, Dun Laoghaire Ireland, (from 1931). The sculpture possesses considerable interest as a late instance of fine figurative religious art. Its outdoor position is leading to its deterioration in terms of condition. SOURCES: Tate Gallery archives; T.Snoddy, Dictionary of Irish Artists, Dublin, 1996, p355-358; P. Ward-Jackson, Public Sculpture of the City of London, Liverpool University Press, 2003.