The Golden Mask

Artist Andrew O'Connor (1874 - 1941)

Date1905

MediumBronze

Dimensions46 x 30 x 23 cm

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by Andrew O'Connor (the Artist), 1941.

Object number883

DescriptionO'Connor conceived the idea of a huge war memorial for Washington, DC about 1918; and although such a monument was in fact probably never commissioned from him, he worked on the project until at least 1931. The project may conveniently be divided into three sections. (1) A group of three figures; a dead soldier strapped to a bier mourned by his wife (kneeling) and his mother. (2) A highly decorated and colossal niche in which a young woman holding a flower in her left hand is standing (see Object Number 868), and who possibly represents the Motherland. (3) A colossal mausoleum or 'Temple of the Virgin'. From a contemporary photograph it is apparent that (1), which conveyed the return of a young, dead hero to the Motherland was intended to be placed in front of the 'Temple of the Virgin'. It can further be suggested that (2) was intended to form the front wall of the Temple, when the female figure, 'The Virgin', would look down upon the dead soldier beneath her. Among the foliage beneath the niche on (2) are the heads of three of the sculptor's four sons. The fourth head is that of Jessie, so that they read from left to right, 'Hector', 'Roderic', 'Jessie' and 'Owen'. The female head which supports the pedestal of the statue was also modelled on Jessie. O'Connor produced several versions of this head and called it variously 'The Golden Head', 'The Bronze Mask' (or vice versa) and 'La Penseuse'. It is a variant of 'Recueillement', used as the memorial to General Thomas in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery near Tarrytown, New York of 1904.

This is a female mask. The model for the mask was Jessie. As a complete head it is used to support the statue 'The Virgin' (see Object Number 868)

(Homan Potterton, 'Andrew O'Connor - A complementary catalogue to the exhibition marking the centenary of the sculptor's birth', Trinity College, Dublin, September 1974, pp. 45-47.)

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