The Street Singer

Artist Jerome Connor (1874 - 1943)

Date1939

MediumBronze

Dimensions16.8 x 9.2 x 8.7 cm

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by Mr and Mrs John Hunt, 1961.

Object number1113

DescriptionJerome Connor was for a time a professional boxer in a travelling show. His father was a stonemason and Connor subsequently trained as a sculptor. He was praised for his ‘interpretation of the life of the working man…an office that he performs with remarkable directness and sympathy.’ This small bronze head, perched on a rough base, on which the words Street Singer are scratched in uneven Celtic lettering is ‘one of the little pieces of free work’ done during the last years of Jerome Connor’s life. It has all the spontaneity of an uncommissioned piece. The roughly finished surfaces suggest the hard life of the subject, shown here wearing a head scarf to keep warm out of doors. Her eyes are barely defined, emphasizing the singer’s intense concentration on the song. There is no attempt to idealise or romanticise the subject, yet the piece has a monumentality belying its small size.

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