The Dreamers

Artist Harry Clarke (1889 - 1931)

Datec. 1928

MediumWatercolour on paper

Dimensions42.4 × 15.2 cm

ClassificationsWatercolours

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Purchased, 2017.

Object number2066

DescriptionThis watercolour is preparatory work for Clarke's stained glass masterpiece The Geneva Window, 1929, originally commissioned by the Irish Government to represent Ireland at the International Labour organisation in Geneva. The window unfortunately was never installed in its intended destination because of official disapproval at Clarke's depiction of some of the figures. The Geneva Window (Collection: Wolfsonian Foundation, Miami) consists of panels illustrating scenes from 20th century literature by Irish writers, playwrights and poets.

From The Dreamers by Lennox Robinson

The Dreamer's by Lennox Robinson (1915). The shadowy figure of Robert Emmet, "wearing the boots and breeches" of his Irish Volunteer uniform beneath a sweeping blue cloak, gazes sadly ahead. His words are from Act III of Robinson's three-act nationalist play, when he tells Sarah and Jane Curran that he cannot leave Ireland "while my followers are being apprehended, are suffering, are perhaps dying." Soon after, he is led to his martyrdom at the scaffold.

"If I were to die tomorrow all I would ask
from the world would be the charity of its silence."

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