JOSEPH HIGGINS (1885-1925) — Sculptor and Painter

ed. Orla Murphy

intro by Ken Thompson; essays by Peter Murray, Orla Murphy

ISBN 978 0948037 276      88 pages (hardback)     27x23.5cm     104 illus

This large-format book documents the work of Cork-born sculptor Joseph Higgins, one of the most original and excellent sculptors of his time. Although not widely known outside Cork, Higgins’ place in the history of Irish sculpture is assured. His output included portrait heads, full-figure and smaller sculptures, plaques and panels, oil paintings and watercolours, all of which are beautifully reproduced in the 50 or so works featured in this book.

EXTRACT

"Born in Ballincollig, a town on the western outskirts of Cork city, in 1885, Joseph Higgins is perhaps the finest figurative sculptor to have emerged in Cork since John Hogan. The number of surviving works by Higgins is small – nineteen sculptures, some pieces of hand-made furniture, wood-carvings, several oil paintings and a handful of watercolours. Such were the opportunities available to the artist that during his lifetime not one of his sculptures was cast in bronze. Yet the quality of his work, particularly the sculptures, show him to have been an artist of outstanding ability, sensitive to the spirit and vitality of humanity. His work is characterised by tenderness, informality and dignity, particularly in his portraits of children, at which he excelled. As with Hogan’s contemporary Samuel Forde, Higgins’ death from tuberculosis cut short a promising career as an artist."

— from the essay by Peter Murray