Stone Mad

by Seamus Murphy, William Harrington (Illustrator)

Overview

First published in 1966, this acclaimed Irish classic is an account of time as an apprentice stonecarver by a craftsman who was one of Ireland’s most respected sculptors. The young Seamus Murphy, studying modelling at the Crawford School of Art in Cork in the 1920s, took the unusual step of apprenticing himself to a master stone carver to learn the ancient craft of the mason.
‘Stone Mad’ tells the story of his seven years of growing knowledge of the challenges and joys of stone – and of the men who worked it. His artistic feeling for quality responded to his workmates’ reverence for the ‘well made thing’. The result is a book of surpassing beauty, full of warmth, humour and profound perception.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788410229
Publisher:	Gill Books
Publication date:	01/05/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	239
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Seamus Murphy was born in Mallow, County Cork, in 1907. He went to school in Cork where he was a pupil of Daniel Corkery. On leaving school at fourteen he was apprenticed as a stonecarver for seven years. At the same time, encouraged by Corkery, he studied modelling and carving at night in the Crawford School of Art. From there he was awarded the Gibson Bequest Scholarship to study sculpture in Paris for two years. On returning to Cork, he opened his own studio. He exhibited work at the Royal Hibernian Academy every year from 1931 to the year of his death, 1975, and became Professor of the RHA in 1964. His work, which is to be seen all over Ireland, and in England and America, includes allegorical figures and madonnas, headstones, memorials and portrait busts.

William Harrington is a landscape and streetscape painter and illustrator who draws inspiration from his native Cork city.

Editorial Reviews

In this 1966 volume, Murphy, one of Ireland's great stone masons, tells how he learned the craft. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal