Thomas McGreevy and the Rise of the Irish Avant-Garde

Thomas MacGreevy and the

Rise of the Irish Avant-Garde

First published in 2019 by

Cork University Press

Boole Library

University College Cork

Cork T12 ND89

Ireland

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019946258

Copyright © Francis Hutton-Williams

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording or otherwise, without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying in Ireland issued by the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 25 Denzille Lane, Dublin 2.

The right of the author has been asserted by him in accordance with Copyright and Related Rights Acts 2000 to 2007.

ISBN 978-1-78205-356-9

Printed by Hussar Books in Poland

Typeset by Alison Burns at Studio 10 Design, Cork

Thomas MacGreevy and the

Rise of the Irish Avant-Garde

FRANCIS HUTTON-WILLIAMS

Portrait of Thomas MacGreevy (c. 1921)

Sarah Purser (1848–1943; first woman elected to the RHA, in 1925)

CONTENTS

List of plates

Acknowledgements

Chronology

Introduction

1 Becoming a Poet: MacGreevy and the aftermath of the Irish revolution

2 MacGreevy as Parisian Littérateur, 1927–33

3 MacGreevy and Postimpressionism

4 Reconstructing the National Painter

5 The National Gallery Revisited, 1950–63

Notes

Bibliography

Index

LIST OF PLATES

PLATE 1: Detail (initial letters S and U) from page folio 116v of the Book of Kells (c. 800)

Hand ink on stretched calfskin (vellum), 33 x 25 cm

Illuminated manuscript

Medieval and Renaissance Latin Manuscripts, IE TCD MS 58

© The Board of Trinity College Dublin

Photo © Dublin, Trinity College Library

PLATE 2: Green Abstract (1927)

Mainie Jellett (1897–1944)

Oil on canvas, 84 x 67.3 cm, NGI 2007.75

National Gallery of Ireland Collection

Photo © National Gallery of Ireland

PLATE 3: The opening of the Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Mainie Jellett at the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin (26 July 1962)

Photo © The Estate of Thomas MacGreevy

PLATE 4: Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the painter’s mother (1871)

James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)

Oil on canvas, 144.3 cm x 162.4 cm

© Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France / Bridgeman Images

PLATE 5: Dinner Hour at the Docks (1928)

Jack Yeats (1871–1957)

Oil on panel, 23.5 x 36.5 cm

Presented by Mrs Smyllie, in memory of the late Mr R. Smyllie (1966), NGI 1791

© Estate of Jack B Yeats. All rights reserved, DACS 2019

National Gallery of Ireland Collection

Photo © National Gallery of Ireland

PLATE 6: Judith with the Head of Holofernes (c. 1495)

Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506)

Tempura with gold and silver on panel, 30.8 x 19.7 cm

© Czartoryski Museum, Cracow, Poland / Bridgeman Images

PLATE 7: Judith with the Head of Holofernes (1530)

Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1472–1553)

Oil on beech wood, 74.9 x 56 cm

GKI 1182 / DE_SPSG_GKI1182

© Jagdschloss Grunewald, Berlin, Germany

PLATE 8: Judith (c. 1504)

Giorgione Barbarelli (c. 1477–1510)

Oil on canvas transferred from panel, 144 x 68 cm

© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia / Bridgeman Images

PLATE 9: Humanity’s Alibi (1947)

Jack Yeats (1871–1957)

Oil on canvas, 60 x 92.5 cm

Gift from Dr John A. Falk (1973)

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, K4195

© Estate of Jack B Yeats. All rights reserved, DACS 2019

Photo © Bridgeman Images

PLATE 10: Bachelor’s Walk – In Memory (1915)

Jack Yeats (1871–1957)

Oil on canvas, 45.7 x 61 cm

On loan to the NGI from a private collection, L 2009.1

© Estate of Jack B Yeats. All rights reserved, DACS 2019

Private Collection

Photo © National Gallery of Ireland

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Since embarking upon this study, I have been fortunate to receive advice from many inspiring educators. Above all, I am indebted to Tara Stubbs, whose guidance has been present throughout. My thanks extend to Gerald Dawe and Nicholas Grene, founders of the Oscar Wilde Centre at Trinity College, Dublin; to John Kelly, who introduced me to Oxford; and to Laura Marcus, Finn Fordham and Michael Whitworth, whose feedback has been especially instructive. I gratefully acknowledge Fiona Stafford for her recommendation of my research and her sage words on beginning a book project; Maria O’Donovan, who generously took on the project with enthusiasm as editor of Cork University Press; my anonymous readers, whose suggestions helped to turn basic research into a publishable study; and Aonghus Meaney, whose copy-editing saved me a number of embarrassments.

Several grants allowed me to complete this study: my thanks go to the Fellows and Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, who awarded me the Amelia Jackson senior scholarship to fund my DPhil and grants from the Exeter College Academic Trust; to the Fellows of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, who provided me with teaching in Irish literature; to the board of directors of Trinity College, Dublin, who awarded me the A.J. Leventhal scholarship to carry out research in Paris; to the executive committee of the Trinity Association and Trust, which awarded me grants from the Trinity Trust Travel Award; and to the award committee of the Maxwell and Meyerstein Fund at the English Faculty, Oxford, who supported me on multiple occasions with travel expenses and with the costs of reproductions.

I am much beholden to Robert Ryan and Margaret Farrington, co-executors of the Estate of Thomas MacGreevy, for their permission to quote from the author’s archives and unpublished works, to quote at length from individual poems, and to reproduce photographic material of the opening of the Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Mainie Jellett at the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin (26 July 1962). Additional thanks are due to DACS and Bridgeman Images for their permission to reproduce Jack Yeats’ Humanity’s Alibi (1947); to DACS and the NGI for their permission to reproduce Jack Yeats’ Dinner Hour at the Docks (1928); to DACS, the NGI and the private owner of Jack Yeats’ Bachelor’s Walk – In Memory (1915) for their permission to reproduce this painting; to the NGI for its permission to reproduce Mainie Jellett’s Green Abstract (1927); to the Board of Trinity College Dublin for its permission to reproduce detail (initial letters S and U) from page folio 116v of the Book of Kells (c. 800); and to Bridgeman Images for permission to reproduce James Whistler’s Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the painter’s mother (1871), Andrea Mantegna’s Judith with the Head of Holofernes (c. 1495), and Giorgione Barbarelli’s Judith (1504). Any information relating to the image or current rights holder for Sarah Purser’s portrait of Thomas MacGreevy, which is in the public domain in its country of origin, will be gratefully received and incorporated in future editions.

I am deeply indebted to Aisling Jane Mary O’Brien and Sharon Sutton, who aided me with the conversion of hundreds of sources stored at the Manuscripts and Archives Research Library at Trinity College, Dublin into digital format; to Sheila Pratschke, director of the Centre Culturel Irlandais, who granted me access to the libraries of the École Nationale Supérieure; to the rights and reproductions assistants at the National Gallery of Ireland, who advised me on several image requests; to Cathryn Setz, who shared with me the digital content of transition; and to Ian Rawes, who directed my listening sessions at the British Library. Susan Schreibman has created the excellent online resource on Thomas MacGreevy, and I would like to reserve special mention for her. Parts of this book rest on source materials that she has made available. For a full acknowledgement of Susan Schreibman’s invaluable editorial and recuperative work, please see the ‘Digital sources’ section of the bibliography.

Many others have inspired ideas and discussion without which this study and its author would certainly have been the poorer: Alexander Bubb, Rosie Lavan, Stephen J. Ross, Masud Ally, Peter Schwartzstein, Andreas Mogensen, Max Edwards and Nick Wakeling among them. My thanks to Claire Stahly for her love and support. To my parents, I owe everything else.

CHRONOLOGY

This book refers to post-revolutionary conditions in the twenty-six-county Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann), which was established in 1922 as a dominion of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Much debate continues to surround the use of the terms ‘state’ and ‘nation’ in relation to the Irish Free State, whose gradual path to sovereignty and separation from the British Empire involved two constitutional changes: the first, in 1937, involving the abolition of the oath of allegiance to the British monarchy and the creation of Éire; and the second, in 1949, involving the official declaration of the Irish Republic. The following chronology charts MacGreevy’s life and work within the developing strands of revolutionary nationalism.

1893  Born the seventh of eight children in Tarbert, County Kerry.

1909  Sat the boy-clerk examination for the British civil service.

1910  Moved to Dublin to take up a post with the Irish Land Commission.

1914  Worked for the Charity Commissioners of England and Wales in London. Start of the First World War. Transferred to the Intelligence Division of the Admiralty. On 26 July, a patrol of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers opens fire at a large crowd on Bachelor’s Walk in Dublin, killing three civilians and injuring thirty-two more.

1915  Jack Yeats paints Bachelor’s Walk – In Memory.

1916  The Easter Rising started by Irish republicans. 485 killed.

1918  Served as a second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery with the 148th Brigade in Flanders. Seriously wounded at Messines. Sinn Féin sweeps to power in the Irish general election, defeating the Irish Parliamentary Party. End of the First World War.

1919  Offered a demobilisation scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) to read history and political science. First Dáil Éireann forms a breakaway government from the United Kingdom and proclaims an Irish Republic. War of Independence started by the Irish Republican Army.

1920  Graduated from TCD. Co-founded the Irish Central Library for Students with Christina Keogh and Lennox Robinson. The Fourth Government of Ireland Act implements home rule while partitioning the island into ‘Northern Ireland’ and ‘Southern Ireland’. The Auxiliaries, a counter-insurgency unit consisting of 2,215 former British army officers, arrive in Ireland. The Black and Tans also arrive in Ireland to aid the Auxiliaries and the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). Kevin Barry is hanged in Mountjoy Gaol. On Bloody Sunday, British soldiers raid Dublin after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassinates thirteen British intelligence officers. Members of the Auxiliary Division and RIC carry out a retaliatory killing of civilians in Croke Park.

1921  On 6 December 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed by representatives of both the Irish and British governments.

1922  The twenty-six-county Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) is established as a dominion of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The Four Courts is occupied by anti-Treaty IRA militants. Start of the Irish Civil War. Having pledged his loyalty to King and country on the Western Front, MacGreevy supports the anti-Treaty side of Sinn Féin during the party’s split over the oath of allegiance to the British monarchy, though he condemns the resulting civil war.

1923  The pro-Treaty forces win the civil war. Mainie Jellett exhibits her first cubist compositions with the Society of Dublin Painters. ‘Picasso, Mamie [sic] Jellett and Dublin Criticism’ is published in The Klaxon: An Irish international quarterly.

1924  First trip to France as a civilian. Introduced to James Joyce.

1925  Moved to London and worked for T.S. Eliot.

1927  Appointed lecteur d’anglais at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS). Moved from London to Paris. Assisted James Joyce with Work in Progress.

1928  ‘A Note on Work in Progress’ is published in transition 14. Renewed ENS position for two more years. Met Richard Aldington at Joyce’s apartment. Met intended successor at the ENS, Samuel Beckett. Introduced Beckett to George Reavey and Joyce. Stayed with W.B. Yeats in Rapallo.

1929  The Censorship of Publications Act is passed in Ireland. Translated Paul Valéry’s Introduction à la méthode de Léonard de Vinci into English.

1930  Acted as best man to Giorgio Joyce at his wedding to Helen Fleischman. Appointed secretary of the English edition of the arts magazine Formes.

1931  T.S. Eliot: A study and Richard Aldington: An Englishman are published by Chatto & Windus in London.

1932  Start of the Anglo-Irish Trade War.

1933  Left Paris for London.

1934  Poems is published by Heinemann in London and reprinted by Viking Press in New York. Delivered a lecture to the Irish Society at Oxford entitled ‘A Cultural Irish Republic’. Beckett’s ‘Recent Irish Poetry’ is printed under pseudonym in The Bookman’s special ‘Irish Number’.

1937  The new constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hÉireann) is approved, resulting in the creation of Éire.

1938  Chief art critic for The Studio. Delivered a lecture to the NUI Club in London entitled the ‘Cultural Dilemma for Irishmen: Nationalism or provincialism?’. End of the Anglo-Irish Trade War.

1939  Permanent lecturer at the National Gallery (London). Start of the Second World War. Evacuated pictures from London to caves in Wales for safekeeping.

1941  Returned to Ireland in October. Changed his surname from McGreevy to MacGreevy by inserting the Gaelic prefix ‘Mac’ before his anglicised surname. Appointed art critic for The Irish Times.

1943  First Irish Exhibition of Living Art is opened in Dublin.

1945  Jack B. Yeats: An appreciation and an interpretation is published by Victor Waddington in London, and Pictures in the Irish National Gallery by Mercier Press. End of the Second World War.

1948  Received the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur from the French Ministry of Culture. Began correspondence with Wallace Stevens.

1949  Ireland is formally established as a republic.

1950  Appointed director of the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI).

1951  Appointed to the first Arts Council in Ireland (An Chomhairle Ealaíon). Illustrations of the Paintings is published by the NGI.

1955  Received the Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

1962  Received the Officier de la Légion d’Honneur from the French Ministry of Culture. Organised the Irish section of the Venice Biennial.

1963  Received the Silver Cultural Medal of the Direzione Generale delle Relazioni Culturali from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Forced to retire from directorship of the NGI following a succession of heart problems.

1967  Died from heart failure following an operation.

INTRODUCTION

Thomas MacGreevy (1893–1967) was a central figure in the intellectual culture of early twentieth-century Ireland. Vita Sackville-West likened him to ‘a wind of freshness and of freedom through the over-lush coppices of poetry’.¹ W.B. Yeats declared him ‘the most promising of all our younger men’.² Samuel Beckett described his verse as ‘probably the most important contribution to post-war Irish poetry’.³ The praise that MacGreevy received from some of the most distinguished writers of the twentieth century contrasts sharply with his fitful reception today. How might we explain the arrival of Ireland’s first experimental poet? An existential outsider who later became head of Ireland’s most famous cultural institution? MacGreevy became director of the National Gallery of Ireland during the 1950s, by which date his role within the pre-war Irish and European avant-garde went largely unnoticed. Today, he remains better known as an art historian than as a poet. The mention of a slim literary corpus can attract some surprise.

Recognition of his value as a poet might be said to have been rekindled by Michael Smith and Trevor Joyce’s publication of his work by their New Writers Press in 1971 and by the championing of his poetry in the pages of the press’ journal, The Lace Curtain, in the early 1970s. Several writers, editors and critics have since endorsed his poetic achievement, which still commands respect long after his collection of Poems (1934) first impressed Marianne Moore and Wallace Stevens.⁴ In a letter to The Irish Times in July 1982, Derek Mahon broke rank with the Belfast poets of the Heaney generation by rating the experimental work of MacGreevy and its poetics of migration, fragmentation, collage and discontinuous narrative as ‘higher than any Movement poet’ of the 1950s and ’60s, such as Philip Larkin or Thom Gunn.⁵ MacGreevy is one of twenty-nine poets now featured in The Cambridge Companion to Irish Poets, a collection edited by the Northern Irish poet and academic Gerald Dawe that eschews the divisions motivated by geography, politics and entrenched areas of expertise to engage more widely with the languages, literatures and cultures common to poets writing in English and Irish from the seventeenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first.⁶

Though his stature is finally being acknowledged alongside a broader resurgence of interest in Irish poetic experiment,