Behind the Scenes at Crawford: 'The sound of power tools and a new energy pervades the air'

Although I have worked here since 2018, my connection is a much longer one, stretching back through years of tour guiding to my very first visit in the autumn of 2001.

The focus of my role as Curator of Collections & Special Projects over the past few years has been on exhibition-making, so to see exhibitions being de-installed and gallery spaces emptied is the opposite of the norm.

Our final suite of exhibitions – From Source to Sea and Now You See It… – are currently coming down off the walls, with our registrar, conservator, and team of technicians carefully assessing these paintings and sculptures for packing and transport.

One by one, visitor favourites like John Lavery’s The Red Rose, Mary Swanzy’s Samoan Scene, and John Butts’ View of Cork from Audley Place have been de-installed, leaving more and more gaps in our storied gallery spaces. Soon, even Seán Keating’s iconic Men of the South will follow suit, and the building will truly feel poised for change.

That being said, nostalgia hasn’t quite set in yet, although I am already anticipating the poignant moments of seeing my own favourite artworks being packed up and not being able to see them again for a few years. That’s pretty emotional actually, and I know that our last visitors before September’s closure felt it keenly too.

The tragic tale of Fall of the Rebel Angels 

Chief among these artworks will be one of the largest in the collection. Fall of the Rebel Angels (1828) by Samuel Forde is monumental both in its physical scale and artistic vision. At almost three metres in height, this painting looms large in my own career as it was the centrepiece of the first exhibition I worked on as a curator in 2014.

It currently hangs in the Sculpture Galleries amongst the very plaster casts that the artist himself studied two centuries ago when the Cork School of Art was founded in 1819. Alongside his classmates, Daniel Maclise and John Hogan, Forde was something of a child prodigy and quickly established his reputation as ‘one to watch’. His life, however, was to have a tragic outcome.

Having completed a religious triptych for Skibbereen Cathedral in November 1827 (now in St Barrahane’s Church, Castlehaven), the young artist contracted tuberculosis, and his health rapidly declined. He commenced work on Fall of the Rebel Angels in February 1828, but it would remain unfinished upon his death the following July at the tender age of just 23. Purchased by the Penrose family, the painting was nonetheless hailed as a masterpiece in its own time and has been in Crawford Art Gallery’s care since 1911.

What will we be doing while the gallery is closed? 

We are already working with colleagues across the museum sector – and across the island – to share parts of the collection during our closure period.

Some of these partnerships are yet to be announced, but we already have loans out to Áras an Uachtaráin and Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, Hillsborough Castle in Co  Down, and Doneraile Court and Michael Collins House in Co  Cork.

It's quite an exciting aspect of the job, working closely with colleagues in other institutions to facilitate as active a loans programme as we can reasonably manage.

In all, we will be sharing approximately 6% of the collection across the closure period. We’re passionate about ensuring our part of the national collection is as mobile as is practical and that the public can have new encounters with these national treasures in sometimes unexpected contexts.

I quite like the idea that these artworks will get to add to their stories and have experiences away from their home in the heart of Cork City before they come back to a renewed Crawford Art Gallery in 2027.

The other 94% of the artworks will be undergoing essential care of the collection while in storage, according to a meticulous plan drawn up by our registrar, Jean O’Donovan, and conservator Chiara Chillè.

To be part of Crawford Art Gallery’s growth at this once-in-a-lifetime point of change is truly a privilege. I have known this collection all my adult life and feel reassured that it is being cared for so expertly.

I am daily reminded of how brilliant the gallery’s team is and the magic tricks they continually play are simply remarkable. There’s a lot of hard work yet to do but we are looking towards an exciting future already in the planning.

All going to plan, Samuel Forde’s Fall of the Rebel Angels will be back in the building in plenty of time for its 200th birthday!