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Career

statue of Queen Victoria, National Library of Ireland

John Hughes first studied at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, now known as the National College of Art and Design, which was the starting point of a career in sculpting. With the help of his contemporary sculpting skills, he was awarded multiple scholarships to prestigious art universities in Europe. These scholarships included South Kensington art school and the Académie Julian and Colorossi’s Academy in Paris. After his time there he was appointed some esteemed titles in his career. His first appellation being “second art master” at Plymouth Technical school, an honorable title. The next year he received title after title in London Metropolitan School of Art he became known as the instructor in modelling and in the same year gained the illustrious title of professor of sculpture at the Royal Hibernian Academy school. During his travels he found friendship with some well-known artists of the time, such as W.B Yeats and Oliver Sheppard. Upon return to Dublin, they brought along with them the “New Sculpture” idea which went away from the neoclassical themes of the time. In 1898 “Finding Eurydice” was exhibited at the Royal Academy which caught the attention of George Russell who noted that ‘the precision and delicacy of the modelling is something quite new in Ireland’, further suggesting that Hughes brought a new art movement to Ireland. In 1901 he was represented at the Dublin International Exhibition by a marble sculpture, “Orpheus and Eurydice”. This is a noticeably big career opportunity and from here his commissions would only increase. With the growth of his sculpting career, he made the decision to retire from teaching and focus solely on commissioned work. Shortly after this decision he took on his most important commission where he carried out his ‘Man of sorrows’ and “Madonna and child” for Loughrea cathedral, Co. Galway During this time is when his studio was built at Lennox Street, Portobello Some conflict in his career arose after 1903. It was in this year he moved to Paris to work on the national monument of Queen Victoria, unveiled in Dublin in 1907. It should be noted he was also a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. During a time of rapid political change in Ireland he worked on one of his last pieces as a successful sculptor. In 1909 he was commissioned to produce a monument to W. E. Gladstone. This piece caused him considerable mental anguish. After its completion in 1919 the nationalist corporation of Dublin refused to exhibit the monument. After this incident Hughes artistic productivity fell along with financial issues and no professional assistance he eventually resigned from the Royal Society of British Sculptors.