James Archer to engrave Gibson Collection Case

‘The Chairman submitted draft inscription for tablet of Gibson Collection Case and it was approved in the following form:-

“In this case are exhibited Souvenirs and valuables of Joseph Stafford Gibson a member of an old Cork family, who born at Kilmurry in the County of Cork on 9 October 1837 spent the greater part of his life in Madrid where he died on 3^rd February 1919 bequeathing these souvenirs and an invested sum of £14,790 to this school for the furthering of Art in the City of his boyhood.”

‘It was ordered that the engraving of inscription be entrusted to Mr James Archer’.

Detail of Gibson Collection Case engraving by James Archer (1866-1945). Photo © Michael Waldron.

[source: 2 December 1922, Gibson Bequest Committee Minutes, Cork VEC Holdings, Cork City and County Archives]

Student William Sheehan is considered to be the first recipient of Gibson Bequest Travelling Scholarship

‘The Committee further considered the question of awarding William Sheehan [1894-1923], a student at the School of Art, a Travelling Scholarship, under the terms of the [Gibson] Bequest and the Chairman requested that he had interviewed Mr [George] Atkinson*, Principal, Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin as to Sheehan’s capabilities and the best art centre to which the Committee should send him if they so decide and he (Chairman) read a letter from by Atkinson favouring an itinerary. Mr Atkinson had also stated that he considered Sheehan the most talented young man in Ireland with the exception of [Séan] Keating.

[source: 2 December 1922, Gibson Bequest Committee Minutes, Cork VEC Holdings, Cork City and County Archives]

*George Atkinson (1880-1941) was a printmaker, painter and designer. Born in Cork, he was inspired to become an artist by reading about fellow Cork artist James Barry (1741-1806). He trained at Crawford School of Art and subsequently won a scholarship to the National Art Training School at South Kensington (now Royal College of Art, London) before returning to Ireland where he taught at the Metropolitan School of Art (later National College of Art and Design, Dublin) becoming Headmaster and then Director (1918-1941).

He was the designer for the cenotaph erected in Dublin in 1923 to the memory of Arthur Griffin and Michael Collins, a temporary structure on Leinster Lawn subsequently dismantled. In 1924, the scroll bearing the 64 signatures of the members of the first Irish Senate was prepared by Atkinson for inclusion in the casket presented by Senator Alice Stopford Green.

Between 1925 and 1929, he had been responsible for a series of studies etched during the Shannon Hydro-Electric Scheme Excavations at Ardnacrusha, Co. Clare.

George Atkinson, Shannon Scheme: The Excavations, c. 1929. Collection Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

In the 1920’s and 1930’s George Atkinson played a prominent part on the Gibson Bequest Committee to purchase works for the Cork School of Art later to become Crawford Municipal Art Gallery (now Crawford Art Gallery).

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