Lot 24: Jerome Connor (1874-1943) The Siren or The Street

Jerome Connor (1874-1943) The Siren or The Street Singer, c1936-39 Bronze on green marble, 17.5cm (6.75") Inclusive of base Base signed CONNOR Provenance: The Kinlen Collection Among the most popular of Connor's bronzes during his years in Ireland, were the busts and heads variously called The Siren, The Dancer and The Street Singer, all selections from the same figure study, a one-third life size female nude seated on shelving rock, her head turned in the act of singing. The original plaster Siren was painted to simulate bronze, probably for display at the Royal Academy, where Connor exhibited until dissuaded from doing so by high British duties on Irish imports after 1932. In the event, neither Siren nor its complement, another painted plaster, the male nude Boxer, was exhibited. With a base derived from that of his 1929 Hubbard memorial, Siren probably dates to 1932-33 or a little later, and may be an individual portrait of a singer or dancer of the sculptor's circle. Connor cast a Siren relief, a first (1938) Siren bust, a more elegant second bust called The Street Singer or The Dancer, and finally a shawled Street Singer head, each edition marking a shift in presentation in response to his Irish clientele. The late bronzes, like the Hugh Lane Gallery's example (reg. no. 1113), datable from its very fluid modelling to c1941, show the head entirely re-imagined as that of an Irish folk singer: tightly shawled, mounted informally on an irregular block of Dublin calp limestone, and titled Street Singer in Gaelic lettering. In contrast, the present head, faithful to the original Siren concept, lacks these later features and may be as early as the mid 1930s. It was cast, from a specific plaster in his North Circular Road studio, at the latest in early 1939. Giollamuire Ó Murchú