Lot 178: Seamus Murphy RHA (1907-1975) Patrick Kavanagh's

Seamus Murphy RHA (1907-1975) Patrick Kavanagh's Death Mask Plastercast Signed, inscribed and dated 1967 Patrick Kavanagh died on the early hours of the 1st December 1967 in the Merrion Nursing Home. Seamus Murphy the sculptor took the mould for a death mask later on the same day. Murphy a contemporary of Kavanagh's had first met him in Cork 1943. He has made a significant impression on Kavanagh who admired the intensity of his personality. Murphy had only taken one death mask previously, that of Arnold Bax in 1957. He was to make only three death masks in his career when in 1971 Seamus Ennis died. The Kavanagh mask being the second. The present one is one of three casts in plaster known to exist. One being in the Kavanagh centre in County Monaghan. Another in the Dublin Writer's Museum. The present mask was acquired some years ago by the present owner but was believed to have at one time belonged to Joan Ryan of whom Kavanagh was very fond, having proposed marriage to her when she was already dating Eoin Ryan who later became her husband. Signed and dated by Seamus Murphy this death mask constitutes an iconic image of one of Ireland's greatest and definitely most popular poets.