Kilmoon sculptor adds touch of gold to Shelbourne statues

Kilmoon sculptor Orla de Brí was involved in the restoration of the four Mathurin Moreau statues recently returned to the front of the Shelbourne Hotel on St Stephen's Green in Dublin.

The statues were reinstalled in the early hours of the morning in mid-December. Having stood at the front of the hotel since 1867, they have been restored, and several layers of paint and grime have been removed.

They were removed in July of last year by hotel management, citing the Black Lives Matter movement and its focus on the legacy of slavery.

The owners of the hotel removed the pieces in the mistaken belief that two of them were representations of slave women.

They believed that two of the statues depicted Nubian slave princesses, Nubia being a rival kingdom to ancient Egypt. The other two statues represent Egyptian princesses.

The move prompted several complaints to the council that the facade of the hotel, which was restored in 2016, was a protected structure and the removal of the statues was a breach of planning permission.

The statues were originally designed and sculpted by Mathurin Moreau (1822-1912), son of another famous French sculptor, Jean-Baptiste-Louis-Joseph Moreau and were cast in the Val d’Orsne foundry in Paris.

Art historian Kyle Leyden said the original catalogue from which the four statues were ordered clearly label them not as slaves, but as Egyptian and Nubian women. Mr Leyden said the architect who designed the Shelbourne facade, John McCurdy, would have ordered the statues from the catalogue, which was published in the late 1850s.

Dublin City Council sent an enforcement letter giving hotel management four weeks to respond to the claims of an alleged planning breach.

Hotel owners Kennedy Wilson commissioned University College Dublin art historian Professor Paula Murphy to examine the statues. An expert on sculpture, she concluded that they are not depictions of slaves. Their restoration includes a plaque explaining their backgrounds.

Outlining her involvement, Orla de Brí says: "The statues were being restored at CAST foundry in Dublin where I have my own work cast.

"I was really interested in seeing them up close, unusually they are not made from bronze but from cast iron and beautifully modeled. I suggested to Leo Higgins of the foundry they might gold leaf the ankle bracelets and headdresses instead of using a special metallic paint. I have used gold leaf before in my work so I am familiar with the process. Leo spoke with the committee overseeing the restoration headed by professor Paula Murphy of UCD and they agreed. I spent a week 24ct gold leafing the statues, it was a privilege to work on such iconic pieces."

Working from her studio near Ashbourne, Orla de Brí is very much a hands-on sculptor, enjoying every aspect of the work, from the concept of the first drawing through to the varied and sometimes challenging physical processes. Her unique, elegantly stylized figures and objects, in a variety of materials, including bronze, steel, stone and fibreglass are familiar to many. De Brí has had eight major solo shows and has completed 26 site-specific, large-scale public sculptures in Ireland, London and Istanbul. Her most recent commissions include 'Quiet Listening', a three-metre high figure and a five-metre 24 carat gold leafed tree for the roof of Belvelly Castle, at the entrance to the Great Island, Cobh, Co Cork and 'Flow', a seven-metre high figure suspended above a stream for the Sabanci Collection in Istanbul. Other collections include the University of Limerick, Bank of Ireland, Aer Rianta, Dublin City University and The Office of Public Works. Local works include 'Equilibrium' on the Drumree Road, Dunshaughlin, and 'Perch' on a roundabout in Ratoath.

Orla's involvement in the Shelbourne statues restoration is not the first Meath connection.

The restoration of the façade of the hotel by specialist contractor Acol Ltd and conservation architect Alistair Lindsay for Kennedy Wilson won The Irish Georgian Society Architectural Conservation Award 2017. Acol Ltd is headed up by Dunsany man, Dermot Collier, and the project featured in the RTE docu-series, 'The Shelbourne'.