“How many... artists are so versatile, productive and professional, so much masters of their material and the tools of their trade, so adaptable and receptive without compromising their personal vision or outlook? She is, in a sense, an eclectic and a traditionalist, yet her style is strongly fingerprinted and recognisably her own.”
- Brian Fallon (“The forging of a style: a critical essay” in Imogen Stuart: Sculptor by Brian Fallon. Four Courts Press.)
“Five years of studies with a great man and artist and all that entails: the philosophy of life; the love of life; the knowledge of the craft; the sophistication of a past generation; a symphony of beauty and spirit. Beside my childhood these years with the Master had the greatest influence on my life.”
- Imogen Stuart (Notes On The Life Of A Sculptor, Milltown Studies 22 (1988) 92-94.
Imogen was born in 1927 and raised in Berlin. She was the elder daughter of Bruno E. Werner, one of Germany’s leading art and theatre critics of the Thirties and it was her father who asked the famous German expressionist sculptor, Professor Otto Hitzberger, to take his daughter as a pupil after the War. Professor Otto Hitzberger had taught for 35 years at Berlin National College of Art and retired to his native Bavaria. Surrounded by post war scarcity, Imogen helped Hitzberger make grave-crosses in return for food packages from local farmers, whilst learning composition, form, technique and working with different materials. During this time, she was introduced to Romanesque art and great early modern sculptors including Rodin, Maillol and Barlach. Later, she studied on a Travelling Scholarship at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Berlin (HFBK) and at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.
In 1948 Imogen met Ian Stuart, the son of novelist Francis Stuart and Iseult Gonne – the daughter of Maud Gonne. Imogen and Ian both studied under Hitzberger’s tutelage until the couple returned to Ireland and married in 1951. Imogen and Ian had three daughters. They separated in 1970.
Imogen started her career in Ireland living in Laragh Castle, Co. Wicklow, and later moved to Dublin. Her discovery of Ireland, the miraculous and mysterious landscapes of Glendalough and her observances of Irish nationalism, music and all the Irish saints and scholars - and her later conversion to Catholicism – formed a rich medley that continues to inspire her work.
Artistic Achievements
Imogen’s work can be seen in public spaces, churches, private collections and galleries the length and breadth of Ireland. Up until her death in 2024 she showed annually at the Royal Hibernian Academy, contributed to the Irish Exhibition of Living Art and exhibited in both solo retrospectives and group exhibitions across Ireland – including: Living Art Salzburg Biennale; Houses of the Oireachtas; the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin; the Solomon Gallery, Dublin; the Jonathan Swift Gallery, Dublin; and the National Self-Portrait Collection in Limerick. She has worked for both private commissions and for the Catholic Church, an early and important patron.
Her expressive work trail-blazed ecclesiastical statuary in the 1950s and continues to stand apart with her unique and instantly recognisable style. Her playful, tender depictions of biblical and mythical stories respect epic narrative but also penetrate and expose the universality of nature in all its guises.
Significant church commissions include the Stations of the Cross in Muckross, Ballintuber Abbey and Firhouse, Tallaght; the interiors of Castleknock Church and Burt Church (which was subsequently voted ‘Irish Building of the 20th Century’ and designed by Donegal architect Liam McCormick); and the large bronze of Pope John Paul II in Maynooth; the bronze doors on Galway Cathedral; the Madonna in the Lady’s Chapel of Christ Church Cathedral; the 16ft Penal Cross in Lough Derg, located in the Sanctuary in the Basilica and the altar, ambo, presidential chair (sedilia) and baptismal font of the Honan Chapel at UCC, designed by Richard Hurley.
Other major commissions include: President Erskine Childers gravesite; the official commemorative medal and stamp for the Canonization of St. Oliver Plunkett; the official bronze busts of former President Mrs Mary Robinson for Áras an Uachtaráin (State House) and Sean MacBride for Iveagh House; Flame Of Human Dignity, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris; The Arch Of Peace, Market Square in Cavan Town and Pangur Bán, a hand-carved twelve foot high pitch pine sculpture originally commissioned for the Shopping Centre in Dun Laoghaire and now located in Áras an Uachtaráin.
Imogen received the Oireachtas art exhibition award (1972) and the ESB Keating McLoughlin Award at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) annual exhibition (1972), among others. She was elected a member of Aosdána in 1981 and a full member of the RHA in 1990. She was elected by the RHA as professor of sculpture in 2000. Imogen received honorary doctorate degrees from Trinity College (2002), UCD (2004) and NUI Maynooth (2005). In 2010, the President of Ireland Mary McAleese presented Imogen with the McAuley Medal, a recognition of her long-standing relationship with Mary Immaculate College and a lifetime contribution to the arts in Ireland. In presenting Imogen the award, President McAleese paid tribute to her her "genius", crafting “a canon of work that synthesises our complex past, present images and possible futures...as an intrinsic part of the narrative of modern Irish art, of Ireland.”
Imogen was elected Saoi of Aosdana on 15 September 2015 in a ceremony presided over by President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, joining previous Saoithe Samuel Beckett, Louis LeBrocquy, Brian Friel, Sean O Faolain, Patrick Collins and Mary Lavin in the distinction.
In November 2018 Imogen was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the highest tribute the Federal Republic of Germany can pay to individuals for services to the nation.
In 2023 her life sized self-portrait in oak was acquired by the National Gallery of Ireland where it appears on public display. In the same year a documentary by her grandson Emile Dinneen was released on RTE, and a retrospective of her work was held at Dublin Castle. Throughout 2023 and early 2024 she completed her final works including a large standing stone (Stele) in Sandycove park in Dublin, a large granite rendition of the monolithic work In Principio, a headstone for Dr. Peter Harbison, and many other smaller works before her death due to natural causes in March 2024.