Life
1749-1812; b. Co. Meath, son of stone-cutter; apprenticed to Simon Vierpyl,
sculpt. of Bachelor’s Walk, Dublin; worked to Henry Darley, the contractor;
designed statue of Charles Lucas in City Hall (1772); met James Gandon,
in 1781, and employed by him on the Custom House, Dublin (1760-70), for
which he produced the statue of Commerce on the drum; carved 16 stone
heads symbolising the principal rivers of Ireland; also worked for Gandon
on House of Lords, Four Courts, and King’s Inns, as well as for Francis
Johnston on Dublin Castle Chapel, producing there 90 head over doors and
windows; appointed first Master of Dublin Society School of Modelling
and sculpture at 50 guineas per annum, 1811; d. suddenly, 2 Aug., at his
home at 36 Montgomery St. ODNB DIB BREF
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Commentary
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP
1976; this ed. 1984), used pure classical and Renaissance-classical styles;
allegorical statues on Houses of Parliament, Four Courts, and King’s
Inns; discovered by Gandon, who had already accepted statues of Neptune
and Mercury from Carline in 1783-84; Smyth carved ornamental trophies
and notably the heads of the Atlantic Ocean and the chief Irish rivers
to adorn the main keystones of the Custom House, later on Irish banknotes
[121] Bibl., CP Curran, ‘Edward Smyth, Sculptor, in Architectural
Review, ci (1947), pp.67-69; H. G. Laks, ‘Dublin Custom House, the
Riverine Sculptures’, Journal of Royal Soc. of Antiquarians of
Ireland, lxxv (1945), pp.187-94.
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References
Brian de Breffny, Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopaedia (London:
Thames & Hudson 1983), remarks that his Lucas statue demonstrates
great talent in tradition of late Baroque portraiture; employed by Henry
Darley, a building contractor, and came in contact with Gandon in 1781;
commissioned to carve ornamental stonework, riverine heads, royal Arms,
pediment figures and rooftop statues on Custom House; his statues and
reliefs on the Four Courts mostly destroyed by fire; also King’s
Inns’ carved statues for Johnston to Flaxman’s designs for the
Bank of Ireland, 1804; Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle; some fine portrait
busts; first head of Dublin Society School of Modelling, 1811; best in
Baroque mode, creating outdoor shapes; less at ease in neo-classical;
his funerary memorials disappointing. Bibl, W. Strickland, Dictionary
of Irish Artists (1913); V. Barrow, ‘Edward Smyth’, Dublin
Historical Record, XXXIII, No. 2 (March 1980). Cf., Dictionary
of National Biography (Concise) dates Custom House 1760-70, and copies
‘the town courts’ [err.] for Four Courts.
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