Irish-American Sculptor John Donoghue (1853-1903) Dies Tragically after his Masterpiece is Destroyed on Brooklyn Docks

New York Daily Herald Front Page, August 2, 1903

One of the most gifted 19th century Irish-American sculptors, according to art historians, was John Talbott Donoghue (1853-1903) , a Chicago native who lived in Boston in the 1880s and whose life and career ended tragically when he took his own life. 

Donoghue was discovered as a struggling artist by Oscar Wilde during the famous Irish writer's trip across America in 1882. Wilde reported he met "a young sculptor whom we would love and be so proud of if he were in Europe. He reminded me of the old Italian stories of the struggles of genius." Wilde wrote that he found Donoghue "in a bare little room at the top of a great building, and in the center was a statuette of the young Sophocles, a piece of the highest artistic beauty and perfect workmanship…. It was by far the best piece of sculpture I have seen in America."

Image courtesy of Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston

Donoghue's most celebrated work is The Young Sophocles Leading the Chorus of Victory after the Battle of Salamis, which he completed in 1885.  The sculpture won first prize at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.  The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston owns this sculpture, though it is not currently on public display. Louise Chandler Moulton wrote about the Sophocles statue, "One almost catches the mellifluous Greek vowels from his singing lips. Youth, music, triumph, incarnate life and joy - he embodies them all."

The publicity from Wilde's enthusiasm enabled Donoghue to return to Paris for study before moving to Boston, where he exhibited his work at Horticultural Hall in January 1888 to great acclaim, especially his depiction of heavyweight fighter John L. Sullivan, known as Boston Strong Boy.  Poet John Boyle O'Reilly predicted Donoghue's statue of Sullivan would "win international renown as the towering Young David in Florence." In his review for the Boston Pilot, O'Reilly commented on the merger of classical forms with American themes that had emerged from local sculptors including Thomas Ball and the Milmore brothers, when he wrote, "It is the statue of a magnificent athlete, worthy of ancient Athens and distinctly and proudly true of modern Boston."

Donoghue's Hugh O'Brien Bust at Boston Public Library

During his time in Boston, Donoghue created two exquisite busts of poet John Boyle O'Reilly and Boston's first Irish-born Mayor Hugh O'Brien.  The Boston Public Library has both the O'Reilly and O'Brien busts, while the Burns Library as Boston Colleges has the O'Reilly bust.

Donoghue's John Boyle O'Reilly Bust at John J. Burns Library, Boston College

Donoghue's other work of genius, appropriately entitled The Genius of America, was destroyed under the most unfortunate circumstances and led to his own demise. While in Rome, Donoghue modeled Genius for the 1893 World's Fair scheduled to take place in his hometown of Chicago. The 30-foot high sculpture was shipped to Brooklyn, where, according to the Boston Herald, it sat on the docks, "a huge bill for trans-shipment confronting the artist." 

Donoghue had apparently spent his entire savings building the piece, and couldn't afford the storage bill. Left unclaimed, it was broken to pieces by dockworkers to make room for incoming shipments, leading to the sculptor's ten-year spiral into suicide in 1903.

The Donoghue busts of O'Reilly and O'Brien are along Boston's Irish Heritage Trail. 

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin