The Irish standard., 1905-10-07

future they hope to add the making
of handmade furniture (for which at
one time Dublin was justly famous),
the making Of pottery, enamel work
rived at this point it may safely be
assumed they will desire more worlds
to conquer, and will then, perhaps, to
make an entirely new departure, start
in addition a market garden, with
scientific poultry rearing and beekeep-
ing, for which the extensive grounds
surrounding Dun Emer are admirably
adapted These last possible develop
ments, however, domestic, rather than
artistic, are by no means in imme-
diate contemplation.
Miss Gleeson herself is responsible
for the rugs, carpets and tapestries.
She studied her art diligently for years
and learned to design and weave ex-
quisite fabrics such as are made here
To Miss Lily Yeats is due the sue
that her work is instinct with beauty
originality and simplicity is not sur
prising when one knows that added
to her own great natural artistic sense
she has the inestimable advantage Of
having long been pupil of that self
styled idle singer of an empty day."
the man was himself supreme artist
master of many arts, William Morris
The bookbinding is in the capable
hands of Miss Norah Fitzpatrick, who
after long course of training under
Miss Alice Pettinson, in London, is
now devoting her powers to rival
specimens of Irish binding in the eigh-
teenth century.
All designs are original which ema-
nate from here-carpets rugs, tapes
tries, embroideries, book plates and
bindings; here, at least, original
thought is applied to the essential ele-
ment of design, for on this point,
which is, after all, the root of the
matter in all art work, Miss Gleeson
and her colleagues are entirely at one
They would have the designs to be
Enthusiastically Irish, and in the
spirit and tradition of the country
for they realize sadly that Irish art
except for few ancient examples, has
had no separate existence for several
centuries; it has been merely an echo
of England. They are making things
which will come to be recognized as
Irish both i'll style and color, and to
do that they train their girls to be
something more than mere crafts
women who execute perhaps perfectly
but at the same time mechanically.
In the carpet making, for instance
it would be quite easy to copy the
designs of Oriental carpets, but Miss
Gleeson insists again and again that
whatever comes from Dun Emer shall
be Celtic in feeling as well as in fact;
as she truly says, since other coun-
tries have a certain artistic note, and
one can point to rug or carpet and
say that it is Persian, to a piece of
embroidery and say that it is Chinese
TO certain kinds of pottery or earthen-
ware and know them to be Danish, to
particular kind of furniture and un-
|hesitatingly affirm it to be Japanese,
therefore why should one not be able
|instinctively to recognize another ar
ticle as Irish?
To attain this result the minds of
the young pupils at Dun Emer are
trained by teaching them drawing and
painting. They have painting lessons
once a week. when they paint from
nature, and afterward as they acquire
facility, they are taught design, and
thus the girls acquire an instinct for
design which is unfortunately but too
rare. When one realizes that these
are mostly village peasant girls.
brought up, for :he most part, in un-
lovely homes, where the bare neces-
saries of life are not always procura-
bic, and certainly not in a House
Beautiful" when also, at the begin
ming of their training they have really