The Brownswood woman who broke down barriers and created the most enduring of legacies
BORN IN ENNISCORTHY, EILEEN GRAY MOVED TO PARIS AS A YOUNG WOMAN AND BECAME ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED DESIGNERS OF THE 20TH CENTURY
THERE is still some way to go, still some of that glass ceiling left, but for the women of modern-day Ireland the future appears bright.
Theirs is a future which would have seemed unthinkable thirty, twenty, even ten years ago, a future full of possibilities, one which will see them encouraged to follow their dreams, to pursue paths previously closed off, to become scientists, mathematicians, leaders, pioneers, entrepreneurs, whatever their heart desires.
And when they get there, they will show others the way, continue the fight for equality, for parity with those who have for so long stood in their way.
This certainly wasn’t the case in the late 20th century, or even in the early years of this, the 21st century. And the further back you go the deeper the oppression becomes.
Yet there are exceptions to every rule, people who defy convention, regardless of the obstacles placed in front of them.
Eileen Gray was one such person.
Born Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith on August 9, 1878, the Brownswood native would not only defy convention, not only overcome those obstacles, she would become a world leader in her field, an iconic figure who continues to be celebrated decades after her death.
Eileen’s father, James McLaren Smith (18321900), was a painter, her mother, Eveleen (18411918) an Anglo-Irish aristocrat whose lineage could be traced back to King James V.
Clearly these were not your average Enniscorthy family.
While the young Eileen undoubtedly had a better start to life than most, a most affluent upbringing, she displayed the single-mindedness which would serve her well in later life from a young age.
Patricia O’Reilly is a Dublin-born author who has written extensively about Eileen Gray, penning two books based on her life as well as a radio play. She has also travelled the world giving talks on Eileen, attempting to shed some light on a woman who remains a somewhat mysterious figure.
‘From talking to the progeny of locals who have long memories about the habits of those living in the “big house”, Eileen had the reputation of being a strange child, a loner, with a habit of sleeping on the floor outside her parents’ bedroom,’ recalls Patricia.
This strangeness, or perhaps just youthful folly, extended to Eileen ‘on occasion adapting the body of the perambulator to toboggan down the slope leading to the river Slaney.’
But the most significant moment of Eileen’s childhood occurred when she was eleven years old with the departure of her father. Described as a ‘mutually civilised arrangement’ between husband and wife, James left Enniscorthy and relocated to Italy, leaving his young daughter bereft. Although the family visited James frequently, this loss had a deep impact on Eileen and perhaps offers an explanation as to why she chose to pour her love into the family home as a teenage girl. At the age of 18 she began redeveloping Brownswood, displaying the first hint of an artistic flair which would one day see her championed across the globe.
‘In Eileen’s opinion the completed job was an ostentatious mock-Tudor structure,’ says Patricia. ‘ Throughout her life she kept a photograph showing the original building and another of the renovation.’
Of course, that building, the Gray family home is now occupied by Méanscoil Gharman, the Irish-language school, where many of the home’s original features are protected, such as ‘ the half landing stained-glass windows, elegant staircase, plasterwork and sections of the basement kitchens.’
But for all her architectural prowess it was still expected that, having come of age, Eileen would be married off to the most eligible contender and begin a life of motherhood and housekeeping. However, she had other ideas.
‘ The family had aristocratic roots reaching back to Scotland and it was expected she’d conform and marry suitably,’ Patricia says. ‘But she was independent from an early age, her own woman who knew her mind and what she wanted to do.’
What she wanted to do was follow in her father’s footsteps, to explore her creative side. To that end she enrolled in the Slade School of Fine Art in London. However, after a few months she professed herself ‘disappointed at both her talent and the quality of the teaching and began looking around for another creative outlet.’
That outlet would be found in Paris where, against the wishes of her mother, Eileen moved in the early 1900s. She bought an apartment in the exclusive Sainte- Germain-des-Prés area and attended art classes at the Ecole Colarossi and the Academie Julian and persuaded Seizo Sugawara, a master in lacquerwork, to give her lessons in the art of lacquering.
While she concentrated on her work, on creating an opus worthy of the name, Eileen began to explore her sexuality, as Patricia explains.
‘Within the artistic/creative circle she moved in Paris, sexuality was not a problem. Her friends were lesbian, bi-sexual, whatever.
‘Eileen had relationships with both men and women, but, doubtless, the love of her life was Marie-Louise Damien, better known as Damia. She had taken the Parisian nightclub scene by storm when she opened Concert Damia, in Montmarte, the place to be seen during the years of the First World War.
‘Eileen was a frequent visitor, sitting at her table, sipping champagne, smoking. She created the Sirène chairs for Damia, and the two women were a familiar sight, driving along the Champs-Elysée in Eileen’s roadster with Damia’s pet panther sitting on the back seat of the car.’
Their relationship broke up when Damia switched her affection to Gabrielle Bloch, the daughter of a wealthy German banker. And although Eileen and Damia lived within a few streets of each other for decades it is said they never spoke again.
By this point there were competing passions in Eileen’s life, her work often rendering all other matters obsolete. She began working on ‘Le Destin’ - a four-panel lacquered screen inspired by a drawing reputed to be of a madman incarcerated in La Salpetrière hospital - and the rest of the world simply faded into the background.
‘During the months of creating ‘Le Destin’ she lived like a hermit,’ says Patricia. ‘She slept little and survived on chocolate and cigarettes.
‘She ignored Picasso’s (yes, that Picasso) invitations - he enjoyed discussing cubism with her - shunned the fashionable soirees of Romain Brooks and Natalie Barney; avoided dining with Rodin; and disregarded her friend, Kathleen Bruce, who later married Scott of the Antarctic. Even visits from Jessie Gavin, her lover at the time, were regarded as an interruption.’
‘Le Destin’ caught the attention of several notable figures in the arts world and Eileen was commissioned to do further pieces. But like everyone else in France her ambitions were cut short by the onset of war in 1914. Never one to take a backseat in proceedings, Eileen attained a driving license and drove an ambulance during the early days of World War I, ferrying casualties to hospital as the Allies repelled the German forces.
Only the illness, and subsequent passing, of her mother cut short Eileen’s war-effort.
Upon resuming her career in the post-war years, Eileen designed and created a piece which, 90 years after her death, would sell at auction for €22 million.
‘ The Dragon Armchair’, so named because of the ‘ornate sculptures on its sweeping armrests’ was a ‘canoe-shaped day bed, resembling a seashell, in textured brown lacquer and silver leaf, raised on twelve arches, a form without precedence in furniture design.’
Standing just 24cm tall it was purchased by Parisian art-dealer Cheska Vallois at an auction held by Christie’s in 2009. Interestingly, the chair was owned by Yves St Laurent up until his death, Vallois having sold it to him in the 1970s.
Gray’s chair remains the second-most expensive piece of furniture ever made, only an 18th-century Badmington cabinet (€27.5m) selling for more.
While she would never earn that level of riches or acclaim during her own lifetime, The Dragon Armchair did propel Eileen’s career to new heights.
AS International Women’s Day approaches on March 8, it’s time to celebrate the remarkable contribution of women in business throughout County Wexford. shining example of the trail-blazing female entrepreneurs who are making a mark locally, nationally, and internationally is the award-winning Gorey-based contemporary jewellery designer Blaithín Ennis who recently realised a long-held ambition of showcasing her work at London Fashion Week.
Blaithín’s collaboration with the famous fashion designer Paul Costelloe came about after she met him last October in Brown Thomas where she was selling her ‘Freyja’ collection as part of a CREATE project in the Dublin store.
It was a lovely lockdown surprise when Costelloe’s team contacted Bláithín a few weeks ago requesting some of her jewellery for his recent catwalk show in London.
Bláithín said London Fashion Week has been a personal ambition for many years and it was an incredible honour to be involved in the show as Costelloe is one of the most renowned and respected designers in the Irish and British fashion industry with customers including members of the British royal family.
The Wexford designer whose distinctive pieces have been worn by celebrities including Nicole Scherzinger, Cheryl Cole, and Vogue Williams, has enjoyed increasing success since launching her own label in 2012 after graduating from the
National College of Art and Design. in 2014, she was named Jewellery Designer of the Year in the Irish Fashion Innovation Awards.
Talented Wexford women like Bláithín are making their mark in all areas of business from finance, insurance and hospitality to food production, beauty, tourism, travel, property, education, and the creative arts.
There is no area in which innovative and creative women are not involved at ownership or management level from engineering and manufacturing to construction and science, where their ambition, leadership and ability contributes significantly to the success and economic prosperity of the county.
These are confident women of whom we can all be proud. They show it can be done and in doing so, they are role models creating a tradition of successful women in business that inspires other women to follow and to believe that it is achievable for them too.
Women in business in Wexford don’t have to go it alone - they can avail of a wide range of financial, training and mentoring supports through the Local Enterprise Office which is continuing to run the hugely popular Women in Business Network during lockdown, with monthly Zoom talks and workshops by successful female entrepreneurs from various fields of business.
Large numbers of businesswomen have been tuning in to the free workshops which this month featured Larissa Feeney, founder of the award-winning Accountants Online who spoke about her journey from sole practitioner to a firm of chartered and certified accountants serving over 1,800 clients from Ireland and the UK.
On March 25, from 11.30 to 1 p.m., the speaker will be Chupi Sweetman Durney, designer of timeless heirloom jewellery celebrating Ireland’s design heritage - her jewellery creations started out as a hobby and now sell to 67 countries around the work.
The Women in Business Network is an invaluable resource for female entrepreneurs in the county, encouraging them to develop new skills and learn best practice from the experience of others, to maximise their potential for success, and unsurprisingly, the take-up of the programmes on offer is always high.
‘ There are so many success stories of women in County Wexford who continue to do amazing things across every sector of business’, said Liz Hore, Head of Enterprise at Wexford LEO in Wexford County Council.