‘As a nation, we are deeply indebted,’ says President of sculptor Stuart, dead at 96

Celebrated Irish sculptor Imogen Stuart has died at the age of 96.

Ms Stuart’s creations are housed in public areas and churches across Ireland and the sculptor was recently the subject of a touching documentary.

Born Imogen Werner in Berlin in 1927 into an upper-middleclass family with a Jewish background, she escaped from Nazi Germany along with her family.

Ms Stuart’s grandmother was forced to weartheyellowstarandtowardstheend of the war her father – Bruno E Werner, a newspaper editor and later a cultural diplomat – was almost shipped off to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

President Michael D Higgins paid tribute to Ms Stuart, saying he and wife Sabina were “fortunate” to call Imogen a friend for many years.

Mr Higgins conveyed his “deepest condolences” to Imogen’s daughters Aisling and Aoibheann, and to all of her family and many friends.

The sculptor’s final major piece was unveiled in May 2022 by President Higgins. The granite stone work, carved by Ciaran Byrne, stands opposite the Forty Foot swimming spot in Sandycove and is a depiction of King Laoghaire and Saint Patrick.

“Imogen Stuart made a singular contribution to the enrichment of the lives of so many throughout Irish society, not only through her inspiring and challenging work, but by her committed vision of art as an essential public good, something that must for that very reason be accessible and available to the public,” he said.

“Imogen’s practical commitment to the importance of the cultural space was a broad, inclusive and magnanimous one.

“For her, the shared places that make up the daily lives of our citizens were its central location.

“Thus, presentation of her distinctive artwork was never confined to galleries and other separated spaces, but it can be found in churches, schools, hospitals and shopping centres to be enjoyed by all.

“As a nation, we are all deeply indebted to Imogen for this great spirit of generosity and for the rich wealth of public art which she has left us and which, not only for our generation, has so enhanced our society and our shared environment, but will give joy to future generations.

“Throughout the time we shared, we became fervent admirers, not only of her work, but of this generosity of spirit to which I refer that has ensured that her beautiful sculptures have become firmly rooted in the public space to be shared by all.

“It was a particular privilege, as President of Ireland, to confer on Imogen the Torc that signified her election as a Saoi of Aosdána, the highest tribute by her fellow artists, in September 2015.

“It was a further privilege to receive her major work Pangur Bán to its new location at Áras an Uachtaráin in January 2020, where it remains a greatly enhancing feature of the Áras, enjoyed daily by the many members of the public who visit each year.”

While training as a sculptor after the war in Bavaria, Ms Stuart met Ian Stuart, the grandson of Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne. They married and the couple moved to Ireland in 1949 where she converted to Catholicism.

They lived in Laragh, Co Wicklow, and had three daughters before moving to Sandycove, south Dublin.

The couple separated in the 1970s and later divorced.

During her life in Ireland, Stuart’s passion for sculpture was evident by the works left behind.

She worked mainly on church art, including on St Kevin in Glendalough, Co Wicklow, the Angel of Peace outside St Teresa’s Carmelite Church on Clarendon Street, Dublin, a bronze cross at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Co Armagh and the intricate doors of Galway Cathedral.

Stuart also carved the altar and baptismal font at UCC’s Honan Chapel and a sculpture of Pope John Paul II on the exterior of St Patrick’s College in Maynooth.

In her senior years, Stuart was honoured as a Saoi of national artists’ organisation Aosdána in 2015, and was elected as a professor of sculpture at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 2000.

In 2018, she was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

After 70 years working in her field, Ms Stuart’s grandson, filmmaker Emile Dinneen, made his documentary about her to remember her vast contribution to the arts and her history as a child with Jewish heritage in Berlin during World War II.

The documentary, Imogen from the Heart, which aired on RTÉ One in December, took 13 years to make and Mr Dinneen didn’t expect his beloved grandmother to live to such a senior age.

In December, Mr Dinneen and Ms Stuart spoke to the Irish Independent. She stated at that time: “Nobody in my family ever lived as long as I have. Nobodyonmymother’ssideormyfather’s… everybody died much earlier.”