The River Lee rises in the Shehy Mountains above Gougane Barra and snakes 56 miles through Co Cork on its journey to the sea. Over the past few centuries, the Lee has inspired countless artists, a broad selection of whose work can now be seen in a new exhibition, , at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork.
is curated by Dr Michael Waldron, Curator of Collections and Special Projects at the Crawford, and was, he explains, partly inspired by the gallery’s recent acquisition of a painting by the Limerick artist Donald Teskey.
“The Teskey painting,
, is one of a series, and is set in the forests on the Shehy Mountains,” says Waldron. “When we bought it in 2023, I was reminded of the many other works in our collection relating to the Lee. For this exhibition, I made a selection that would bring us along through Gougane Barra and Inchigeela, and downriver to the city and the sea.”
The Crawford Collection extends to over 3,000 works, from the 18th century to the present day.
“With an exhibition like this,” says Waldron, “it’s a great opportunity to delve into the collection and draw out pieces that people know and love, and maybe ones that are seen less often. They all rub shoulders: Nathaniel Grogan’s ; James Beale’s ; John Butt’s ; and George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson’s .
“And then, alongside those, there are drawings by Sarah Grace Carr from 1819 – pencil sketches of ships on the river – and a beautiful, beautiful painting by Edward Yen Sang of Parliament Bridge. I’ve tried to give a sense of the character of the river as it runs its narrow course and then starts to swell as it enters the city, splitting into the different channels that join up again as it progresses down into the harbour.”
Bernadette Kiely’s is another artwork the Crawford has recently added to its collection. “Bernadette’s painting plays with the idea that Cork and Venice, and other low-lying cities, have the same fate awaiting them; with climate change and sea levels rising, we can expect them to flood more often.”
The River Lee has long been prone to flooding, of course, and the Office of Public Works’ plans for new flood walls, embankments and pump chambers to deal with the issue have been the subject of some controversy in recent years, with a Save Cork City campaign proposing alternatives such as a tidal barrier.
“I’m sure these kinds of conversations were also being had when the Inniscarra and Carrigadrohid dams were being built in the 1950s,” says Waldron. “We all acknowledge that the river will flood. It’s about finding the solutions, and maybe we should look to the past to see what the solutions were then.”
The Crawford Art Gallery’s own associations with the river date back to its construction as the Customs House in 1724; it was the 1830s before it became home to the Royal Cork Institution, and 1850 before it was established as the Cork School of Design.
“When the Customs House was built,” says Waldron, “this was reclaimed marshland, and a new area of the city. The site was surrounded on three sides by water, and the fourth side was gated. So we’re very conscious that the river is always present around us. Some of the works in the show are views of the Crawford or our neighbours, such as the old Opera House, and St Mary’s on Pope’s Quay. The new Customs House, further downriver, is also shown in two paintings, including one by Sean Keating from about 1960.
“Another painting we acquired recently is Ita Freeney’s , which gives you a sense of how the port is now moving its operations to Ringaskiddy. You can see, just faintly on the hill line in the painting, evidence of wind turbines and electricity pylons.”
captures many of the changes the river and its environs have experienced over the past few centuries.
“There is an amazing view by Thomas Sautell Roberts, called . You’re looking downriver from Sunday’s Well, and just beyond the city centre proper, you can see the navigation wall before the marina was built, and the river is three times as wide. At low tide, there probably would have been mudflats here and there, but before the building of the marina and the railway and the reclamation of that side of the river – and the building of the Tivoli Docks – the Lee had a lot more space.
“Basically, when we think of the Lower Glanmire Road today, we’re not often very close to the river, but actually it would have hugged the river all the way down. It’s very interesting to use these kinds of portals back in time to get a sense of how we have shaped the river ourselves, and how we continue to do so, and what we might learn from that. I don’t think there’s any hard lessons, but it’s an interesting one to think about.”
is one of the last few exhibitions at the Crawford before it closes for a €29 million redevelopment that will take at least two years to complete.
“It’s an exciting time ahead,” says Waldron, “but we’re aware also that time is of the essence for anyone who would like to fall back in love with the artworks they’ve seen over their lifetimes. I think the exhibition is a little bit of a love letter to Cork, and a celebration of our place in the city.
“Once the gallery closes, the collection will go off-site into storage. We have to empty the entire building, probably for the first time in its history. But we will be sharing parts of the collection with local and national partners over the next few years as well. So you’ll see works from the Crawford collection popping up here and there, sometimes where you’d least expect it.”
- runs at the Gibson Galleries at Crawford Art Gallery until September 22. Further information: crawfordartgallery.ie