Miss Maud Gonne, 1896

Photo by Reutlinger.
[graphic] /
Main Creator: Reutlinger Photography Studio, photographers
Summary:Three-quarter length, directed left, facing front standing portrait of Maud Gonne.
In collection: Irish Political Figures Photographic Collection
Format: Photo
Language:English
Published / Created: Paris : Reutlinger, 1896.
Subjects:
Notes:Title inscribed on verso in ink with initals "C.H." in u.l. and reference in pencil "Box LXX Folder 6(8)".

Inscription l.r. in ink "To M[r?] Harry, a fellow nationalist Maud Gonne April 19th '96 Paris".

Pink cabinet card from Reutlinger with address and details of photographers of verso "21, Boulevard Montmartre, Paris".

Additional information about this photograph is available on the National Library of Ireland's Flickr Commons photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/39627339834/

Physical description: 1 cabinet card : in mylar. b&w ; 16.4 x 10.7 cm ;

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Arrangement:Item
{NOTE: This image was originally posted on Thursday 15 Feb 2018. While an error led to its deletion, we have attempted to restore as much of the origiinal text/comments/insights as possible}
Earlier this week we had Darrell Figgis of whom very little was known - but today we have a lady whose name remains in almost everyday use. Maud Gonne is one of those few women in history who is known for herself rather than for her husband. Having said that, while we know of her involvement with the early years of the last century and many of the characters in the Ireland at that time, we know little of her origins and her own family. Perhaps there will be some learning all round.
Based on the inputs on the inscription, the suggestion is that it reads:
 To M[r?] Harvey[?] / A fellow nationalist
 Maud Gonne / April 19th [18]96 / Paris
If so, this photo dates from when Maud Gonne was living in Paris. Aged then in her late 20s, she became the editor of the French language nationalist paper, L'Irlande Libre by the late 1890s. She would later marry Major John MacBride, turning down the advances of WB Yeats (who, as any Irish schoolchild will tell you, didn't take the rejection especially well). The suggestion is that the Mr Harvey mentioned in the inscription was Edmund Harvey. He was a writer and activist who authored several pamphlets for the women's suffrage movement - including "The Position of Irishwomen in Local Administration" published the same year as this photo. We have mapped the image to Reutlinger's photographic studio at 21 Boulevard Montmartre in Paris....
Photographers: Reutlinger, Paris
Date: c.1896.
NLI Ref: NPA POLF82
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI's catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie.

Comments

National Library of Ireland on The Commons
NOTE: This image was originally posted on Thursday 15 Feb 2018. While an error led to its deletion, we have attempted to restore as many of the comments/insights as possible. Restored (by proxy) comments below. Apologies again all.
Posted: 18.02.2018  
 
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Partially restored comments- -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] said: According to the Great God of Google, Reutlinger photographic studio was at 21 Boulevard Montmartre in Paris. BoulevardView And a bit of Reutlinger history - including: "... Léopold continued to run the studio until he lost an eye in an accident with a champagne cork in 1930..... -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/47297387@N03] said: Given by Maud "To M[...] Harvey fellow Nationalist" on April 19th '96 in Paris. Mr Harvey? McHarvey? That was a Sunday. -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/scorbet] said: Carol Maddock - Edmund Harvey according to this collection list. -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/47297387@N03] said: Sharon Corbet - Thanks Sharon! -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnspooner] said: In 1901 The Tatler published a full-page picture of Maud Gonne as "The Irish Joan of Arc". I mention this only because the photo was credited to Chancellor of Dublin, which means she was very probably conveyed to the 'Galleries' by means of his Movable Boudoir. [New readers: the term "Movavble Boudoir" is explained in the comments here] -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/scorbet] said: Here's Edmund Harvey in the 1901 census in Waterford. He write pamphlets apparently, including "Ireland's parliamentary representation: a comparison of the treatment of minorities in the United States, and in the British Isles". -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/scorbet] said: Maud Gonne's wiki page with some info on her family and early life, as requested... -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam2cents] said: She had more than one husband at that, I think. And she was mistress to a French politician before she met McBride. Actually, that's something that really grates - W. B. Yeats is made out like a hero today but out of jealousy of McBride he spread pretty serious stories about him. When McBride died Yeats waited a short while and asked Maud Gonne to {comment only partially restored - some lost to the digital ether - apologies to sam2cents}. -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam2cents] said: By the way... I love this portrait. She was a babe in her day! -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/scorbet] said: John Spooner - Reutlingers also seemed to have a "Movable Boudoir" - at least their cards advertised that they had both a telephone and an "ascenseur". -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/66151649@N02] said: Reutlinger died in 1888. His enterprise was still in business it seems. -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/47297387@N03] said: Sam We have a life-size photo of Maud here at Library Towers, taken in 1893. The plate was ginormous (technical term) - "This portrait was taken using a specially designed camera built by J. V. Robinson of Malahide and capable of taking plates as large as six feet by four feet. It required two men to work the camera from the inside." -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam2cents] said: Carol Maddock That sounds like an incredible camera - whatever happened to it? Would I be right in thinking the National Library doesn't have a scanner quite big enough for the 6'x4's? -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/47297387@N03] said: Sam I went off for a rummage seeking Edward Chandler's book, Photography in Ireland (2001), and found this great information for camera/developer nerds everywhere on that not quite life-sized image of Maud, as I claimed above. If she was 1.83m, as the always truthful internet tells me, then she was just over 6ft. tall in old money, and this image was {comment only partially restored - some lost to the digital ether - apologies to carol}. -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/47297387@N03] said: Sam P.S. I did ask our Digital Elves if they had a scanner big enough, but they said that if they told me, then they'd have to kill me. -------------------------- @35355265@N06 said: The Hannah Arendt of WW1, "an inconceivable madness". -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnspooner] said: Sam Here is J V Robinson's obituary in the Irish Times on Monday 21 October 1901. -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam2cents] said: John Spooner - Thanks John! I like the line 'in this age of universal electric lighting'. -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/66151649@N02] said: Miss Gonne belongs to an English and Protestant family; it was because she owned land in Ireland that she had the opportunity to witness the painful spectacle of Irish misery and resolved to relieve it. "I gave my life to Ireland, she tells us, until the home ride is stolen. But I did not give up the religion of my fathers. Miss Maud, tall and {comment partially lost - apologies} -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/66151649@N02] said: Maud Gonne gave lectures. In a monotonous and tireless voice, taking from her aquamarine eyes the sky to witness, she narrated the misery of the peasants of her country, the atrocities of landlords, and dedicated to the wrath of Hell the Protestants of Ulster she called "these abominable Orangist hypocrites". Le Cri de Paris / dir. P. Dollfus / 1918-05-26 -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam2cents] said: Carol Maddock - J. V. Robinson must have been a pretty successful photographer in the first place to afford such a device, and very proficient at the scientific arts involved to have designed such a beast. Someone worth knowing way more about. As for Maud Gonne, I had no idea she was so tall, but I see in group photos she towers over other women. Her daughter, the one Yeats was interested in, was very -------------------------- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/66151649@N02] said: She was big in France. I'll post some links in a bit... Her son founded Amnsty International. She was six foot tall with auburn hair and fire in her eyes. Rrrrrr. --------------------------
Posted: 18.02.2018  
 
La Belle Province
I love that direct gaze, but Maud, please put down the knitting needles! That boa has a mind of its own.
Posted: 18.02.2018  
 
oaktree_brian_1976
I've attempted to translate the truncated comment above: Miss Gonne belongs to an English and Protestant family; it was because she owned land in Ireland that she had the opportunity to witness the painful spectacle of Irish misery and resolved to relieve it. "I gave my life to Ireland, she tells us, until the home rule voted upon. But I did not give up the religion of my fathers. Miss Maud, tall and slender, with a frail appearance, conceals a virile energy. Her face, seen from afar, seems of a fine, slightly imprecise sweetness; as we approach we sees her features accentuated, to reveal the marks of the voluntary force: one discovers, almost, a man, where one had foreseen almost an angel of the ceiling. The eyes, immense and clear, denounce the ardent faith which governs, at Miss Maud's, practical vigor. As she was asked the origin of her stay in France: "I was obliged," she replied, "to stay there, because the fatigue of the meetings in the open air had weakened my chest. I had a broken vessel, and the doctors ordered me a season in the South, which is how I came to know you." La Femme newspaper, March 15, 1892. gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5510090w/f6.item
Posted: 18.02.2018  
 
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
It's déjà vu all over aGonne ! Good work [https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/] Maud speaks (virtually spooky) ... youtu.be/tCUmxjA-Xbs youtu.be/AMW8M_Xn4O4
Posted: 19.02.2018  
 
domenico milella
Congratulation for your beautiful Album.
Posted: 19.02.2018  
 
Foxglove
glad to see that what once was . . gone has returned
Posted: 21.02.2018  
 
Rhys Chris Pease
Sean McBride , her son, was born in Paris and when I met him in the 1980's he still had a slight french accent. He was a remarkable man being arrested and charged with the assassination of Kevin O'Higgins in 1927 and becoming a Cabinet Minister 21 years later. He also won both the Nobel peace Prize in 1974 and the Lenin peace Prize 1975-76
Posted: 23.02.2018  
 
Dr. Ilia
Great composition
Posted: 26.02.2018