Irish/American, c. 1810-1861
In his Dictionary of Irish Artists, Walter Strickland writes that Paul Duggan was quite young when he arrived in America, in about 1810. Nothing is known about how he was occupied during his youth and young manhood or how he was trained in the fundamentals of drawing and painting. The first recorded notice of him is enrollment in the Academy school's antique class in 1842. Duggan continued as a student in the antique class through 1843-44 and 1844-45; in the latter school year he also was registered in the life class. In this period his registration entry includes a note that he was a "student of painting." However, when he again registered for the life class in 1847-48 and for both antique and life classes in 1848-49, he was noted as a "painter and sculptor," indicating that by 1847 he had crossed the line from student to professional.
If Strickland's estimates of age and emigration date were to be accepted, Duggan would have been in his late thirties, at least, when he first took up studies at the Academy. His portrait by Thomas P. Rossiter, presented to the Academy eight years later to confirm Duggan's election as an Associate, shows a man of about thirty to thirty-five years old.
Although Duggan seems to have been primarily thought of, and much admired, by his contemporaries as a portraitist in charcoal and crayon-undoubtedly the source of his livelihood-the subjects of the paintings and drawings he exhibited in Academy annuals from 1844 through 1851 (works that were acquired and exhibited by the American Art-Union in 1848, 1849, and 1852) were religious and historical. Duggan was represented in Academy exhibitions of 1855 and 1856 but with portraits only. He also tried his hand at sculpture: Antediluvian and a John the Baptist, Beheaded were shown at the Academy and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, in the 1840s; and a cast of the Baptist was exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum in 1848. It was Duggan who designed the medals commemorating Washington Allston and John Trumbull that were issued by the American Art-Union in 1847 and 1849, respectively. His apparently curtailed exhibition activity after the 1840s would in part be accountable to his duties as professor of drawing at the Free Academy of the City of New York (which became City College of New York) but also to the onset of tuberculosis.
Sometime in late 1848 or early 1849 Duggan made a brief visit to the West Indies. In 1851 he was in London to procure casts of the Elgin Marbles for the Free Academy. As his illness worsened, he was less able to work. Eventually he moved to London to be near a sister and two brothers, one of whom was Joseph L. Duggan, a composer. His health improved somewhat, so he was able to resume work. In the spring of 1861 he went to Paris for what was intended to be an extended stay but was there only until October.
In his Annals of the Academy, Thomas Cummings reprinted an account of Duggan's later years and death that had appeared in a Paris newspaper. The writer remarked on Duggan's character and talents:
[block quote:]
Those who know Duggan will not need to be reminded how rare and gifted a mind and how warm and true a heart were his. As an artist he is well known in New-York, his old adopted home. He had the soundest and broadest views of art, and that thorough knowledge of anatomy and drawing which qualified him, at a very early age, for his professorship in the New-York Free Academy. . . . [I]f he ever repined at the long years of ill-health, it was that he could not devote himself to the works to which his genius called him.
[end of block quote]
In its annual exhibition of 1862 the Academy accorded Duggan the then-unusual tribute of presenting sixteen of his works as a group (nos. 481-96), forming what would now be called a memorial retrospective within its large, contemporary presentation.
If Strickland's estimates of age and emigration date were to be accepted, Duggan would have been in his late thirties, at least, when he first took up studies at the Academy. His portrait by Thomas P. Rossiter, presented to the Academy eight years later to confirm Duggan's election as an Associate, shows a man of about thirty to thirty-five years old.
Although Duggan seems to have been primarily thought of, and much admired, by his contemporaries as a portraitist in charcoal and crayon-undoubtedly the source of his livelihood-the subjects of the paintings and drawings he exhibited in Academy annuals from 1844 through 1851 (works that were acquired and exhibited by the American Art-Union in 1848, 1849, and 1852) were religious and historical. Duggan was represented in Academy exhibitions of 1855 and 1856 but with portraits only. He also tried his hand at sculpture: Antediluvian and a John the Baptist, Beheaded were shown at the Academy and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, in the 1840s; and a cast of the Baptist was exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum in 1848. It was Duggan who designed the medals commemorating Washington Allston and John Trumbull that were issued by the American Art-Union in 1847 and 1849, respectively. His apparently curtailed exhibition activity after the 1840s would in part be accountable to his duties as professor of drawing at the Free Academy of the City of New York (which became City College of New York) but also to the onset of tuberculosis.
Sometime in late 1848 or early 1849 Duggan made a brief visit to the West Indies. In 1851 he was in London to procure casts of the Elgin Marbles for the Free Academy. As his illness worsened, he was less able to work. Eventually he moved to London to be near a sister and two brothers, one of whom was Joseph L. Duggan, a composer. His health improved somewhat, so he was able to resume work. In the spring of 1861 he went to Paris for what was intended to be an extended stay but was there only until October.
In his Annals of the Academy, Thomas Cummings reprinted an account of Duggan's later years and death that had appeared in a Paris newspaper. The writer remarked on Duggan's character and talents:
[block quote:]
Those who know Duggan will not need to be reminded how rare and gifted a mind and how warm and true a heart were his. As an artist he is well known in New-York, his old adopted home. He had the soundest and broadest views of art, and that thorough knowledge of anatomy and drawing which qualified him, at a very early age, for his professorship in the New-York Free Academy. . . . [I]f he ever repined at the long years of ill-health, it was that he could not devote himself to the works to which his genius called him.
[end of block quote]
In its annual exhibition of 1862 the Academy accorded Duggan the then-unusual tribute of presenting sixteen of his works as a group (nos. 481-96), forming what would now be called a memorial retrospective within its large, contemporary presentation.
