Edward Plunkett, 20th Baron of Dunsany

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Hiberno-English Template:Infobox person Edward John Carlos Plunkett, 20th Baron of Dunsany (10 September 1939 – 24 May 2011),<ref name="telegraph" /><ref name="meathchronicle" /> was a modern artist (painter and sculptor), landowner and holder of one of the oldest remaining titles in the Peerage of Ireland. He was the grandson of the author Lord Dunsany. He succeeded to his title in 1999 on the death of his father Randal, 19th Baron of Dunsany.<ref>House of Lords - Minutes and Order Paper - Minutes of Proceedings - 22 November 2001 "The Lord Chancellor reported that Edward John Carlos Plunkett had established his succession to the Barony of Dunsany in the Peerage of Ireland."</ref>

Early life

Plunkett was born in Dublin on September 10, 1939, and brought to Brazil for the years of World War II, returning to Ireland at the age of 7, speaking only Brazilian Portuguese.<ref name="telegraph" /> His parents were divorced in 1947, and he was brought up by his grandparents (he was estranged from his father, and his mother lived primarily in Brazil).<ref name="telegraph" /> Plunkett was educated at Eton College and the Slade School of Fine Art (1957 to 1960), where he showed himself to be a skilled draughtsman.<ref name="telegraph" /><ref name="ICDC 1975" /><ref name="2005 Exhibition Catalogue">Template:Cite book</ref>

Career

Plunkett apprenticed with Loio Persio in Rio de Janeiro from 1961 to 1962, and worked and studied gravure with S.W. Hayter in Paris in 1962. He then attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1962 to 1964.<ref name="telegraph" /> By then an experienced artist in paint and pencil, who later added architectural studies and design work to his skills, Plunkett worked next at Vence in the south of France, where he was the resident painter at the Foundation Karolyi in 1969, then moved to Rome, where he established a studio in Trasteveri. Sometime after a major exhibition in Rome in 1975, he suffered a breakdown in a major partnership and lost much of his art.<ref name="2005 Exhibition Catalogue" /><ref name="telegraph" /><ref name="ICDC 1975" />

Plunkett moved to the USA in 1977, where he developed a studio in Manhattan, New York and took up design as a significant area of work.<ref name="2005 Exhibition Catalogue" /> While in New York, he married and co-founded de Marsillac Plunkett Inc, Designers and Architects, a New York-based partnership for which he provided design elements for his wife's architectural work.<ref name=meathchronicle>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=telegraph>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="2005 Exhibition Catalogue" />

In 1991 Plunkett and his family moved to London, where he kept a studio from 1991 to 1993.<ref name="ICDC 1975" /> He returned to the family's Dunsany estate near the Hill of Tara in 1994, and set up his main studio in the old Estate Office in the castle.<ref name="2005 Exhibition Catalogue" /> While in Ireland, he did design work for companies working with glass bottles, including mineral water and champagne suppliers.<ref name=meathchronicle /><ref name=telegraph />

He was primarily a painter, but also produced sculptures designed by him and manufactured in France or the UK. He painted official portraits of two former Taoisigh (Prime Ministers) of Ireland, Charles Haughey and John Bruton.<ref name="telegraph" /><ref name="Full obituary, Meath Chronicle"/>

Plunkett was exhibited on multiple occasions, the last public showing being a one-man exhibition in Rome.<ref name="Full obituary, Meath Chronicle"/> His appearances included:

• 1968: Mayor Gallery, London
• 1969: ICA, London - "Young and Fantastic" (group exhibition)
• 1970: Living Irish Artists, Dublin and Belfast (group exhibition)
• 1971: ROSC, Galway (group exhibition)
• 1972: The Agnew Somerville Gallery, Dublin
• 1972: The Graphic Biennale, Krakow (group exhibition)
• 1974: Mayor Gallery, London
• 1974: Galleria deli'Obelisco, Roma (group exhibition)
• 1975: Galleria Il Collezionista d'Arte Contemporarea
• 2005: Galleria Candido Portinari, Palazzo Pamphilj, Rome

<ref name="2005 Exhibition Catalogue" /><ref name="ICDC 1975">Template:Cite book</ref>

He was also successful at product design. His last architectural work was the contemporary conversion of an 18th-century wing of Dunsany Castle into a studio and exhibition area.<ref name="Full obituary, Meath Chronicle"/> It is called The Plunkett Gallery and it houses Lord Dunsany's paintings, lithographs, drawings, architectural projects, sculptures and designed objects (perfume bottles, Champagne bottles, and numbered editions of vases and dinner services); the gallery is open to visitors by appointment.

Aside from the gallery at Dunsany Castle, Plunkett's work is held by, among others, the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery in Dublin, the Arts Council of Ireland, the Irish State and its Office of Public Works, the British Board of Works, the National Museum of Poland at Wroclaw and the Centre for Contemporary Art in Toronto, Canada.<ref name="ICDC 1975" />

Personal life

In 1982, Plunkett married Maria Alice Villela de Carvalho, a descendant of the explorer Vasco Da Gama and of Pedro Álvares Cabral, the founder of Brazil.<ref name=telegraph/> Plunkett and his wife, Lady Dunsany, an architect qualified in the US, Ireland and the UK, lived at Dunsany Castle, Dunsany, County Meath, Ireland. They had two sons, Randal Plunkett, 21st Baron of Dunsany, and Oliver Plunkett. In addition, he had two stepchildren. Their father was his first cousin and great friend, Jayme de Marsillac.

He died in May 2011, after some years of chronic illness,<ref name=meathchronicle/> including having cerebral palsy.<ref name="telegraph" /> A private funeral with his widow, sons and step-children, sister, close family friends and staff, was conducted within the ancestral castle. He was buried in the grounds, by the Church of St. Nicholas, the reconsecration of which he had helped arrange for his stepson's marriage.<ref name="Full obituary, Meath Chronicle">Template:Cite news</ref> The six pallbearers were his sons and stepson, a family friend and Dunsany curator, and two members of the Castle staff. A memorial service was held in Dunsany Parish Church a week after the funeral.<ref name="Memorial service, Irish Times">Template:Cite news</ref>

External sources

• Edward Plunkett's website as artist
• Dunsany.net (family website)
• Obituary of Lord Dunsany, The Daily Telegraph, 14 June 2011
• Obituary of Lord Dunsany, The Meath Chronicle, 6 June 2011