Imogen Stuart

Imogen Stuart (born 1927) is a German-Irishsculptor.

Stuart was born to the German art critic Bruno E. Werner and took up sculpting at a young age. As the Nazi Party gained more power, her mother, she, and her sister left the country. After World War II they united with Werner.

In 1945 Stuart began studying under Otto Hitzberger, who taught her modelling, carving, and relief work using different materials. She met her future husband, the Irishman Ian Stuart, in 1948, and in 1949 the two went to Ireland together. The young sculptor, though born a Lutheran, became interested in Irish religious heritage and converted to Roman Catholicism. The two married in 1951 and took up residence in Laragh Castle near Glendalough. In their twenty-one years of marriage The Stuarts had three daughters: Aoibheann, Siobhan and Aisling.

Read more about Imogen Stuart on her official website, launched in 2015.

The Sisters of Mercy commissioned three major pieces from Stuart in 1958. Since then further pieces have been added to the College collection where 15 pieces of Imogen's artwork are on display.

She works in wood, bronze, stone, steel, clay and terracotta. Her best-known works are probably the monumental Pope John Paul II in St. Patrick's College, Maynooth and the carved altar in the University College Cork chapel. She is clearly the most prolific sculptor for the Church in Ireland, and her works can be seen in chapels and churches across the country. Nevertheless, her work extends well beyond the Church, including a commissioned bust of the ex-President Mary Robinson which sits in Áras an Uachtaráin (the presidential residence in Dublin). A book on her work and life was published in 2002 (Imogen Stuart, Four Courts Press), with an introduction by Brian Fallon and a personal tribute by Peter Harbison.

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