Oliver Sheppard

Oliver Sheppard RHA (1865 – 14 September 1941) was an Irish sculptor, most famous for his 1911 bronze statue of the mythical Cuchullain dying in battle.

Sheppard was born at Cookstown, County Tyrone to artisan parents from Dublin, and he was later based in Dublin for almost all of his life, having travelled widely across Europe. His wife Rosie died in 1931, with whom he had several children. They lived at Howth and 30 Pembroke Road in central Dublin.

His main influence was the Frenchman Édouard Lantéri who taught him at the Royal College of Art in London, and then at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (DMSA) in Dublin (now the NCAD), where he later became a lecturer.

From 1902 to 1937 Sheppard taught sculpture at the DMSA, that was renamed the National College of Art in 1936 (today the NCAD). His annual stipend was £250 but for this he only had to lecture on three mornings a week, allowing him plenty of time for work on commissioned projects. One of his most famous students was the sculptor Kathleen Cox.

As a prominent sculptor Sheppard was a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Royal Dublin Society, and was made a governor of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1925–41.

He was generally critical of the low standards of sculpture in Ireland: "For the last sixty years or so thousands of figures and groups have been executed in Dublin for ecclesiastical purposes, and, with one or two exceptions ... was not up to a reasonable standard. The making of a work of art hardly entered into it at all. The sculptor, well trained and properly encouraged, should collaborate with the architect."

Sheppard also exhibited works at European exhibitions in his lifetime, occasionally winning prizes.

Sheppard was in the minority of Irish Protestants who supported independence, starting with support for the Irish Parliamentary Party in the 1880s, when he was an art student.

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