Peter Murray discusses the exotic life of Cork-born wood-engraver, Robert Gibbings, whose retrospective can be seen at the Crawford Gallery of Art
Although born into a pietistic family in Cork in 1889, the life of wood-engraver and writer Robert Gibbings was colourful and hedonistic (Fig 1). Robert’s father Edward, rector of Kinsale and later Carrigrohane, was a religious and kindly man, who, Gibbings said, “could hardly put on his boots without muttering a prayer”. His mother Caroline was the daughter of Robert Day, whose house “Myrtle Hill” at Sunday’s Well contained a large collection of artefacts, from Celtic bronzes to Polynesian maces
