30-04-2025
Meet Casimir Markievicz - a Polish artist in bohemian Dublin
In Ireland, the name 'Markievicz' immediately conjures the figure of Constance Markievicz, Irish revolutionary heroine. For the first time, a new exhibition explores the artistic life and work of her Polish husband, Casimir Markievicz – painter, playwright, and larger-than-life personality – and his place in Dublin's bohemian circles on the eve of the Revolution.
Dr Emily Mark-FitzGerald introduces Casimir Markievicz: A Polish Artist in Bohemian Dublin below.
On a Paris evening in early 1899, two Polish friends arrived at a ball attended by fellow international art students, drawn to the hedonistic atmosphere of the fin-de-siècle city.
One of the young men – the writer Stefan Krzywoszewski – was struck by a young Irishwoman present, 'who appeared to be about twenty years of age… conspicuous for her proud bearing. She was a living Rossetti or Burne-Jones'. Seizing his friend, Casimir Markievicz, he insisted 'Do dance with this lady. You will be well matched in height and bearing.' Thus began one account of the first meeting of Constance Gore-Booth (1868-1927) and Casimir Markievicz (1874-1932), who married in 1900 after a whirlwind courtship in Paris.
From 1903-1913, 'Casi and Con', as they affectionately referred to one another, made Dublin their home. In a city teeming with rival theatrical factions, writers, and visionaries of the Irish Revival, they pursued their artistic ambitions. Cycling around Dublin with paint and canvases strapped to their bicycles, they revelled in (and led) its avant-garde clubs and salons, whilst also gliding amongst the elite of Dublin Castle. It was a decade of competing visions of what art could be, of how theatre and art might inform politics (and vice versa), and what fate lay ahead for Ireland as a nation.
Constance Markievicz would go on to become one of Ireland's revolutionary heroines – but a new exhibition on show in Dublin Castle from 22 April to 15 September 2025 – Casimir Markievicz: A Polish Artist in Bohemian Dublin (1903-13) – brings Casimir's life and work back into the frame. Casimir's background from a Polish landed family settled in Ukraine mirrored Constance's upper-class upbringing in Lissadell, Co Sligo, and both sought to rebel against bourgeois society by adopting an unconventional lifestyle and marriage. The exhibition explores Casimir's involvement in Dublin's vibrant cultural life as a painter, playwright, and bon vivant, as well as the interconnections between Ireland, Poland, and Ukraine. Rarely-seen paintings and photographs created by Casimir and Constance of Ukraine's landscapes and people, drawn from private Markievicz family collections, are a particular highlight.
The exhibition evokes this vibrant period of Dublin with more than eighty paintings, drawings, photographs and objects loaned from the public collections of the National Gallery, Crawford Gallery, Model in Sligo, Hugh Lane Gallery, National Museum, National Library, Pearse Museum, UCD Special Collections, and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland; and works from private collections including Lissadell House, United Arts Club, and Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth. Sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Dublin, and co-produced with the OPW/Dublin Castle, the exhibition testifies to the irrepressible spirit of Casimir Markievicz, embodied in the motto of the Dublin 'Reality League' club he founded: Long Live Life!
Dr Emily Mark-FitzGerald is Professor of Art History and Cultural Policy at University College Dublin. Along with Dr Kathryn Milligan (NCAD) she is curator of Casimir Markievicz: A Polish Artist in Bohemian Dublin, on show in Dublin Castle from 22nd April – 14th September 2025 - find out more here.
