The Cork sculptor John Hogan was born at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and became Ireland's most distinguished Neo-classical sculptor. According to his biographer John Turpin, he was:-

"The sculptor who typified resurgent Catholic Ireland, and his early contract with the learned Bishop Murphy laid this foundation."

Many of his important sculptures in marble and plaster, are in the Crawford Gallery's collection.

He was born at Tallow, Co. Waterford on 14th October, 1800, third child of carpenter and builder John Hogan of Cork and Frances Cox of an 'ascendency' family in Dunmanway. The following year the family moved to Cork, and in 1816 young John was apprenticed to a solicitor. In 1818 he joined the architectural firm of Thomas Deane. Encouraged by Deane he began to draw architectural designs, and carve figures in wood. He attended anatomy lessons given by the eminent Dr. Woodroffe (and the highly accurate skeleton which Hogan carved in pinewood in 1819 was later used in Woodroffe's lectures).

In 1818 the collection of papal casts arrived in Cork and from c.1820-23 Hogan studied these full-time. He was a contemporary of Daniel Maclise and Samuel Forde and he in particular gained much from these casts. He executed studies of hands, legs and feet in wood, and his life-size figure of Minerva attracted attention. He carved twenty-seven wood statues and a relief panel of Leonardo's Last Supper for Dr. Murphy, Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts in 1821, and at the Royal Irish Institution in Dublin. A visitor to the Academy saw the students at work and noted:-

"There was a young man who attained to considerable perfection in copying the statues and it was thought he should go to Rome to perfect his education, having exhibited considerable talent. His name was Hogan." (Turpin p.26)

Hogan had become estranged from Deane, but in 1823 W. P. Carey gained sponsorship from the R.I.I. for him to study in Italy. In November he left Cork for Dublin, thence to London in February, 1824, meeting Chantrey and Lawrence there. He travelled to Paris and Florence and arrived in Rome on Palm Sunday. He drew from life in The British Academy and studied in the Vatican Museum. Renewed sponsorship from Carey and others enabled Hogan to remain in Rome and rent a studio there. His talent was widely admired by Gibson and Thorwaldsen, and other foreign artists in Rome.

He returned home in November, 1829 (the year of Catholic Emancipation).
Three of his pieces, including The Dead Christ and The Drunken Faun
(1826) which he had completed in Rome, were shown at the R.I.I.
(The Dead Christ again at the RA in 1833. His return visits to Ireland brought him commissions (some of which he would complete in Rome). In 1834, for instance, he executed busts of three prominent Cork figures: Bishop Murphy, James Murphy and Daniel Murphy.

He received several awards both at home and abroad; a gold medal at the Cork Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts in 1832, a gold medal at the RDS in 1836, and in 1837 he was elected member to the prestigious Virtuosi de Pantheon in Rome. Hogan married an Italian girl, Cornelia Bevigani the following year.

1843 was the year of Repeal in Ireland and in October Hogan was at Daniel O'Connell's massive meeting at Mullaghmast. He was commissioned to execute a sculpture of O'Connell for the Repeal Association (This was erected in Dublin and his Crawford Statue in Cork in 1846). He was deeply troubled by the Famine and in 1847 sent the Mayor of Cork £20 for the relief of famine victims in West Cork. Hogan visited the marble quarries at Saravezza. During the 1848 Revolution he was unwillingly enrolled in the New National Guard. Early the following year a Roman Republic was declared and Hogan decided to return to Ireland with his wife and family (he had resided in Rome for twenty-four years).

They settled in Dublin, at 14 Wentworth Place. Work was hard to find in the years following the Famine, but gradually he obtained commissions (eg.of O'Connell, of Thomas Davis, and for St. John's Cathedral, Newfoundland). He exhibited at the RA in 1850 and at the RHA in 1844, 1850-54 (eg: the original model of the Deposition in 1851). But generally he did not exhibit much, and refused to join the RHA. He was a proud, independent man, who remained aloof from his fellow-artists. He was assisted by his son John Valentine Hogan and James Cahill. In the final year of his life he was unable to work because of ill-health. He went into his studio to see his unfinished works, and instructed his assistants:-

"Finish it well, boys, I shall never handle the chisel more."

He died at home a few days later, 27th March, 1858, and was buried at Glasnevin. His son completed some unfinished works (eg: The Transformation, exhibited at the RHA in 1878).

Really Hogan's finest work was executed in Rome between 1837-49, before his departure for Ireland. He was an eclectic sculptor, borrowing from Canova, Thorwaldsen and other contemporaries, inspired by antique sculpture and Christian themes, yet with naturalistic interests. He was principally a sculptor of portraits and funerary monuments. According to John Turpin his sculpture of the reclining male nude and of children is his finest work.

Ref:                       
A Dictionary John Hogan. Irish Neoclassical Sculptor in Rome 1800-1858 by John Turpin 1982 (Irish Academic Press)
Centenary of Renowned Irish Sculptor by Diarmuid ODonobhain. (5 articles in 'The Cork Examiner' 28th March-11th April, 1958)