Happy Saint Patrick's Day

On this Irish holiday, we salute an Irish hero from the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection.

Robert Emmet (1778–1803) was a fiery, young, Irish revoluntionary whose brave exploits included traveling to France to seek aid for Irish independence from Napoleon, and leading an Irish uprising in Dublin against the British troops. In 1803, a British court sentenced Emmet to death by hanging. During Emmet's trial, he spoke these stirring words: "I wished to procure for my country the guarantee which Washington procured for America. . . . When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then let my epitaph be written. . . . "

This statue of Robert Emmet was commissioned by Irish-Americans wishing to commemorate Ireland's independance and given to the Smithsonian in 1917. A replica of this statue was presented to the National Gallery of Ireland by the United States government in 1922.

Sculptor Jerome Connor, born in Ireland, immigrated to the Unites States and established a sculpture studio in Washington, D.C. He later returned to Ireland, where he died in Dublin in 1943.

Today, the proud figure of Robert Emmet stands at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and S Street, NW in Washington D.C., a few blocks from the Irish embassy. To locate other depictions of Robert Emmet, search our national database, the Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, accessible through our online Study Center.

Pictured: Jerome Connor (1875/76 Ireland–1943 Ireland), Robert Emmet,1916, metal: bronze, 82 x 38 x 23 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Emmet Statue Committee.