{{short description|Irish artist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = Lady | name = Harriet Kavanagh | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = Harriet Margaret Le Poer Trench | birth_date = 13 October 1799 | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1885|07|14|1799|10|13|df=yes}} | death_place = Ballyragget Lodge, County Kilkenny | resting_place = St Mullin's Abbey, Borris, County Carlow | citizenship = | known_for = travelling and Egyptology collections | notable_works = | father = Richard Le Poer Trench |mother=Henrietta Margaret Staples | spouse ={{marriage|Thomas Kavanagh|28 Feb 1825}} | relatives = | signature = }}
Lady '''Harriet Kavanagh''' (13 October 1799 – 14 July 1885) was an Irish artist, traveller, and antiquarian,<ref name=Murphy>{{cite book|last1=Murphy|first1=David|editor1-last=McGuire|editor1-first=James|editor2-last=Quinn|editor2-first=James|title=Dictionary of Irish Biography|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|chapter=Kavanagh, Lady Harriet Margaret }}</ref> described as a "woman of high culture and of unusual artistic power." She is thought to be the first Irish female traveller to Egypt.<ref name=Jackson />
==Early life and family== Harriet Kavanagh was born Lady Harriet Margaret Le Poer Trench on 13 October 1799. She was the second daughter of Richard Le Poer Trench and Henrietta Margaret Le Poer Trench (née Staples), with three brothers and three sisters. She married Thomas Kavanagh of Borris House, County Carlow on 28 February 1825, as his second wife.<ref name=Murphy /> The couple had four children, three sons Charles, Thomas, Arthur, and one daughter, Harriet or "Hoddy."<ref name=Jackson>{{cite web|last1=Jackson|first1=Emmet|title=Lady Harriet Kavanagh|url=http://www.irishegyptology.com/ladyharrietkavanagh/|website=Irish Egyptology|accessdate=16 July 2015}}</ref>
Her third son, Arthur MacMorrough Kavanagh, was born without fully formed limbs. Some attributed the disability to a peasant's curse, whilst others have speculated it was due to Lady Kavanagh taking laudanum during her pregnancy.<ref name=Bunbury>{{cite web|last1=Bunbury|first1=Turtle|title=The Incredible Arthur MacMorrough Kavanagh (1831 – 1889)|url=http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_heroes/hist_hero_arthur_kavanagh.html|website=Turtle Bunbury|accessdate=16 July 2015}}</ref> Kavanagh refused to treat her son differently to his siblings, and with the help of local doctor Francis Boxwell, raised him as a normal child. During his initial education, Kavanagh taught Arthur herself, teaching him to paint and then write by holding brushes and pens in his mouth.<ref name=Murphy /> With the help of the surgeon Sir Philip Crampton, she has a mechanical wheelchair constructed for Arthur, and also encouraged him to ride horses and engage in other outdoor activities.<ref name=Bunbury /> Kavanagh's husband died after 12 years of marriage, in 1837.<ref name=Jackson />
==Travelling== In 1846, Kavanagh took her children to learn French in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, later travelling to Rome. As an antiquarian, Kavanagh also wanted to visit Egypt and the Holy Land, setting off on the long journey from Marseille in October 1846. Accompanying her were her daughter, Harriet, her two sons, Thomas and Arthur, their tutor, the Rev. David Wood and a maid, Miss Hudson.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Finn |first=Clodagh |date=2022-12-17 |title=Clodagh Finn: The Irish mummy who went to Egypt in 1846 – with three children in tow |url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/arid-41030138.html |access-date=2022-12-17 |website=Irish Examiner |language=en}}</ref> In Cairo, she hired two feluccas with Arab crews, and visited archaeological sites along the Nile, such as Thebes, Karnak, and the Nubia region. From there, Kavanagh visited sites of biblical interest, including Tyre, Sidon, and Rhoda Island. She negotiated with Bedouin chiefs in Aqaba, hiring camels and Bedouin guides to travel to Hebron.<ref name=Murphy /> She visited harems and a slave market and recorded the journey's incidents in her diary, including her son Arthur's accidental near drowning when he fell off their boat whilst fishing.<ref name=":0" />
Whilst in Cairo, Kavanagh became acquainted with a number of fellow Europeans, including Sir Charles Murray, Sophia Lane Poole, and Edward William Lane. Harriet Martineau travelled with the party from Cairo to the Holy Land.<ref name="Jackson" />
Whilst visiting Jerusalem in Easter 1847, she bore witness to a confrontation over the control of holy places between Roman and Orthodox Catholics priests. She went on to visit Petra, the Sinai Peninsula, Beirut, Smyrna, and Constantinople. The group spent a second winter in Egypt before travelling to the Black Sea before returning to Marseille in April 1848. Much of these journeys were conducted on horse or camel-back, with one desert crossing taking 36 days. Kavanagh later commented on her travels as a woman, stating "quite enough danger to make it a very exciting business."<ref name=Murphy />
In 1850 and 1852, Kavanagh travelled to Corfu, returning to Borris with samples of Greek lace. She taught a number of her tenants to copy these designs, which led to the establishment of a local lace-making industry.<ref name=Murphy /> She was elected to the Kilkenny Archaeological Society in 1851.<ref name=Jackson />
==Later life== Kavanagh moved to Ballyragget Lodge, County Kilkenny in 1860, dying there on 14 July 1885. She is buried in St Mullin's Abbey, Borris in County Carlow. Kavanagh documented her travels in journals, with drawings and paintings of the sites she visited. These are held by the Kavanagh family, along with an oil portrait and a self-portrait. Her collection of roughly 300 Egyptian antiquities were donated to the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland after her death.<ref name=":0" /> These collections were later moved to the National Museum of Ireland, and form a core element of the Museum's Egyptian collection. Copies of two of her watercolours, a self-portrait, and a landscape are on display in the Museum.<ref name=Murphy />
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *Jackson, Emmet. (2013) "Lady Harriet Kavanagh" In: Fortenberry, Diane, ''Souvenirs and New Ideas''. Oxford, Oxbow Books.
==External links== *[http://www.photo-arago.fr/Archive/Deux-portraits-:-Lady-Harriette-Kavanagh-et-une-femme-de-profil-en-buste-2C6NU0IY9C7M.html A photograph of Lady Kavanagh] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304070704/http://www.photo-arago.fr/Archive/Deux-portraits-:-Lady-Harriette-Kavanagh-et-une-femme-de-profil-en-buste-2C6NU0IY9C7M.html |date=4 March 2016 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kavanagh, Harriet}} Category:1799 births Category:1885 deaths Category:19th-century Irish painters Category:Irish non-fiction writers Category:Irish women non-fiction writers Category:Irish women writers Category:19th-century Irish women writers Category:Daughters of Irish earls Category:Members of Kilkenny Archaeological Society Category:19th-century Irish women painters