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Thursday, January 27, 2000
The Southern Cross, Page 3
Christopher P. H. Murphy renowned for Cathedral murals
W hen Christopher P. H.
Murphy married Lucile
Desbouillons in January
1902, perhaps neither of
them could have imagined
that they were launching a
large family, two of whom
would later become notable
southern artists.
True, both bride and
groom were artists. The
new Mrs. Murphy, daughter of a
Savannah family of French origin,
had traveled abroad to study art in
Paris under painter Gustave Courtois.
Christopher Murphy had joined his
father’s ship chandlery and commer
cial painting firm in 1888, and had
steadily honed his skills, progressing
from sign painting to paper hanging,
fresco painting and graining. Though
tied to the family business, and inter
rupted in his varied activities in the
arts by military service during the
Spanish-American War, Murphy had
doggedly moved onward in his efforts
to learn more about painting.
The early nineteen-hundreds saw
the Murphy family grow, with seven
children eventually bom to Lucile
and Christopher Murphy. While busi
ly earning a living, Christopher
Murphy continued to educate himself
in creative painting through books
and correspondence courses.
Lucile Murphy, though fully in
volved in rearing their large family,
also managed to paint around the cor
ners of her busy life, her watercolors
dotting the busy landscape of domes
ticity.
The Murphys painted wherever and
whenever they could: in the time
before dark, in the early morning, on
vacation at the summer house they
rented at Tybee Island. Christopher
Murphy sketched and painted his way
around Savannah, with scenes of peo-
Pro-life
(Continued from page 1)
National Prayer Vigil for Life held in
conjunction with the March for Life.
The march—January 24 this year—
draws tens of thousands of people
from around the country to protest
the January 22, 1973, U.S. Supreme
Court decisions that legalized abor
tion in the United States.
The all-night vigil—which included
night prayer in the Byzantine tradi
tion, confessions and holy hours—
was co-sponsored by the bishops’
Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities,
The Catholic University of America
and the shrine.
Concelebrating the two-and-a-quar-
ter hour liturgy were Cardinals James
A. Hickey of Washington and Francis
E. George of Chicago; Archbishop
Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio
to the United States; and about 30
archbishops and bishops from around
the country.
pie and places in Savannah and
environs filling his portfolio.
He sketched his wife, busy at
her easel, and roustabouts at
the waterfront, and pro
duced in oil a painting
depicting a fire billowing
from the upper floors of the
DeSoto Hotel a short distance
from his Perry Street home.
Rita H. DeLorme Christopher and Lucile
Murphy continued to study painting
and to improve their painting tech
niques by replicating works of out
standing artists depicted in art maga
zines of the time. Though Christopher
Murphy began to work with oils and
may have taken classes in this medium
in connection with the Telfair
Academy’s program of instruction, oil
was an infrequent medium for him.
Commissioned in 1911 to plan and
implement murals for the Cathedral
of Saint John the Baptist in
Savannah, Murphy traveled to
Washington, D.C. There he was able
to study art works in the Library of
Congress. The artist’s pleasure at
being able to do this is reflected in
letters he wrote his wife and family
from Washington describing the
beauty of what he had seen at the
Library.
From Washington, Christopher
Murphy traveled on to New York to
familiarize himself with art in that
city’s churches. While in New York,
he obtained for the Cathedral the ser
vices of Paul Gutsche, who had
worked on paintings for the Library
of Congress. Back home in
Savannah, Murphy launched work on
the Cathedral immediately.
In 1912, eight months later, “efforts
of master minds and dexterous work
manship” had accomplished the
Cathedral’s restoration. It was
“resplendent in its beauty, created by
Also participating were nearly 250
priests, including Monsignor Michael
Bransfield, shrine rector, and
Vincentian Father David O’Connell,
president of Catholic University, and
25 deacons.
The congregation filled every aisle
and side chapel of the Great Upper
Church. Several of the side chapels
contained TV monitors that enabled
people to see the Mass, being broad
cast live on the Eternal Word
Television Network.
At the beginning of his homily,
Cardinal Keeler noted that someone
who had never missed the vigil Mass
or march was both missing and
missed: New York Cardinal John J.
O’Connor.
Cardinal O’Connor, who turned 80
January 15, had brain tumor surgery
last August, and returned to work
only in early January.
One of Christopher P. H. Murphy's unique murals in the Cathedral
of Saint John the Baptist, Savannah. The restoration of Murphy's
murals is a key aspect of the current restoration of the Cathedral.
the touch of artistic genuius” and was
termed in a newspaper subheadline:
“most beautiful in the South”.
Additionally, Christopher P. H.
Murphy had a hand in redecoration of
another Savannah church, Sacred
Heart, on Bull Street.
In his mid-forties in 1915, Chris
topher Murphy attended summer art
classes given by the painter Eben
Comins in Gloucester, Massachu
setts—surely fulfilling a lifelong
dream of obtaining uninterrupted
instruction in painting. Writing from
Gloucester, Murphy noted in a letter
to his wife that he was certain, had he
been given the chance, he surely
would have been among the best
artists of his time. From this period
on, Christopher Murphy would begin
exhibiting his work nationally, with
only the Depression of the late 1920’s
and the 1930’s stilling his creative
momentum.
Murphy’s activities ranged from
being husband, father and provider
for a large family, to having great
involvement with the Telfair
Academy of Arts and Sciences and
various art organizations throughout
the city and state. The Savannah Art
Club, founded in 1920, numbered
him among its charter members.
A devout Catholic, Christopher P.
H. Murphy was a member of the
Catholic Laymen’s Association and
the Hibernian Society. He was re
elected to the latter organization’s
presidency in 1939, the year of his
death.
Opportunities Murphy had sought
for so long came to his son, Chris
topher A. D. Murphy. The younger
Murphy was enrolled in the presti
gious Art Students League of New
York and subsequently won a fellow
ship from the Tiffany Foundation. He
then launched a career as a commer
cial artist. Eventually, though,
Christopher Murphy, Jr., returned to
the scenes his father had loved: the
city of Savannah, its people, and its
landmarks. The son’s works were a
progression of the father’s, his nur
tured talents moving beyond those of
both his father, Christopher P. H.
Murphy, and his mother, Lucile
Murphy.
The year of Christopher P. H.
Murphy’s passing, Lucile and
Christopher’s daughter, Margaret
Murphy, won honorable mention in a
traveling exhibit of Georgia artists.
The works of Christopher Murphy,
Sr., Lucile Desbouillons Murphy,
Christopher Murphy, Jr. and Margaret
A. Murphy are featured prominently
in a publication produced in 1996 in
tandem with an exhibit of Savannah
artists by the Telfair Museum of Arts
and Sciences. In this catalog, Looking
Back: Art in Savannah 1900-1960,
pages devoted to the Murphy family
verge on the autobiographical, depict
ing Lucile’s sepia wash rendering of a
“Black Youth Seated on a Chair”—the
sitter was probably her father’s mes
senger; Christopher P. H. Murphy’s
watercolor (ca. 1920) of the fountain
at Forsyth Park, Christopher A. D.
Murphy’s portrait in oils of his sister,
Margaret (ca. 1930-40) and Margaret
Murphy’s “Street Scene, Savannah”, a
watercolor also produced in the 1930-
40 decade.
Today, Christopher Patrick Hussey
Murphy’s devotion to family, art,
church and community remains, per
haps, his finest creation. Murphy’s
obituary, carried in The Bulletin in
December 1939, refers to him as a
“courtly gentleman” who reflected
honorably in his character the best
qualities of the Old South and of his
Irish heritage.
Rita H. De Lorme is a volunteer in
the Diocesan Archives.
Photo by Jonas N. Jordan