Grace Gifford married Joseph Mary Plunkett in Kilmainham Gaol on the night before his execution on 4 May 1916 — one of the most extraordinary and heartbreaking episodes of the Rising. She became one of the most significant figures of the commemorative culture of the independence period, an artist herself who devoted much of her later life to the memory of her husband and the cause he died for.
Power’s portrait captures her with characteristic directness — a face marked by grief and determination in equal measure. That he was chosen to make her portrait speaks to his standing among the families of the revolutionary generation and his sensitivity to subjects whose lives had been shaped by the events of 1916.
Significance: A portrait of one of the most poignant figures of the 1916 Rising, held in the National Museum of Ireland.