Biographies of 19th Century Irish Artists
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FAMOUS IRISH ARTISTS 18TH CENTURY PAINTERS 20TH CENTURY PAINTERS IRELAND: ARTS &
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Selected Painters (A-G) (Born 1800-1899) For a COMPLETE list, see: 19th Century Irish Artists Joseph Poole Addey
(Landscape and Portrait Artist) (1852-1922) See also: Artists H-K; Artists L-R; Artists S-Z |
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Joseph Poole Addey (Landscape and Portrait Artist) (1852-1922) Landscape painter of rural scenes, and accomplished portrait painter, Addey was especially gifted as a watercolourist. Born in Dublin, he studied at the Royal Dublin Society School of Design and the Cork School of Art. He began exhibiting at the RHA in 1877, and over the next forty years showed over 130 paintings. His portraits included those of Rt. Hon. Lord Castlemaine, Miss Amy Gage and Lady Ashbourne. In his younger days Addey was headmaster of the Londonderry School of Art and later a tutor in 'outdoor sketching' at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. In addition to showing at the RHA, Addey's paintings were exhibited at the Irish Arts Exhibition (1882), Belfast Art Society Exhibition, the Gorry Gallery and the Cynthia O'Connor Gallery in Dublin, the Guildhall London, the Waterford City Hall and the Crawford Municipal Gallery in Cork. In the final stage of his life (c.1910 onwards) he moved to South London where he taught the drawing perspective at the Slade School of Art. Dorothy Blackham (née Stewart) (Landscapes/Townscapes) (1896-1975) Born in Dublin, she studied at the Royal Hibernian Academy Schools and afterwards at Goldsmiths' College London. Specializing in landscapes, townscapes and large-scale linocut prints, she exhibited at the Royal Ulster Academy, the Water Colour Society of Ireland (to whom she submitted more than 130 pictures over the years) and the Ulster Society of Women Artists. Her main showings however were at the Royal Hibernian Academy, where she exhibited for thirty years, from the age of 20. She held several solo shows in several venues in Dublin, including the Stephen's Green Gallery (1936 and 1943). She taught art to students at Alexandra College (1936-43) and The Hall School Monkstown. She continued her teaching when she moved to London in 1947, exhibiting at the Royal West of England Academy and the United Society of Artists in London. She returned to Northern Ireland in 1964, settling in Donaghadee. After her death, exhibitions of her paintings were held at Queen's University Belfast (1976) and the Neptune Gallery Dublin (1977). Louis King Bradford ARHA (Landscape and Subject Painter) (1807-1862) Born in Dublin, Louis King Bradford studied drawing and painting at the Royal Dublin Society School, exhibiting at the Royal Hibernian Academy as early as 1827. Working in oils and watercolour, until the age of 30 he painted only landscapes, but thereafter included subject-paintings and the occasional narrative picture in his repertoire. Notable works included two scenes from Don Quixote, "The Separation" and "The Rescue" (both 1843). In 1855, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy. A self-portrait which hangs in the National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland, in Limerick, shows a young man of sensibility, sketching in a "natural" setting, composed in a studio. It is an essay in old master browns, a Rembrandt in modern guise, its edges fading into darkness. |
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Joseph W Carey RUA (Seascapes, Landscapes and Illustrations) (1859-1937) Born in County Down, the son of the Rev JW Carey, a Moravian Minister, Joseph Carey trained as an illustrator with the publishers Marcus Ward & Co. When the company went bankrupt in 1899, he set up a business in Belfast (Carey & Thomson) specializing in high quality illuminated addresses, presentation albums, and book plates. A prolific sketcher, he showed his illustrations and landscapes at exhibitions of the Belfast Ramblers Sketching Club (of which he was a founder member), and the Water Colour Society of Ireland, in Dublin. He also exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, contributing a total of 26 works between 1915 and 1935. But his most prestigious commission as an artist was for the Ulster Hall - a series of thirteen scenes from Belfast history, completed in 1903. He was a close friend of the artist Percy French, as well a founder member of the Belfast Art Society and the Ulster Academy of Arts. He died in Belfast at the age of 78. Examples of his work are in the Linen Hall Library, the Armagh County Museum, the Ballycastle Museum County Antrim, the Lisburn Museum, the Ulster Museum, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, and the Harbour Commissioners Office. Egerton Bushe Coghill (Landscape Artist) (1853-1921) Born in Castletownshend, County Cork, the son of Irish painter Sir John Joscelyn Coghill, and cousin of Edith Somerville, he gave up a career in engineering (in his late 20s) in favour of full-time painting. He started his studies in Dusseldorf, before moving to Paris where he spent four years at the Académie Julian, during which time he lived for several months at Barbizon near Fontainebleau, home of the Barbizon school of landscape painting. After Paris, he went to London for a few years where he became a member of the New English Art Club. Thereafter he returned to his native West Cork, where he married and devoted himself to painting the atmospheric Castletownshend scenery. An artist wholly devoid of great ambition, Coghill never submitted to the British Royal Academy, although he showed at several Autumn exhibitions at the Walker Art in Liverpool, and exhibited 23 works at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin (1882-1919). Examples of his work are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the National Gallery of Ireland, and the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. |
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Lady Kate Dobbin (née Wise) (Flower Painter and Landscapes) (1868-1955) Born in Bristol, England, the daughter
of a solicitor, Kate moved in 1887 to Cork where she married Alfred Graham
Dobbin, the city's High Sheriff, and owner of the Imperial Hotel. From
1891-1895, Lady Dobbin studied drawing and painting at the Crawford Municipal
School of Art. In 1894 she submitted a work to the Royal Hibernian Academy's
Annual Exhibition in Dublin - the first of more than one hundred contributions
to the RHA, up to 1947. She specialised in watercolour landscapes of County
Cork and Connemara, as well as flowerpieces and the occasional portrait.
In 1899, she exhibited at the Water Colour Society of Ireland becoming
a regular contributor for almost fifty years. In addition, she exhibited
at the Munster Fine Art Club and at the Fine Art Society in London. Despite
suffering from severe arthritis, she continued painting into her 80s,
and eventually died in Victoria Hospital in Cork, outliving her son Alfred
W Dobbin (who was also a painter), by 13 years. Born in Dublin, Dunlop grew up in a cultured environment loaded with mysticism and spiritualism. His mother was a watercolour artist; his father was close to WB Yeats, James Stephens and George "AE" Russell - three important figures in the Irish Literary Renaissance - with whom he published The Irish Theosophist. Dunlop studied art in London, becoming part of a group of young artists who showed at the Hurricane Lamp Gallery, in Chelsea. In 1928, the group launched a journal ("Emotionism") to which Dunlop contributed a somewhat vague manifesto together with an illustration of one of his paintings, "The Fish Market". In due course, Dunlop broadened his horizons, and began exhibiting his works further afield. He showed at the New England Art Club, the Royal Society of British artists and the Royal Academy. During the late 1940s and 1950s, he also contributed a number of watercolours to the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, where he returned periodically to paint and draw. As well as being a relatively active painter, he wrote a number of books, including: Modern Still Life Painting in Oil (London 1938); Understanding Pictures (London 1948); Sketching for Pleasure (London 1952); and Landscape Painting: Ma Yuan to Picasso (London 1954). In addition, he also wrote an autobiography Struggling with Paint: Some Reminiscences (London, 1956). Examples of his work are in the Tate Gallery London, the National Portrait Gallery London, and the Crawford Gallery, Cork. Kathleen Fox (Portraiture, Flowerpieces, Narrative Paintings) (1880-1963) Born in Dublin, she studied drawing and painting at the Metropolitan School of Art, under William Orpen, acting for a spell as his assistant. In 1908, she won a gold medal for a work comprising a copper cup and "baisse-taille" enamel, decorated with figures. Two years later, her oils, watercolour paintings, enamels and stained glass panels were also well received at the school's "Past and Present" exhibition. She also showed at the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland exhibition in the same year. Leaving Dublin in 1911, she took a studio in London before travelling to Paris to continue her studies. While away, she submitted works to the Royal Hibernian Academy, the first of over 80 submissions over the following 45 years. Returning to Dublin, she ventured into the violent scenes of the Uprising, capturing on canvas the surrender of Countess Markievicz at the College of Surgeons (The Arrest, 1916). Fox continued to exhibit at numerous venues including: The National Portrait Society's 1921 Exhibition, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the New English Art Club, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Society of Women Artists, the Royal Academy and the Oireachtas. In her later years, she also exhibited at the Dawson Gallery, Dublin and the Contemporary Irish Exhibition at Aberystwyth. Kathleen Fox died in Milltown, Dublin, at the age of 83. Examples of her work are in the Crawford Art Gallery; the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; the Limerick City Gallery of Art; the Model and Niland Centre, Sligo; and the Waterford Art Gallery Collection. Maud Gonne (Illustrator and Portraitist) (1866-1953) Born near Aldershot, Hampshire, Gonne showed early talent as a sketcher, although as her biographers make clear, art was not an especially important part of her exciting life, which combined nationalist activities in Ireland with fund-raising trips to the USA, and acting, as well as a "relationship" with the devoted WB Yeats, whom she first encountered at the London home of his father, the portraitist John Butler Yeats. A friend of Sarah Purser, Gonne mixed with the artist fraternity in Paris, during her 20s without drawing attention to her own artistic talents, although she is known to have produced several works while in France including a pastel painting of Iseult, and dabbled in watercolours, woodcuts and pencil drawings. In 1908, she was in Colleville-sur-mer in Normandy, where she completed several works for submission to the London Salon of the Allied Artists' Association at the Albert Hall, London, in 1908 and 1909: the only known instance of her showing in public. Maintaining a busy life of political activism, volunteer work, meeting celebrities (including Auguste Rodin), and occasional bursts of artistic endeavour (including a portrait of Sir Roger Casement) she returned to Dublin in 1917. A book of poetry by Ella Young was published in 1920 with some of Gonne's illustrations. By all accounts, she had the talent to become a professional artist, although her life and character was otherwise occupied. She died in 1953 and was laid to rest at Glasnevin Cemetary. |
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William Crampton Gore RHA (Interiors, Still Lifes, Landscapes) (1871-1946) Born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Gore trained in medicine at Trinity College Dublin, practising as a doctor until 1900, although he took several months leave in 1898 to study fine art painting under the renowned Henry Tonks at the Slade School in London. After a short posting as a ship's surgeon, he returned to the Slade School (1900-1904) to further his studies in drawing and painting, becoming friends with William Orpen and also Augustus John, with whom he shared a studio. He also spent time painting in Paris. In 1905, he began showing at the Royal Hibernian Academy, submitting more than 100 paintings up until 1939. In 1916, he was elected an Associate Academician and two years later he was elected a full member. He also exhibited with the Water Colour Society of Ireland. His focus was principally interiors and still-lifes, in oils. He was particularly interested in flowerpieces, and was instrumental in persuading the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland to hold an exhibition of Flower and Garden Paintings at the Metropolitan School of Art in the 1940s. A keen traveller, he spent a year (1922-3) touring China and Japan, and also painted in Spain. Following his marriage in 1923, he settled in the South of France, where he was often visited by Dermod O'Brien PRHA, to whom he was related. In 1932, he moved to Colchester, where he remained until his death in 1946. He was represented in numerous exhibitions of Irish art, including the celebrated Exhibition of Irish Artists in Brussels (1930). Examples of William Crampton Gore's work can be seen in the Limerick City Gallery of Art and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. Most Expensive Painting By William Crampton
Gore Countess Markievicz Born in London, the eldest child of Sir Henry Gore-Booth of Lissadell, Co Sligo, she showed an early interest in drawing which was further stimulated when Sarah Purser came to paint her portrait when she was 12. Six years later, she spent six months in Florence taking drawing lessons, but made no further plans until 1893, when she studied at the Slade School of art, combining her growing love of painting (including periodic plein-air painting trips to Sligo) with her role as a young aristocrat. In 1898, she went to Paris to study at the Académie Julian, meeting Paul Henry as well as the talented and exotic portraitist Count Casimir Dunin de Markievicz, a Polish nobleman from Kiev, whom she married shortly after. After sojourns in Paris and Kiev, the couple settled in Dublin, painting and exhibiting. In 1904-5, they and others founded the United Arts Club, while Constance began showing at the Royal Hibernian Academy. Among her circle at this time, were WJ Leech, Percy Gethin, "AE" Russell, and Dermod O'Brien, although both Markiewicz' had wider interests than the pursuit of art. Indeed, from 1908 onwards, both became involved in the growing nationalist political movement, and Constance plunged into fund-raising, acting, painting and generally organizing for the cause. She fought with the Irish Citizen Army in 1916 - her arrest was depicted on canvas by Kathleen Fox - and was imprisoned for her trouble. On her election as a Westminster MP in 1918, Constance became the first female member of Parliament in Europe. Although never a "serious" artist, her life was inextricably linked to the mood and events of the time. Examples of her work are in the National Museum of Ireland and Lissadell House. In 2002, the National Museum staged an exhibition entitled: "Watercolours by Constance Markievicz." Robert Gregory (Landscape Artist and Portraitist) (1881-1918) The only child of Sir William Gregory, MP for Dublin City and later Galway County, Robert Gregory studied at Oxford University before enrolling in 1903 at the Slade School of Art in London. Later, he also studied in Paris under JE Blanche. As well as painting, he also designed for the theatre, completing several scenery and stage settings for plays by W B Yeats and others at the Abbey Theatre. He was also involved in costume-design and stage lighting. After his marriage in 1907 to Margaret Parry, a fellow Slade artist, he divided his time between Ireland and Paris, producing a range of paintings and illustrations as well as more theatrical designs. In addition to occasional portraits, he produced illustrations and as well as atomspheric landscapes of South Galway and North Clare. He also exhibited in London, at the New English Art Club, the Baillie Gallery and the Chenil Gallery in Chelsea. In 1916, he joined the Royal Flying Corps, winning the Military Cross and the Legion D'Honneur before being killed by friendly fire in 1918. He was buried in Italy. Afterwards, he was commemorated in WB Yeats' poem: "In Memory of Major Robert Gregory." Examples of Gregory's work are in the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, the National Gallery of Ireland and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. May Guinness (Landscape Artist, Genre-Painter) (1863-1955) Born in Dublin, the daughter of a solicitor, the details of her early art training are unknown, but by 1892 she was already exhibiting with the Water Colour Society of Ireland, to whom she contributed no less than 129 paintings. In 1894, along with Mildred Butler, she went to the Newlyn School or colony in Cornwall to study under the renowned Impressionist landscape artist Norman Garstin. From 1897 to 1911, she showed at the Royal Hibernian Academy - somewhat melancholy landscapes in the style of the French Romantic Jean-Bapiste Camille Corot - and in 1902-3 she spent time painting in Florence. In 1910, she travelled to Brittany in France where she captured a number of Breton scenes featuring fairs, weddings and other social occasions. Her experience of France was one of the reasons she left Dublin in 1914 to become a nurse in the French Army, winning the Croix de Guerre and the Medaille de la Reconnaissance Francaise for her efforts. Guinness was a highly versatile artist: in addition to her drawings, landscape and genre-paintings, she also produced woodcuts, embroideries, painted boxes and bottles, as well as highly-coloured mural frescoes. Returning to France for most winters, she studied under Andre Lhote (along with Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett) exhibiting at The Salon in Paris, and in London. She continued to exhibit in Dublin in numerous venues, forming her own social Salon in the process, and maintained an active painting career until well into her 80s. Examples of her work are in the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, the National Gallery of Ireland, the Limerick City Gallery of Art, the Model and Niland Centre in Sligo, the Waterford Municipal Art Collection and the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. |
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