seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: Limerick City Gallery of Art


by Leave a comment

Death of Grace Henry, Landscape Artist

Grace Henry HRHA, Scottish landscape artist who spends a large part of her career painting in Ireland, dies in Dublin on August 11, 1953.

Henry is born Emily Grace Mitchell at Kirktown St. Fergus, near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on February 10, 1868. She is the ninth of ten children of the Rev. John Mitchell and Jane Mitchell (née Gardner). Lord Byron is a cousin of her maternal grandmother. She is educated at home, spending time at the family’s home in Piccadilly, where she experiences London society. After the death of her father, and the reduced circumstances she finds herself in, she leaves home in 1895 to pursue a career as an artist. The first record of her work being exhibited is with the Aberdeen Artists Society in 1896 and 1898. These paintings have not been traced since. In 1899, she leaves Scotland for the continent, visiting Holland and Belgium, studying at the Blanc‐Guerrins Academy in Brussels. She goes on to attend the Delacluze Academy in Paris. While in Paris, she meets Paul Henry, an Irish artist. The couple marries in September 1903 in London.

The Henrys live at a few different residences outside London until 1910. A small number of her works are known from this time, such as The Girl in White, which is in the collections of the Hugh Lane Gallery. This piece shows the influence of fellow artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, whom she meets in Paris through her husband. The couple travels to Achill Island for the first time in 1910, intending to stay two-weeks, but going on to live there until 1919. During this time, she paints numerous night scenes, including Achill Cottages (Hugh Lane Gallery). One of her well-known works is Top of the Hill, on display in the Limerick City Gallery of Art, which shows a group of island women. The period spent on the island places a strain on the Henrys marriage, as she is not as happy living there.

The couple returns to Dublin in 1919 and are founding members of the Society of Dublin Painters in 1920 alongside Letitia Marion Hamilton, Mary Swanzy, and Jack Butler Yeats. The Society offers an outlet for younger Irish artists to exhibit. Five of Henry’s works are featured at the Irish Exhibition in Paris in 1922, and at a similar exhibition in Brussels in 1930.

Around 1920, Henry has a romantic association with Stephen Gwynn who is an important political, cultural and literary figure from the lost world of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Ireland. During this period, she travels with Gwynn in France and Italy and later paints a number of portraits of him. Invariably, during this time, the Henrys’ marriage continues to have problems, with the couple breaking up in 1924. Her affair with Gwynn, who she depicts in two known oil paintings including The Orange Man (Limerick City Gallery of Art) and Portrait of a Man, which depicts a much more distinguished Gwynn in later life, contribute to the breakup. The couple legally separates in 1930.

Henry develops her own style through the 1920s and 1930s, spending time in France and Italy. From 1924 to 1925, she studies with André Lhote, a cubist painter who also works with Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone, and Mary Swanzy. She goes on to display little of his influence in her work. She paints in Venice and in the environs of the Italian lakes, painting with the fauvist style, with free brushwork and vibrant colours. She also experiments with expressionism, which can be seen in Spring in Winter. Upon the outbreak of World War II, she returns to Ireland. She does not have a permanent residence during this period, instead stayed with friends or living in hotels. She also experiences periods of melancholy during these later years, though she continues to exhibit. Her work is regularly displayed at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), and she has solo shows at the Waddington and Dawson galleries. She is made an honorary member of the RHA in 1949.

Henry dies in Dublin on August 11, 1953, and is buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery. During her career, and for a number of years after her death, she is largely overshadowed by her husband, sometimes being referred to as “Mrs. Paul Henry.” She is even omitted from Paul Henry’s two-volume autobiography. Her body of work is re-examined in the 1970s, which leads to wider public recognition and her inclusion in a number of exhibitions such as The Paintings of Paul and Grace Henry at the Hugh Lane Gallery in 1991. She is deemed to be a much bolder painter than her husband, incorporating more elements of the modernist movement, as evident in The Long Grey Road of Disting (1915). Her popularity has been growing since her rediscovery.

(Pictured: “Road to Destiny,” oil on board by Grace Henry)


by Leave a comment

Birth of Letitia Marion Hamilton, Landscape Artist

Letitia Marion Hamilton, Irish landscape artist and Olympic bronze medalist, is born on July 30, 1878, in Hamwood House, County Meath.

Hamilton is the daughter of Charles Robert Hamilton and Louisa Caroline Elizabeth Brooke. She attends Alexandra College. She and her sister Eva are great-granddaughters of the artist Marianne-Caroline Hamilton, and cousins of watercolourist Rose Maynard Barton. The sisters’ father can only afford one dowry, so the sisters remain unmarried, with their artistic careers helping to support the household. Both she and her sister study at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art under William Orpen. She studies enameling there also, winning a silver medal in 1912 by both the School and the Board of Education National Commission. Her work shows elements of Art Nouveau, foreshadowing her later modernist leanings. She also studies in Belgium with Frank Brangwyn and the Slade School of Fine Art.

Hamilton first exhibits in 1902 and goes go on to become a prolific painter of the Irish countryside, exhibiting more than 200 paintings at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA). Both sisters travel widely in Europe, with Letitia being influenced by modern European artistic trends of the early 20th-century. She is internationally exhibited, Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington Gallery and Kensington Art Gallery in London, in Scotland, and Paris. Her exposure to impressionism comes from studying with Anne St. John Partridge in France. Her style matures in the 1920s. That year, she is one of the founding members of the Society of Dublin Painters, along with Paul Henry, Grace Henry, Mary Swanzy, and Jack Butler Yeats. It is around this time that she changes her signature from MH (May Hamilton) to LMH, reflecting her full name. She works on small oil sketches, which later develop into finished works. Her style is rapid, with loose, fluid brush strokes. In the early 1920s, she travels to Venice, painting on a gondola studio loaned to her by artist and friend Ada Longfield. The works from this trip are considered among her best, with her exploring light effects, pastel shades, and strong outlines. She later employs these elements into her works on Irish landscapes.

Hamilton becomes a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1943. In 1948, she becomes the last person to win a bronze medal at the art competitions at the London Olympic Games. She serves as president of the Society of Dublin Painters in the late 1950s. Despite her failing eyesight later in life, she continues to paint, mounting her final exhibition in 1963, a year before her death at the age of 86 in Dublin on August 11, 1964. She is also a committee member of the Water Colour Society of Ireland.

Examples of Hamilton’s work are held in a number of collections, including Hugh Lane Gallery, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Crawford Art Gallery, Ulster Museum, National Gallery of Ireland, and Waterford Art Gallery. Her painting Canal Scene in Venice attains the highest price for a Hamilton work in 2004, which sells at Sotheby’s in London, for £33,600.

(Pictured: “Slieve Donard, Co. Down” by Letitia Marion Hamilton, oil on canvas, signed with monogram lower left)


by Leave a comment

Death of Margaret Clarke, Portrait Painter

Margaret Clarke RHA (née Crilley), Irish portrait painter, dies in Dublin on October 31, 1961.

Crilley is born in Newry, County Down, (present-day Northern Ireland), on August 1, 1884, one of six children of Patrick Crilley. Her date of birth is often given as July 29, 1888, though local records do not support this, suggesting she is born four years earlier. Having initially trained at Newry technical school with her sister Mary, intending to become a teacher, in 1905, she wins a scholarship to attend the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. There she studies under William Orpen, who regards her as one of his most promising students. She completes her studies in 1911 attaining an Art Teacher’s Certificate and begins working as Orpen’s assistant.

In 1914, Crilley marries her fellow student Harry Clarke, much to the surprise of their family and acquaintances. The couple moves into a flat at 33 North Frederick Street. They have three children, Michael, David and Ann. Harry’s brother, Walter, marries Margaret’s sister, Mary, in 1915.

Clarke first exhibits with the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1913 and goes on to exhibit over 60 artworks in the forty years until 1953, the majority being portraits. Among the portrait commissions she receives are ones for Dermod O’Brien, President Éamon de Valera, Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, and Lennox Robinson. She spends a great deal of time on the Aran Islands with fellow artist Seán Keating and her husband, from which she produces a number of landscapes and smaller studies.

Clarke becomes the director of the Harry Clarke Stained Glass Studios following the death of her husband in 1931.

A critic notes in 1939 that Clarke produces “remarkable drawings in which individuality is caught in a few swift economical lines.” Over her lifetime she wins many awards including the Tailteann gold, silver and bronze medals in 1924, and another Tailteann bronze in both 1928 and 1932. She is elected an Associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy (ARHA) in 1926, and a full RHA member in 1927. Upon the founding of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943, she is appointed a member of the executive committee.

Clarke dies in Dublin on 31 October 31, 1961, and is buried in the Redford Cemetery, Greystones, County Wicklow. She is commemorated with a blue plaque at her birthplace in Newry.

Clarke’s work can be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Ireland, the Hugh Lane Gallery, the Crawford Art Gallery, the Ulster Museum, Limerick City Gallery of Art, The National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland, and the Pontifical Irish College in Rome.

The exhibition at National Gallery of Ireland in 2017 reevaluates Margaret Clarke’s great artistic reputation.

(Pictured: “Self-portrait,” 1914, by Margaret Clarke, © Artist’s Estate)


by Leave a comment

Birth of Patrick Hennessy, Irish Realist Painter

Patrick Anthony Hennessy RHA, Irish realist painter known for his highly finished still lifes, landscapes and trompe-l’œil paintings, is born in Cork, County Cork, on August 28, 1915. The hallmark of his style is his carefully observed realism and his highly finished surfaces, the result of a virtuoso painting technique.

Hennessy is the son of John Hennessy an army sergeant major from County Kerry and Bridget Hennessy from Cork. His father is killed in World War I at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. In 1921, when he is five years old, his mother remarries in Cork. Her second husband is a Scot named John Duncan and shortly afterwards the whole family moves to Arbroath, Scotland, where Duncan has relatives.

Hennessy is educated in Arbroath at St. Thomas RC Primary School followed by secondary education at Arbroath High School, where he begins to show an aptitude for art, leaving in 1933 with the Dux for Art and an accompanying medal. In the autumn of 1933 he enrolls at the Dundee of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, for a four-year Diploma course in Drawing and Painting under James McIntosh Patrick and Edward Baird. Here he meets Harry Robertson Craig who becomes his lifelong companion. He plays a full part in the social activities of the college, winning a fancy-dress award at the Christmas revels in 1935 and producing a ballet “Paradise Lost” the following year. He gains a First-Class Pass in each year of the course along with winning first prize in 1934 and 1936 for work done during the summer vacation. He graduates with a First-Class Distinction in 1937.

Having gained a scholarship, Hennessy continues his studies at the Dundee of Jordanstone College of Art & Design for a further year by doing a Post-Graduate Diploma course in Drawing and Painting. Within a month of gaining his Post-Graduate Diploma he holds his first joint exhibition at the Art Galleries in Arbroath. In June 1938 he is awarded the Annual Travelling Scholarship for further studies in Paris and Italy. In Paris he meets up with the artists Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde, whom he had met the previous year, the three travelling south together to Marseilles towards the end of that year. On his return to Scotland he is selected for the residential summer school course at Hospitalfield House near Arbroath under James Cowie. Two of his paintings, a still life and a self-portrait, are accepted that year by the Royal Scottish Academy for their Annual Exhibition. However, by the autumn of 1939 with war looming and feeling somewhat disenchanted on his return to Scotland, he decides to return to Ireland.

On arrival in Dublin Hennessy is offered an exhibition in December 1939 at the Country Shop on St. Stephen’s Green which is opened by Mainie Jellett. This attracts favourable attention. During the early 1940s he lives at various addresses in and around Dublin with frequent trips to Cork. In 1940 he is invited to join the Society of Dublin Painters and holds regular annual exhibitions of his work there during the 1940s and early 1950s. These exhibitions are supplemented by an eclectic mix of commissions, mostly portraits which he undertakes during this period. In 1941 he has three of his paintings accepted by the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) for their annual exhibition. This is the beginning of a long relationship with the RHA. He exhibits there virtually every year from 1941 until 1979, the year before his death.

From the early 1940s onwards, Hennessey’s work sometimes incorporates a homosexual visual subtext. He re-unites with Harry Robertson Craig in 1946 and soon after they move to Crosshaven, County Cork, and later to Cobh. In 1947, Time magazine selects him as one of Ireland’s outstanding painters, in recognition of the important position he has then attained in the art world. In 1948 he has an exhibition at the Victor Waddington Gallery, Dublin, and that same year is elected an associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy and a full member the following year. In 1950 his painting De Profundis is selected for the Contemporary Irish Painting exhibition that tours North America. As a result of this tour, the American public and critics begin to take notice of his work. In 1951 he visits Italy, taking in Venice and Sicily and returning to Dublin with many of his canvases painted abroad. One of these paintings, Bronze Horses of St. Marks, is exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1954.

In 1956, a friend of Hennessy, David Hendriks, opens the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery on St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin and it is this gallery that is to be the main outlet for his work over the following 22 years. In October 1956 the Thomas Agnew Gallery in London holds an exhibition of his work comprising 38 of his paintings. However, during the winter of 1959 he becomes seriously ill with pneumonia. As a consequence of this, in the autumn of that year he and Craig decide to winter in Morocco. This is the beginning of a new era in both their lives. They would never again spend a full year in Ireland. His exhibitions at the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery had for many years enjoyed favourable reviews from the art critics but in the 1960s this changes with critics claiming his paintings to be dull, repetitive and suggest he needs to explore new areas. Despite the barrage of criticism, in 1965 the Guildhall Gallery in Chicago offers him a major exhibition. Shortly after this exhibition takes place in 1966, he becomes one of the artists on permanent display at the gallery with an annual exhibition. The North American market is extremely lucrative for him and by the end of the decade he is selling more of his work in the United States than in Ireland. In 1968 he finally moves to Tangier, Morocco on a permanent basis and in 1970 sells his studio on Raglan Lane, Dublin.

In Morocco, Hennessy paints prolifically for nine years to keep up with demand from the Hendriks Gallery and Guildhall Gallery along with the RHA. In 1975 the Guildhall Gallery mounts a highly successful Retrospective of his work. In 1978 he has his last exhibition in Dublin at the Hendriks Gallery. By this time he has moved to the Algarve, Portugal and is beginning to have health problems.

In November 1980, with his health deteriorating, Craig brings Hennessy to a hospital in London for treatment. However, on December 30, 1980 he dies from cancer. Following cremation his ashes are buried in nearby Golders Green Crematorium. He leaves his entire estate to Harry Robertson Craig with the proviso that on Craig’s death the Royal Hibernian Academy should be the beneficiary. This legacy has been used to set up the annual Hennessy Craig Scholarship for aspiring artists.

Hennessy falls into the category of painter who develops a distinctive personal style, labelled at various times in his life as a Traditional Realist, Romantic, Photo Realist, Illusionary and Surrealist. However, he always remains intrinsically himself. His subjects range from still life and interiors to landscapes and portraits.

Examples of Hennessy’s work can be found in the public collections of the Crawford Art Gallery, the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), the Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA), the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI), the National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland (NSPCI) at the University of Limerick (UL), and in the collections of University College Cork (UCC) and University College Dublin (UCD).


by Leave a comment

Death of Patrick Hennessy, Irish Realist Painter

Patrick Anthony Hennessy RHA, Irish realist painter known for his highly finished still lifes, landscapes and trompe-l’œil paintings, dies in London on December 30, 1980. The hallmark of his style is his carefully observed realism and his highly finished surfaces, the result of a virtuoso painting technique.

Hennessy is born in Cork, County Cork, on August 28, 1915. The son of John Hennessy an army sergeant major from County Kerry and Bridget Hennessy from Cork. His father is killed in World War I at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. In 1921, when he is five years old, his mother remarries in Cork. Her second husband is a Scot named John Duncan and shortly afterwards the whole family moves to Arbroath, Scotland, where Duncan has relatives.

Hennessy is educated in Arbroath at St. Thomas RC Primary School followed by secondary education at Arbroath High School, where he begins to show an aptitude for art, leaving in 1933 with the Dux for Art and an accompanying medal. In the autumn of 1933 he enrolls at the Dundee of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, for a four-year Diploma course in Drawing and Painting under James McIntosh Patrick and Edward Baird. Here he meets Harry Robertson Craig who becomes his lifelong companion. He plays a full part in the social activities of the college, winning a fancy dress award at the Christmas revels in 1935 and producing a ballet “Paradise Lost” the following year. He gains a First Class Pass in each year of the course along with winning first prize in 1934 and 1936 for work done during the summer vacation. He graduates with a First Class Distinction in 1937.

Having gained a scholarship, Hennessy continues his studies at the Dundee of Jordanstone College of Art & Design for a further year by doing a Post-Graduate Diploma course in Drawing and Painting. Within a month of gaining his Post-Graduate Diploma he holds his first joint exhibition at the Art Galleries in Arbroath. In June 1938 he is awarded the Annual Travelling Scholarship for further studies in Paris and Italy. In Paris he meets up with the artists Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde, whom he had met the previous year, the three travelling south together to Marseilles towards the end of that year. On his return to Scotland he is selected for the residential summer school course at Hospitalfield House near Arbroath under James Cowie. Two of his paintings, a still life and a self-portrait, are accepted that year by the Royal Scottish Academy for their Annual Exhibition. However, by the autumn of 1939 with war looming and feeling somewhat disenchanted on his return to Scotland, he decides to return to Ireland.

On arrival in Dublin Hennessy is offered an exhibition in December 1939 at the Country Shop on St. Stephen’s Green which is opened by Mainie Jellett. This attracts favourable attention. During the early 1940s he lives at various addresses in and around Dublin with frequent trips to Cork. In 1940 he is invited to join the Society of Dublin Painters and holds regular annual exhibitions of his work there during the 1940s and early 1950s. These exhibitions are supplemented by an eclectic mix of commissions, mostly portraits which he undertakes during this period. In 1941 he has three of his paintings accepted by the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) for their annual exhibition. This is the beginning of a long relationship with the RHA. He exhibits there virtually every year from 1941 until 1979, the year before his death.

From the early 1940s onwards, Hennessey’s work sometimes incorporates a homosexual visual subtext. He re-unites with Harry Robertson Craig in 1946 and soon after they move to Crosshaven, County Cork, and later to Cobh. In 1947, Time magazine selects him as one of Ireland’s outstanding painters, in recognition of the important position he has then attained in the art world. In 1948 he has an exhibition at the Victor Waddington Gallery, Dublin, and that same year is elected an associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy and a full member the following year. In 1950 his painting De Profundis is selected for the Contemporary Irish Painting exhibition that tours North America. As a result of this tour, the American public and critics begin to take notice of his work. In 1951 he visits Italy, taking in Venice and Sicily and returning to Dublin with many of his canvases painted abroad. One of these paintings, Bronze Horses of St. Marks, is exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1954.

In 1956, a friend of Hennessy, David Hendriks, opens the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery on St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin and it is this gallery that is to be the main outlet for his work over the following 22 years. In October 1956 the Thomas Agnew Gallery in London holds an exhibition of his work comprising 38 of his paintings. However, during the winter of 1959 he becomes seriously ill with pneumonia. As a consequence of this, in the autumn of that year he and Craig decide to winter in Morocco. This is the beginning of a new era in both their lives. They would never again spend a full year in Ireland. His exhibitions at the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery had for many years enjoyed favourable reviews from the art critics but in the 1960s this changes with critics claiming his paintings to be dull, repetitive and suggest he needs to explore new areas. Despite the barrage of criticism, in 1965 the Guildhall Gallery in Chicago offers him a major exhibition. Shortly after this exhibition takes place in 1966 he becomes one of the artists on permanent display at the gallery with an annual exhibition. The North American market is extremely lucrative for him and by the end of the decade he is selling more of his work in the United States than in Ireland. In 1968 he finally moves to Tangier, Morocco on a permanent basis and in 1970 sells his studio on Raglan Lane, Dublin.

In Morocco, Hennessy paints prolifically for nine years to keep up with demand from the Hendriks Gallery and Guildhall Gallery along with the RHA. In 1975 the Guildhall Gallery mounts a highly successful Retrospective of his work. In 1978 he has his last exhibition in Dublin at the Hendriks Gallery. By this time he has moved to the Algarve, Portugal and is beginning to have health problems.

In November 1980, with his health deteriorating, Craig brings Hennessy to a hospital in London for treatment. However, on December 30, 1980 he dies from cancer. Following cremation his ashes are buried in nearby Golders Green Crematorium. He leaves his entire estate to Harry Robertson Craig with the proviso that on Craig’s death the Royal Hibernian Academy should be the beneficiary. This legacy has been used to set up the annual Hennessy Craig Scholarship for aspiring artists.

Hennessy falls into the category of painter who develops a distinctive personal style, labelled at various times in his life as a Traditional Realist, Romantic, Photo Realist, Illusionary and Surrealist. However, he always remains intrinsically himself. His subjects range from still life and interiors to landscapes and portraits.

Examples of Hennessy’s work can be found in the public collections of the Crawford Art Gallery, the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), the Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA), the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI), the National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland (NSPCI) at the University of Limerick (UL), and in the collections of University College Cork (UCC) and University College Dublin (UCD).