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Gladys Maccabe RUA ROI FRSA (b.1918)
Gladys Maccabe was born in Randalstown, Co. Antrim, to an artistic
couple - her mother Elizabeth was a designer in the linen business,
and her father George Chalmers, a former army officer, was an artist
specialising in calligraphy and illumination. One of her ancestors
was a famous 18th century Scottish painter, Sir George Chalmers.
She had a picture published in the Royal Drawing Society's magazine
when she was 16 years old and went on to study at the Belfast College
of Art. In 1941 she married fellow artist and musician, the late
Max Maccabe. Gladys and Max exhibited together on many occasions,
starting in Ireland at Robinson & Cleaver in Belfast, 1942,
and in England at the Kensington Art Gallery in 1949. Gladys formed
the Ulster Society of Women Artists in 1957, and she and her husband
were members of the Ulster Contemporary Group which included Dan
O'Neill, George Campbell and Gerard Dillon (q.q.v.). In 1961 she
was elected a Member of the ROI, and she is also a Royal Ulster
Academician, a Fellow of the Royal Fine Arts Society, and has received
many honours including the 1984 World Culture Prize. Gladys Maccabe
was a fashion and arts correspondent in the 1960s, working for both
newspapers and television. Examples of her work are in The Ulster
Museum, The Royal Ulster Academy, The Arts Council of Ireland Collection,
The Imperial War Museum and many other permanent collections.
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Maurice MacGonigal PPRHA (1900-1979)
Born in Dublin, a cousin of artist Harry Clarke, MacGonigal, began
work as an apprenctice in his uncle Joshua Clarke's stained-glass
studio in North Frederick Street. From 1917 he was a member of Na
Fianna Eireann, and after being interned firstly in Kilmainham Jail
and later at Ballykinlar Camp, Co. Down, he took up evening art
classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School. He won the Taylor Scholarship
in 1924, and in the same year exhibited at the RHA for the first
time. After a trip to Holland in 1927 to study painting, he returned
to Dublin to teach art at the RHA's schools and as a relief teacher
at the DMSA. He was made a full member of the RHA in 1933 and served
at the Academy's Keeper 1936-1939 and 1950-1961. In 1962 he was
made President, an office he held until 1977. MacGonigal's choice
of subject matter was influenced by Sean Keating: early life in
the west of Ireland. His work is now represented in all major collections
in Ireland.
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Daniel Maclise RA RHA (1806-1870)
In April 1828 Maclise, a native of Cork, entered the schools of
the RA and carried off medals in the life school and painting school
and in 1831 the gold medal for his "choice of Hercules".
He became firmly established as a painter and his subsequent career
was of unbroken prosperity. He was offered the presidency of the
RA and a knighthood, both of which he refused. There are two large
frescoes by him in the House of Lords, London, whilst his 'Marriage
of Strongbow and Aoife' (1854) is one of the most publically discussed
works in the National Gallery of Ireland.
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Pádraig MacMíadhacháin RWA
Born in Ireland, MacMíadhacháin has lived for the
past 45 years on the Isle of Purbeck, painting in a quasi-mystical,
abstract style. Like his better known contemporary, Tony O'Malley,
he has spent some time in Cornwall, and has had solo exhibitions
at the Arts Council Gallery in Belfast, Lincoln Gallery in London,
the New Millennium Gallery in St Ives and most recently at the Molesworth
Gallery, Dublin. He also shows at the annual RA exhibition and with
the RUA, the RWA and numerous mixed shows.
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Eugene Joseph MacSwiney (fl.1880s)
A resident of Cork, MacSwiney is listed as a student of the Crawford
School in 1882, and a winner of the Mayor's Prize in 1885.
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Leslie Mary MacWeeney (b.1936)
Born in Dublin, Leslie MacWeeney studied at the National College
of Art under Seán Keating and Maurice MacGonigal (q.v.).
She was awarded a scholarship to the École des Beaux Arts,
Paris, where she studied under Professor Souverbis. MacWeeney has
been included in many group shows, making her debut at the RHA in
1957, and participating in (and helping to organise) the IELA (1954-1963),
the Oireachtas (1955, 1962) and the WCSI (1963). Each time her address
was given as Kilteragh Lodge, Foxrock, Co. Dublin. She was also
included in the 1959 and 1961 Paris Biennales, and more recently
in the Irish Women Artists exhibition, organised jointly by the
National Gallery of Ireland and the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 1987.
In the catalogue to this latter exhibition, Dorothy Walker gave
high praise to MacWeeney's wall hangings of the Stations of the
Cross, which now hang in the Corpus Christi Church, Knockanure,
Co. Kerry. Walker deemed this series to be "one of the most
important works of religious art in the sixties" and found
in them "no false note, nothing maudlin, nothing trite, but
a powerful emotional content" (pp.56-57). MacWeeney has also
had solo shows at the Clog Gallery, Dublin (1957), and the Ankrum
Gallery, Los Angeles (1961), and several shows at the Dawson Gallery,
Dublin. Her work is in the collections of the Arts Council / An
Chomhairle Ealaíon, TCD, the Thomas Haverty Trust, and the
Santa Barbra Museum of Art, California.
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Bernadette Madden (b.1948)
Bernadette Madden studied at the National College of Art and Design
from 1965-1971. Her 'Stations of the Cross' can be seen in Newten
Chuch, Co. Kildare and at Riversdale Church, Co. Dublin. She was
awarded the William J. B. Macauley Fellowship in Painting by the
Arts Council in 1976 and has exhibited with the Tom Caldwell Gallery
and at the RHA.
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Arthur K. Maderson (b.1942)
Arthur Maderson studied at the Camberwell School of Art, London,
from 1959-1963. In 1963 he won the Anna Berry Award in open competition
with all final year art graduates. Maderson is primarily concerned
with the depiction of light - a similar preoccupation of the nineteenth
century French Impressionists. He has adopted some of the same techniques
as the Impressionists, using broken brush strokes of thickly applied
paint and vibrant juxtapositions of colour. He has tended to concentrate
on one particular thematic series at a time, the most notable being
the Lismore River series and Tallow Horse Fair series. He exhibits
regularly at the RA and the RHA and has been an award winner at
the latter. Recently Maderson was included in a list of 17 of the
world's most successful and popular figurative painters in the book
Modern Oil Impressionists by Ron Hanson.
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Brian Maguire ANCAD (b.1951)
Brian Maguire is head of the Fine Art department at NCAD. He has
represented Ireland in the 1998 San Paul Biennale and exhibits with
the Kerlin Gallery.
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Cecil Maguire RHA RUA (b.1930)
Predominantly a landscape painter of scenes in the west of Ireland.
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Alice Maher (b.1956)
Since the 1980s Alice Maher has been one of the leading contemporary
artists in Ireland, challenging a stream of male-oriented neo-expressionism
that has dominated much of Irish art in recent decades. She has
consistently challenged Irish Catholic ideas of the feminine, showing
her women to be dreaming, thinking beings in mythological landscapes
(see Fionna Barber, 'Familiar: Alice Maher, 1995', in Fintan Cullen
[ed.], Sources in Irish Art: A Reader, Cork University Press, 2000,
pp150-158). Maher studied in Dublin and at the Crawford School of
Art in Cork. She was an award-winner at the GPA Exhibition of Emerging
Artists in 1990. She had a one-person exhibition in Belfast in 1987
and in Limerick in 1989. She now teaches at the Crawford College
of Art.
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Kathleen Marescaux RUA RWS (1868-1944)
A Kilkenny-born artist, Kathleen Marescaux travelled the continent
during her youth, studying art. She first exhibited at the RHA in
1893 under her maiden name Dennis, and continued there sporadically
until 1935. She also showed with the Dublin Sketching Club, the
WCSI, the Fine Art Society (London) and the Ulster Academy of Arts.
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Gerald Marjoram (b.1936)
Born in the Liberties area of Dublin, Gerry Marjoram was educated
at Francis Street School and subsequently studied art at the National
College of Art under Maurice MacGonigal (q.v.) and Sean Keating.
Since 1970 he has exhibited frequently in Dublin and Galway, particularly
with Combridges Fine Art, Dublin, the Waldock Gallery, Blackrock,
and the Lavelle Gallery, which he opened in 1988 in conjunction
with Eoin Lavelle, Alan Kenny (q.v.), and Tony McNally (q.v.). His
work is in private and public collections worldwide, including the
Irish Embassy in Prague. He presently makes numerous painting trips
to the Connemara and the west coast of Ireland.
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Jesus Marrero
Born in Spain, Marrero studied painting and art history at university
in Madrid and Las Palmas, where he won first place in his graduate
year. He has exhibited in Madrid, Barcelona and Las Palmas, and
now lives in Dublin.
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William Mason (b.1906)
William Mason has long practised an Impressionist style of painting,
finding inspiration in the likes of Sickert and Pissaro. Described
by dealer George McClelland as a "retiring man" whose
paintings have a "timeless quality which is not dictated by
fashion" (essay note from an exhibition catalogue, McClelland
Galleries, March-April 1970), Mason has exhibited with the RA and
with the McClelland Galleries in Belfast.
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Therése McAllister
Therése McAllister studied at NCAD, Dublin from 1972 to 1974,
and then worked as a fashion illustrator and layout artist before
moving to Italy in the mid 1970s. In Florence she met Pietro Annigoni
(famous for his portraits of Queen Elizabeth and the British Royal
Family) who persuaded her to enrol at the Studio of Nerina Simi,
where she has studied the techniques of drawing and painting in
the classical tradition over an eight year period. Another well
known student of Simi was the Irish-Italian painter Don Niccolo
d'Ardia Caracciolo (q.v.). A major solo exhibition took place recently
at The Solomon Gallery, Dublin.
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Brian McCarthy
Born in Dublin, Brian McCarthy has exhibited extensively, most notably
at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, the Royal Hibernian Academy, and the
Oireachtas Art Exhibition. He mostly paints still-lives, with birds,
feathers, masks, marble tables, vases and flowers predominating.
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Tony McCarthy
Tony McCarthy started painting seriously in 1968 when he attended
Limerick School of Art. Upon moving to Dublin in 1970, he received
tuition from the late Henry Healy (q.v.), who was a great lover
of plein air painting. Tony has been painting en plein air ever
since, particularly in the Connemara, which he visits annually.
In 1975 he was a founder member of a Dublin-based group called the
Back Lane painters (after the lane overlooked by their studio).
With them he painted throughout Ireland, and in France on a number
of occasions. Tony has exhibited in the RHA and Oireachtas Exhibitions
frequently since 1977. He is now based in Malahide, Co. Dublin.
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Carlile Henry Hayes McCartney (1842-1924)
Of an old North of Ireland family, Carlile McCartney was born in
Naples and spent his early years there and elsewhere on the continent.
He went to Cambridge and was called to the Bar but never practised.
He painted as an amateur and in 1874 his father, unbeknownst to
him, sent one of his paintings to the RA where it was hung that
year. He exhibited almost annually at the RA from then until 1897.
A Memorial Exhibition was held in Gieves Gallery, London in March
1926.
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Samuel McCloy (1831-1904)
Born in Lisburn, in 1831, Samuel McCloy studied in Belfast at the
School of Design whilst serving an apprenticeship with a firm of
engravers. After spending about a year in the Central School at
Somerset House, London, he was appointed (circa 1853) as Master
of the Waterford School of Art. In 1875 he returned to Belfast,
remaining there until 1881 when he went to London. He exhibited
at the RHA between 1862-1882 and in various London exhibitions from
1859-1891. McCloy was married to a Waterford artist, E. L. Harris.
There is a drawing by him held at the Victoria and Albert Museum
in London.
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Arthur David McCormick AD RBA RI ROI (1860-1943)
Born in Coleraine, Co. Derry, educated there and at College of Design,
Belfast. He exhibited at the RA from 1889, having moved to London
in 1883. His costume pieces were very popular and were exhibited
widely in England. He was responsible for the painting, in 1927,
of the sailor's head on the cigarette packets of John Player and
Son.
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Hector McDonnell (b.1947)
Born in the village of Glenarm, Co. Antrim, the youngest son of
the thirteenth Earl of Antrim and his artist-wife, Hector McDonnell
has travelled widely and earned a reputation as a painter of the
highest calibre throughout much of Europe and Asia. He studied art
in Munich and Vienna before taking a degree in History at Oxford
University. During the 1970s and 1980s he exhibited almost solely
with Fischer Fine Art in London, and with them his work was shown
to audiences in Europe, including two high-profile exhibitions in
Paris promoting Contemporary International Realism. In 1978 he was
awarded one of Germany's most prestigious art prizes, the Darmstadter
Kunstpreis, which gained him a major solo show there in the Darmstadt
art gallery in 1981. The 1990s saw him travelling extensively in
Tibet and Pakistan, with several books of the resulting etchings
being published. When Fischer Fine Art closed their doors in 1992,
McDonnell returned to live in Ireland, exhibiting through the Bell
Gallery, Belfast, Grant Fine Art, Newcastle, and the Lad Lane and
Solomon Galleries, Dublin.
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Patrick McElheron (fl.1960s-1970s)
McElheron was one of the master craftsmen at the Arklow Pottery
Works.
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William McEvoy RHA (fl.1858-1880)
Exhibited landscapes at the RHA from 1858 to 1880, resident in Dublin
to 1865 and afterwards in London.
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Val McGann
Born in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, Val McGann is a professional artist
working in Maine, America. A graduate of the NCA, Dublin, and the
Byam Shaw College of Art, London, he has held solo exhibitions in
the House of Representatives, US Capitol Building (Washington DC)
and the Butler Galleries. Listed in the Who's Who of the Irish in
America. His painting of Joyce's Tower, Sandycove, Co. Dublin, was
hung in the State House in Boston and later purchased by the Eire
Society of Boston to commemorate its 50th Anniversary.
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Gerard McGourty (b.1954)
Born in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Gerard McGourty is a self-taught
artist who, since 1989, has had numerous solo exhibitions (mainly
at the Millrace Gallery) and is represented in major private collections
in Ireland and the USA.
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Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980)
Born in Derry, Norah McGuinness studied at the Metropolitan School
of Art, Dublin, the Chelsea Polytechnic, London, and with André
l'Hote in Paris. She lived in London during the 1930s but returned
to settle in Dublin in 1940. She was elected an honorary member
of the RHA in 1957 but resigned in 1969. Her retrospective exhibition
at Trinity College Dublin in 1968 included over one hundred works,
and her art is represented in all the major Irish public collections
as well as in several important overseas collections such as the
Joseph H. Hirschorn collection in New York.
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Edward McGuire RHA (1932-1986)
Edward McGuire was the son of an artist and Dublin business-man,
E. A. McGuire. According to his biographer, Brian Fallon, the 1970s
saw Maguire at the peak of his abilities, output, and emotional
wellbeing. He was elected ARHA in 1973 and made a full member in
1976. His work was regularly seen both on the walls of RHA annual
show and the Oireachtas, as well as in the Dawson and later the
Taylor Galleries. However, his painting technique was so laboriously
meticulous that he only produced on average four to six major works
a year in addition to the occasional portrait commission and some
small bird studies. Birds became a central part of Maguire's ouevre
from an early date. When he was twenty Maguire met a Mr Williams
who worked as a taxidermist for the Natural History Museum in Dublin.
Maguire purchased three stuffed specimens from Mr Williams, thereby
starting a collection of dead birds which throughout his life he
painted repeatedly in intricate detail. (Brian Fallon, Edward McGuire
RHA, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1991).
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Frank McKelvey RHA RUA (1895-1974)
Landscape and portrait painter, Frank McKelvey attended the Belfast
School of Art where he won the Sir Charles Brett prize for figure
drawing in 1912. He won immediate recognition in Dublin for his
landscapes and his work was hung at the RHA. From 1918 until 1973
he acquired the remarkable record of never missing a year at the
RHA showing from three to eight works annually. He was made a full
member of the RHA in 1930 and was one of the first Academicians
of the Royal Ulster Academy.
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Eithne McNally (fl.1940s)
Exhibited at the RHA in 1941 and 1943 as Miss Eithne McNally and
also showed a flower piece with the Dublin Sketching Club in 1942.
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Tony McNally (b.1953)
Born in Dublin, Tony McNally graduated in botany from UCD where
he completed a doctorate in peatland ecology. He brings his intimate
knowledge of Ireland's remote and wild landscapes to his paintings.
He has studied art at the NCAD in Dublin, and has also spent a number
of years working and painting in Northern Canada. A fluent Gaelic
speaker, Tony is passionate about Celtic culture. The seascapes
and landscapes of the western seaboard provide the inspiration for
many of his works.
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Guus Melai (d.2000)
Guus Melai was one of a number of Dutch graphic artists recruited
by Aer Lingus and the Irish Tourist Board in the 1950s. Others were
Piet Sluis (q.v.), Jan de Fouw, Gerrit van Geldren and Bert van
Embden. He produced some outstanding posters for both organisations.
See "Irish Graphic Design in the 1950s under the Patronage
of Aer Lingus", by Linda King, CIRCA, Summer 2000, pp. 15-19.
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Colin Middleton RHA (1910-1983)
The most acclaimed surrealist painter in Ireland, Colin Middleston
intially experimented with a number of styles, including a lyrical
semi-abstraction and geometric abstraction. He exhibited annually
from 1938 to 1954 at the RHA and from 1968 to his death. A mid-career
retrospective was staged by the Waddington gallery in 1944. He was
awarded the MBE in 1969 and became a full member of the RHA in 1970.
A major retrospective was staged in 1976. Two monographs have appeared
in recent years: Carlo Eastwood (ed.), Colin Middleton: A Millennium
Appreciation, Eastwood Gallery, Belfast, 2000, and Dickon Hall,
Colin Middleton: A Study, Joga Press, 2001.
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John FitzMaurice Mills PRDS (d.1991)
Artist, writer and broadcaster, he produced a television series
'The Noble Dwellings of Ireland' and wrote and illustrated a book
of the same title, published in 1987.#Back
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Lillias Mitchell (1915-2000)
Whilst she originally studied painting and sculpture, Helen Lillias
Mitchell is best remembered for her work in the area of textiles,
particularly weaving. In 1946 she opened a weaving workshop, taking
private pupils from the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, until
she was eventually invited to create a department of textiles at
the school in 1951. She was passionately interested in traditional
Irish art forms, and concerned about preserving techniques and knowledge
(eg. about natural dyes used in Ireland in the past). In her will
she bequeathed an amount of money to be used to fund the annual
Golden Fleece Awards, a prize which recognises those artists working
in the areas of traditional art forms.
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Hugh Monahan (1914-1970)
Monahan was a Dublin-born artist who studied at Stoneyhurst College
and later at Cambridge in the 1930s. He joined the British Army
during WWII and won the Military Cross. However, injuries forced
him back to London where he took art classes at the Slade and joined
the staff of University College, London. Best remembered for his
paintings of wildfowl, examples of which he exhibited in Dublin
at the Victor Waddington Galleries in 1950 and at the 'British Bird
Art' exhibition at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery in 1954. President
of the Wildfowler's Association of Great Britain and Ireland 1953-1956,
and co-author of The Wildfowler's Year, published 1953.
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Stuart Morle (b.1960)
Stuart Morle was born in Liverpool and studied Fine Art at the Central
School of Art and Design in London from 1979 to 1982. He won an
Italian Government scholarship in 1982 and went to live in Siena
that year. He established himself as a portrait painter and worked
for both British and Italian clients. Commissions have included
HRH The Princess Royal for the Field Auxiliary Nursing Yeomanry
and Howard Kilroy, Chairman of the Board of Governors of The Bank
of Ireland. He nows lives and works in Dublin.
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Ken Moroney (b.1949)
Born in Dublin, Ken Moroney is a painter in the European Impressionist
tradition. He lives in London and his work has been exhibited at
the David Messum Gallery there as well as The Klein Gallery, Ontario,
and Beaux-Arts, Paris, and graces many important private collections
in Britain and Europe.
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George Morosini (d.1882)
Born in Palermo, Morosini came to London and in 1840 married Clotilde
Parigiani, a well known contralto who sang in Italian opera with
Gris, Mario and Lablanche; she was also a cousin of Pope Pius IX.
They settled in Dublin at 134 Baggot Street shortly after marriage
and Morosini immediately set up business as a portrait artist. He
exhibited five portraits at the RHA in 1861.
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Frank Morris (fl.1880s-1890s)
Frank Morris was an English painter who showed two works at the
RHA in 1884 from an address in Clapton, London.
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Robert Boyd Morrison (1896-1969)
A Belfast artist, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London,
on a war repatriation grant for three years (c.1918-1920) under
Professor Henry Tonks. Tonks urged his pupil to take a teaching
position at the school - an offer which Morrison declined.
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Edwin A. Morrow ARCA (1877-1952)
Born into an artistic Belfast family, Edwin Morrow studied at both
the Government School of Art in his home town and later in London
at the South Kensington RCA. He was a friend of Paul Henry, a portrait
of whom by Morrow is in the NGI.
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George Francis Mulvaney RHA (1809-1869)
His father was the keeper of the RHA. He studied in the Academy
School and first exhibited at the RHA in 1827, continuing to do
so until his death. In 1830 he was elected an Associate and in 1835
a full member. On the death of his father in 1845 he succeeded him
as the Keeper. In 1862 he became the first director of the National
Gallery of Ireland. He also exhibited at the London Academy in 1836
and 1839.
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Martin Murphy (b.1949)
Born in Sheffield of Irish parents, Martin Murphy attended Sheffield
College of Art and graduated in 1972. Whilst working as a furniture
restorer, he continued to paint and exhibit on a part-time basis,
holding shows at the Ferens Gallery, Hull, The Graves Gallery, Sheffield
and The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. He now lives and works in Cork.
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T.C. Murphy
Dublin-born, self-taught artist, known for his violently bright
palette and "spiky manner of painting". Influenced by
Edward Munch and the Cobra School of North European painting. Brighid
McLaughlin writes: "Murphy's sensibility is lurid, the imagery
overt. These are things done with conviction" (Oriel Gallery
catalogue).
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Cóilín Murray (b.1945)
The founder and past head of the print-making department at NCAD,
Murray moved to west Cork in the early 1980s to pursue more painterly
concerns. From an initial figurative series focussing on poets,
he shifted his attention c.1989-1990 to his surrounding environment.
This resulted in a series of powerfully expressionist, impastoed
images. In a review of a 1991 exhibition of these new works Hilary
Pyle compared them to the work of William Crozier, but noted: "Murray's
approach is more personal, the landscape a genuine intimate experience,
where studies of "Haws and Wild Land" and the "Sceagh
and Well", through an uncontrolled tangle of colour, unleash
the affection and turbulent emotional attachment to land of a painter
who has for the moment come to terms with himself" ('Cóilín
Murray at Crawford Gallery, Cork', in The Irish Times, 22 February
1991). A survey of his career to date was shown at the RHA Gallagher
Gallery in 1996.
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John Philip Murray (b.1952)
John Phillip Murray studied art at NCAD. He has had numerous solo
shows most noticeably at the Vangard and Lavitt Galleries, Cork,
and the Wyvern Gallery, Dublin. He also exhibits at the RHA annual
exhibitions. In recent years he has carried out commissions from
the AIB Bank and the Great Southern Hotel at Cork Airport.
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Adrian Murray-Hayden (1931-1975)
Murray-Hayden studied at the National College of Art and privately
under Mainie Jellett. During the 1950s he exhibited at the Dublin
Painters Gallery. At the RHA he showed only seven works. As an accomplished
yachtsman, his preferred subject was the sea. In the 1970s he immigrated
to Canada where he taught Art at a Missionary school in St George,
British Columbia, and held a solo show in 1974, a year before his
untimely death.
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Henry Echlin Neill RUA (1888-1981)
Born in Belfast on 14 August 1888, H. Echlin Neill studied at Belfast
School of Art and became an apprentice lithographic artist. He became
a member of the Belfast Art Society in 1912 and was a regular exhibitor
there. In 1929, he showed at RHA for the first time from an address
at 33 Ardenlee Drive, Belfast. He was primarily regarded as a landscape
and figurative artist. His work was included in a portfolio of work
commissioned by the Ulster Hospital for Children to raise funds
after the bombing of the hospital in 1941. In 1968, he was elected
an HRUA and staged his first solo exhibition in 1977 at the Grendor
Art Gallery, Hollywood, Co. Down.
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Andrew Nicholl RHA (1804-1886)
From an early age Nicholl found patronage under Sir James Emerson
Tennant, who funded a trip to London for the artist in 1830-1832,
during which period Nicholl undertook intensive studies of works
hanging in the Dulwich Gallery and greatly improved in his technique.
From 1832 Nicholl exhibited at the RA and the RHA of which he was
elected an associate in 1837 and a full member in 1860. A few of
his watercolours are in the British Museum and Queen Victoria purchased
several of his drawings in 1858 and 1870. Six other works are in
the Victoria and Albert museum. Turner was the principal influence
on Nicholl's technique. In many of his works he used the technique
of "sgraffito" - or scraping - to considerable effect
to highlight features such as reeds and grass in the foreground.
He specialised in a peculiar form of landscape which combined aspects
of botanical painting with topographical landscape. Anne Crookshank
and the Knight of Glin have written of these works: "They would
appear to be totally original compositions, and because the scale
of the flowers and buildings is so irrational they have a surrealist
quality"¹. It is this quality which makes them "the
most haunting Irish paintings of the early nineteenth century"²
and undoubtedly Nicholl's masterpieces. (¹ Anne Crookshank
and the Knight of Glin, The Watercolours of Ireland: Works on Paper
in Pencil, Pastel and Paint c.1600-1914, Barrie & Jenkins, London,
1994, p.168. ² The Painters of Ireland c.1600-1920, Barrie
& Jenkins, London, 1978, p.202).
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William Nicholl (1794-1840)
The elder brother of Andrew Nicholl RHA, William was an amateur
- though very competent artist - who was a member of the Association
of Artists in Belfast and whose work is rarely seen at auction.
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Francis Nicholson OWS (1753-1844)
Francis Nicholson was an English landscape painter who is thought
to have visited Ireland in the early 1800s at the behest of his
Irish patrons Lord de Blacquiere and Sir Henry and Lady Tuite. T.S.R.
Boase records that "in his day he [Nicholson] was regarded
as an experimental artist, using the new practice of stopping out
the highlights, and important as a teacher" (he wrote a watercolour
manual for landscapists, which ran to several editions), and emphasised
both Nicholson's early grasp of the possibilities of lithography
for watercolour painters, and his founding role in the OWS in London
(see Boase, English Art 1800-1870, Oxford University Press, 1959,
pp.41-42). Nicholson's son Alfred (1788-1833) painted more extensively
in Ireland and is listed in Strickland, op. cit. p.173.
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Paul Nietsche (1885-1950)
Originally from the Ukraine, Nietsche first came to Ireland in 1926
on the invitation of Dr Michael O'Brien, a Gaelic scholar at Queen's
University, whom he had met in Germany. Their friendship was such
that Nietsche even held several small one-man exhibitions in O'Brien's
Belfast home. Nietsche established himself mainly as a painter of
still-life and landscapes, and was one of the most avant-garde painters
in Belfast in the thirties and forties.
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Eamonn O'Boyle (b.1976)
Born in Queens, New York, Eamonn O'Boyle is a recent graduate of
NCAD. Now based in Dublin, he paints from a converted studio at
his family home. His work is tactile and naturalistic exploring
the use of colour and surface texture by incorporating material
such as hessian, varnish, sawdust and plaster. In Dublin he has
had exhibitions with the Oisín Gallery, Origin Gallery, and
the Front Lounge.
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Geraldine O'Brien (b.1930)
Floral studies are this artist's speciality. She participated at
the Oireachtas Art Exhibitions of the 1950s, and recently has exhibited
at the Oriel Gallery, Dublin, and the James Gallery, Dalkey.
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Séamus Ó Colmáin (1925-1990)
Best-remembered for his Dublin street scenes, Ó Colmáin
first exhibited at the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery Dublin in 1959.
Other exhibitions followed in 1961, 1962 and 1963. He also showed
in Belfast, Waterford, Cork and Galway. Between 1960-1979 he contributed
occasionally to the RHA, but concentrated mostly on producing work
for his many solo exhibitions at the Tom Caldwell Gallery and the
Bell Gallery, Belfast, and the Oriel Gallery, Dublin, among others.
The Irish Times, writing of his displays in the Hendriks gallery
in 1970 said he painted Dublin's crumbling façades "with
a likeable near-sentimentality and at times a real painterliness".
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Patrick O'Connor (1909-1997)
Son of the sculptor Andrew O'Connor (whose portrait he exhibited
at the RHA in 1940 and subsequently donated to the Municipal Gallery
of Modern Art in Dublin), Patrick O'Connor was born in Paris and
raised in north America. He and his brother Roderic O'Connor (q.v.),
studied art under their father and both exhibited regularly at the
Paris Salon. They also held a joint exhibition at Daniel Egan's
Gallery on St Stephen's Green in 1932. Patrick specialised in portrait
painting, and seventeen of his works were illustrated in the book
by Seamus Burke, Patrick O'Connor, Dublin, [1941]. He was also a
professional boxer, a champion wrestler; in general an athlete par
excellence. He was Curator of Dublin's Municipal Gallery of Modern
Art 1955-1960, and also worked as a picture restorer.
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Roderic O'Connor (1908-2001)
Not to be confused with the much celebrated Roderick O'Conor (1860-1940),
Roderic O'Connor was a Dublin-based artist who exhibited many portraits
at the RHA and the Paris Salon throughout his lifetime. He was the
son of sculptor Andrew O'Connor (1941-1974). His brother was Patrick
O'Connor (q.v.), another well-known Dublin portrait painter.
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Henry C. O'Donnell (1900-1992)
Henry O'Donnell exhibited at the RHA between 1938 and 1947 from
an address in Donnybrook. The contents of his studio was sold at
the Gorry Gallery, Dublin, in 1994.
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Daniel O'Neill (1920-1974)
Ireland's foremost romantic painter, Dan O'Neill was the son a Belfast
electrician. He took life classes at the Belfast College of Art
and worked for a short period in the studio of fellow Belfast artist
Sidney Smith. The advent of his painting career coincided with the
outbreak of WWII; after the 1941 Blitz of Belfast he took to salvaging
wood and experimenting with wood carving. His first exhibition was
in 1941 a the Mol Gallery, Belfast. Within five years the Dublin
art dealer Victor Waddington had taken him in hand, granting a regular
income which allowed him to give up his day-job as an electrician,
and focus on painting full-time. He visited Paris in 1949, and there
absorbed the lessons of Rouault, Vlaminck and Utrillo. In the early
1950s, O'Neill left Belfast with his wife and young child, moving
to the village of Conlig, Co. Down. Conlig had a small-scale artist's
colony at the time, with George Campbell and Gerard Dillon (q.q.v.)
also living there. Residents of Conlig still recall the sight of
the tall handsome O'Neill taking long walks outside the village
with his wife and small daughter. In 1958 he left Ireland for London.
His work from this time onwards was increasingly introspective and
often desolate. He returned to Belfast in 1971, and died three years
later.
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Henry O'Neill (1798-1880)
Co-illustrator of Fourteen Views in the County of Wicklow from original
Drawings by Henry O'Neill and Andrew Nicholl, published in 1835.
His self-portrait is in the NGI.
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Hugh O'Neill (b.1959)
Born in Belfast, he left school at the age of 16 to join the Civil
Service. He later returned to study and graduated from the University
of Ulster in 1985 with a B.A. Honours Degree in Fine Arts, and shortly
afterwards migrated to America. His first solo exhibition was held
at Butlers Gallery, Florida, in 1996 and was a sell-out. He has
studios both in Ireland and the United States and regularly gives
art workshops.
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Niall O'Neill (b.1952)
A Wicklow based artist, Niall O'Neill has been lecturing in sculpture
at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design & Technology since
1975 and is presently Chairperson of the Sculptors Society of Ireland.
His public sculpture commissions include works for Coleraine Borough
Council and Dun Laoghaire Corporation.
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Thaddeus O'Neill (b.1945)
Born in Ireland, O'Neill moved at an early age with his family to
London where he later trained in art. He divides his time between
England, France, Italy, and Ireland, and has had several exhibitions
in London and Milan.
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Dennis Osborne ARUA (b.1919)
Born in Portsmouth in 1919, Osborne emigrated to Canada in 1952.
He was based at St. Catherine's in Ontario where he taught art and
exhibited with the Ontario Society of Artists. In 1959 he moved
to Northern Ireland. Now residing at Newtownards , his work regularly
appears at the RUA.
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Rev. Charles Thomas Ovenden (1846-1924)
C. T. Ovenden was born in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, and educated
at Trinity College, Dublin. He combined an ecclesiastical career
with his many and varied interests including that of landscape and
portrait painting. He exhibited 16 paintings over the course of
twenty years at the RHA (1882-1902) as well as with the Dublin Sketching
Club. His self-portrait hangs in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin,
where he was Dean from 1911 until his death.
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George Pennefather (1905-1967)
George Pennefather, landscape artist, was a native of Co. Cork.
Throughout his life, he travelled the world with his artist wife
Helen (q.v.) in a well equipped and comfortable caravan. Helen,
who was also a cousin, frequently exhibited with him and they both
had work on display at the RHA from 1940. As they journeyed through
the towns of Ireland, the Pennefathers were particularly attracted
to the architectural beauty of old streets and lanes. Kilkenny became
a focal point of Pennefather's career when he founded The Kilkenny
Art Gallery Society in 1943 now known as the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny
Castle. In 1944, he became a member of the WCSI and held a joint
exhibition with his wife at the Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin.
A tour of Australia in 1955 led to a very successful exhibition
in Melbourne where Pennefather exhibited both Irish and Australian
work. Tours of Mexico, Canada, North America and South Africa followed
with exhibitions in several international cities.
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Helen S. Pennefather (fl.1939-1946)
The daughter of Gerald Pennefather, of Australia, and wife of Cork
artist George Pennefather (q.v.), Helen was a frequent exhibitor
at the RHA and the WCSI, as well as the IELA and Oireachtas.
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Moila Powell (1895-1994)
As is the fate of so many disciples of famous artists, Moila Powell's
name will always be synonymous with that of her teacher, mentor
and close friend, Norah McGuinness (q.v.). Moila was the only pupil
of Norah McGuinness and became a professional artist, establishing
a long list of credits to her name with works exhibited at the Goupil
Gallery and Wertheim Gallery, London, the Paris Salon, the Harborough
Gallery in Leicestershire and the Duncalfe Galleries in Harrogate,
Yorkshire. Born in India into a family with a well-established artistic
heritage (on her mother's side the de Angelo lineage had produced
many a fine artist), Moila Powell began her painting career as a
miniaturist, painting portraits of - among other - Queen Victoria's
grand-daughter The Grand Duchess Vittoria of Russia. She married
Dr William Jackson Powell, a colonel in the Indian army medical
division, and lived for periods in India, England and Ireland (The
Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940 lists her as living at 10
Cambridge Terrace, Leeson Park, Dublin, from 1915-1939). It was
in Nagpur, India in 1930 that she met Norah McGuinness, who was
then escaping a broken marriage and had arrived in India (via Paris,
where she studied under André L'Hôte) for an extended
stay with her sister. Under Norah's tutorage, Moila adopted a more
expressionist style, delighting in freely mixing media: oil, gouache,
wax crayon, pastel and watercolour. Upon her return from the east,
Moila continued her studies with her teacher during frequent visits
to Norah's studio in Dun Laoghaire. Moila also travelled extensively,
particularly to continental Europe, Canada, and Australia, where
she would spend six months at a time painting the landscape around
her daughter's home in the Barossa Valley. She continued to paint
until well into her nineties, dying in her hundredth year in 1994.
A series of Christmas cards from Norah to Moila were sold at Whyte's
in March 2000, whilst contents of her studio have been sold in two
further auctions, in October 2001 and May 2002.
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Sophia Rosamund Praeger HRHA MA MBE (1867-1954)
A student of the Slade School of Art in London for four years, S.
R. Praeger
is best known as a sculptress with a talent for "extraordiarily
sensitive
modelling" and an ability to capture "the softly rounded
grace and mobility
of small children's bodies". Praeger was awarded an honorary
MA from Queen's University in 1927, and twelve years later received
an MBE. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the
Ulster Museum and the NGI.
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Victor T. Price (fl.1920s-1940s)
Price exhibited regularly with the Dublin Sketching Club and the
WCSI from 1926-1949.
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Liam Proud (1920-1995)
Liam Proud exhibited at the Oireachtas Art Exhibitions from the
mid-1940s up until 1961, the RHA during the 1980s up until 1991,
and at each of the Society of Dublin Painters annual exhibitions
in the 1950s.
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Patrick Pye RHA (b.1929)
Patrick Pye began painting whilst still at school, under the tutelage
of sculptor Oisin Kelly. In 1957 he was awarded Mainnie Jellett
Scholarship for painting in Ireland and began his studies in stained
glass under Albert Troost in Maastricht. During these years he was
heavily influenced by the painting of the Italian primitives. He
was friendly with the artist Elizabeth Rivers (q.v.); the pair frequently
exchanged ideas and sometimes reviewed one another's work. His work
is profoundly meditative, whether it be a still-life or one of his
more well-known religious themes. In 1963 he was received into the
Catholic Church. Ten years later he commenced etching at the Graphic
Studio Dublin where he continues working at this medium, alternating
oil painting is still his main medium. In 1981 he was elected to
Aosdana and in 1991 he was elected to the RHA. In 1994 he exhibited
at Polish Art Historian's Gallery, Cracow and had his first show
at the Rubicon Gallery, Dublin.
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