Henry C. Tisdall, RHA (1861 - 1954)
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Henry C. Tisdall, RHA
(1861 – 1954)
"The Red Bowl"
Oil on board, 10” x 12”
(1861 – 1954)
"The Red Bowl"
Oil on board, 10” x 12”
Henry C. Tisdall was an Irish artist born in 1861, who grew up in Galway in the west of Ireland where his family owned Ellistrin Lodge in Roundstone village. He attended the Royal Hibernian Academy School of Art, alongside fellow Irish artists, Walter Osborne, Joseph Malachy Kavanagh and Oliver Sheppard. From a young age he showed great promise as a painter, winning the Royal Dublin Society competition three years in a row, from 1883 onwards. He was elected an associate member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1892 and became a full member the following year and taught art classes at the Royal Hibernian Academy School. In 1904 he was one of the artists invited by Hugh Lane to exhibit at his major exhibition of Irish art in England, which was hosted in the Guildhall by the Corporation of London. This exhibition, the first of its kind to showcase Irish art in London, was seen by Hugh Lane as a great opportunity to highlight the need for a gallery of Irish and modern art in Dublin. Other notable Irish artists who took part in this exhibition included Rose Barton, Mildred Anne Butler, Norman Garstin, Edwin Hayes, Nathaniel Hone, William John Leech, Sir John Lavery, Walter Osborne and Jack Butler Yeats. Hugh Lane’s project was realized in 1908 with the establishment of Dublin’s Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, which was the first known, public gallery of modern art in the world.