Featured Artists & Gallery News

William John Leech, RHA (1881 – 1968)
"Portrait Bust of May Botterell"
Bronze, Edition 1/12
​12½” x 11” x 19”

This extremely rare bronze portrait sculpture by William John Leech of his wife, May Botterell, is the artist's only piece of sculpture, and was cast from his original plaster model. Although dating from circa 1920/25, this sculpture remained in the artist's own private collection in Surrey, until it was bequeathed to his friend and biographer, the poet and art historian, Alan Denson, and was only exhibited publicly for the first time by the Gorry Gallery, Dublin in 1988. Denson published a biography of Leech in 1968, entitled “An Irish Artist, W.J. Leech R.H.A. 1881 – 1968”, and this bronze is illustrated in his biography. This bronze is the first from an edition of twelve, cast by the Dublin Art Foundry, and the original plaster model from which the bronze was cast is now housed in the National Gallery of Ireland, thus ensuring that this limited edition could never be repeated.

William John Leech was born in Dublin in 1881, the son of a professor of law at Trinity College. In 1898 he enrolled at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and the following year he moved to the Royal Hibernian Academy School of Art, where he studied under Walter Osborne. In 1901, like many other Irish art students at the time, he enrolled in the Academie Julian in Paris, remaining there for the next two years. In 1903 he moved to Brittany and settled in the fishing village of Concarneau, painting mostly plein-air harbour scenes and atmospheric interiors of local cafes and bars. His early style of painting was formal and academic, but he gradually developed a more fluid style, showing influences from French Impressionist painters, with single strokes of pure colour laid side by side on the canvas, perfectly capturing ever changing light and shadows.
 
Leech was elected an associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1907 becoming a full member in 1910, the year that his parents moved from Dublin to London. From then until 1921, the year his father died, he divided his time between France and England, and held his first solo exhibition in London in 1911. In 1912 he married fellow artist, Elizabeth Saurin Kerlin, and she features in two of his most famous paintings, A Covent Garden, Brittany and The Sunshade both of which are now in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland. However, their marriage was not to last, and towards the end of the First World War they agreed to a separation.
 
In 1918 Leech was conscripted into the British Army and spent the last six months of the war in a detention camp in France. Returning to England in a state of depression, he was unable to paint. In 1919 he met May Botterell, the wife of a distinguished London lawyer. She supported Leech financially and emotionally, although their relationship forced Leech to avoid publicity and curtail the exhibition of his works in London. As a result he sent many of his paintings to Dublin and in 1944 Leo Smith of the Dawson Gallery became his agent. When May Botterell's husband died in 1952 she was free to marry Leech. They settled near Guildford in Surrey and Leech had a studio constructed in their garden, where he continued to paint until May's death in 1965. After her death he suffered from severe depression and in 1968 he fell from a railway bridge near their home and later dying from his injuries. ​

​French artist, Bernard Lorjou is best known for paintings that deal with political themes, and that were often controversial, painted in a highly expressionistic manner with bold, striking colours. Born in 1908 in the Loir-et-Cher department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France, Lorjou moved to Paris, as a teenager, where he lived in deprived circumstances in a small room on the Boulevard Raspail. After his financial situation deteriorated further, he lost his accommodation, and spent many nights sleeping in the Orsay train station. His fortunes changed, however, when he found work as a designer with the silk house of Ducharne. While working there, he designed prints for many of the major French fashion houses, including Jacques Fath, Balmain, Lanvin and Christian Dior. Some of the celebrities of the day, who wore clothing, featuring his distinctive designs, included Marlene Dietrich and Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. His work as a designer was to sustain him for the next thirty years, allowing him the financial freedom to pursue his desire to be a painter.
 
In 1931, Lorjou visited Spain, for the first time. On his visit to the Prado Museum in Madrid, he discovered the expressive styles of El Greco, Velázquez and Goya, which had a major influence on his own painting. At Ducharne, he met fellow artist, Yvonne Mottet, and in 1934, they set up an art studio in Montmartre in Paris. At that time, inspired by current political events, he painted “La conquête de l'Abyssinie par les Italiens.”
 
In 1939, Lorjou returned to the town of Blois, as Germany began to invade France, later becoming mayor of the town, for a short period. As an artist, he exhibited early in his career at the Salon des Indépendants, showing there for the first time in 1942. In 1945 Lorjou had his debut solo exhibition in Paris at the Galerie du Bac. That same year, he painted the “Miracle de Lourdes” (Collection of the Venice Museum) and also exhibited his paintings in numerous exhibitions, nationally and internationally. In 1946 the Galerie du Bac held an exhibition dedicated to the emerging style of “Expressionist” painting. The artists represented included Chaim Soutine, George Rouault, Edouard Joseph Goerg, James Sidney Ensor, and Lorjou. Later that year, Lorjou also exhibited his paintings at the Salon des Indépendants, before being invited to have a one man exhibition in London.
 
In 1948, alongside Bernard Buffet, Lorjou was honoured with the ‘Prix de la Critique’ award. Also, that year, he and art critic, Jean Bouret formed a group known as L’Homme Temoin, with the stated aim of defending figurative painting. This group held their first exhibition at the Galerie du Bac, and in 1949, held their second exhibition at the Galerie Claude in Paris. This exhibition attracted other artists to join the group, among them Bernard Buffet, Jean Couty, Minaux, and Simone Dat.
 
The 1950’s was a very productive period for Lorjou, where he concentrated in his painting on themes, inspired by contemporary political events. One series of paintings from this period, “L'Age Atomique”, is now owned by the French Government, and is housed in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Other paintings from this period, include “La Peste en Beauce”, which dealt with the threat of bacteriological warfare, and “Matin du Couronement”, which was a controversial tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. In 1951 Lorjou painted “La Conference”, in response to the Geneva Convention, which granted people the right of refugee status. He like many others, believed that this charter focussed more on the interests of nations, rather than on the plight of refugees. In 1953, Lorjou started exhibiting with international art dealers, George and Daniel Wildenstein, a collaboration that lasted ten years. His first solo exhibition in the United States took place the following year at the Wildenstein gallery in New York. That same year he also exhibited with his wife, Yvonne Mottet, at the Kamakura Museum in Japan.
 
Other works of Lorjou’s inspired by political events, include a makeshift structure he erected on the Esplanade des Invalides in Paris, in which he exhibited a series of paintings, protesting against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Hungary. In 1958, he relocated this structure to the “Exposition Universelle” in Brussels, where he exhibited his large scale painting “Renart à Sakiet”, which denounced the French occupation of Algeria, and which greatly angered the French government. He continued to paint politically charged works throughout the 1960’s, often satirizing political figures such as General de Gaulle, or focusing on themes such as racism, and unjust war.
 
In 1966 Lorjou moved his summer residence to Spain and that same year he was commissioned to paint the ceiling of the African room for the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, in Paris. In 1968 at the request of the United Nations, Lorjou created a poster for the fight against famine.  In the same year, he organized a moving exhibition around Paris titled “Le Camion Rouge”, in reference to the predominantly working class communist suburbs of Paris. The paintings that Lorjou presented in these exhibitions dealt with themes based on current world events and with these paintings, he sought to help viewers gain awareness of world events taking place around them.
 
In 1969 Lorjou produced a series of paintings based on the murder of Sharon Tate, and that same year his painting “The Marbella Studio” was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, Lorjou continued to exhibit internationally, with solo exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami. In 1985, a major retrospective exhibition of his paintings was held in the Palais de l’Europe in Menton, and that same year he held his last exhibition, on the theme of the AIDS epidemic. Bernard Lorjou died in 1986, on the last day of this exhibition. Posthumous exhibitions of his work were held in Caracas, Venezuela and Tokyo, Japan.

​Rose Brigid Ganly was born in Dublin in 1909, the daughter of William Dermod O’Brien and Mabel Smiley. Her father was a well-known Irish artist, noted for his French landscape paintings, and latterly made his reputation in Dublin as a portrait painter. He was also active in the cultural life of the Irish capital, and was the longest serving president of the Royal Hibernian Academy. Her early years were spent in Cahermoyle, Co. Limerick, before the family moved to Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin in 1919. She first studied art at the Metropolitan School Dublin, where her tutors included well-known Irish artists Patrick Tuohy, Seán Keating and the sculptor Oliver Sheppard. As an artist, she showed early promise as a sculptor, and in 1929 was awarded the Taylor scholarship for her one of her male nudes. She also studied painting at the Royal Hibernian Academy School, where her contemporaries included Leo Smith, who went on to become an influential art dealer and gallery owner in Dublin and with whom Rose Ganly had a solo exhibition in 1965. She was elected an associate member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1928, and in 1933 she spent six months painting in Florence, and held her first solo exhibition at the Dublin Painter’s Gallery in 1935. She was subsequently elected to full membership of the R.H.A. that same year and also completed her first commission for All Saints Church in Blackrock, County Dublin. During the 1940’s and 1950’s she had numerous exhibitions in Ireland with her sister in law, Kitty Wilmer O’Brien, and also travelled to the United States where she completed a number of portrait commissions, and represented Ireland in an exhibition of contemporary Irish painting. In 1951, in a similar fashion to fellow Irish artists, Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett, Rose Ganly travelled to Paris to study with the renowned French Cubist artist, André Lhote. The influence of Lhote is apparent in this painting “Female Nude” which dates from that year, with its shallow perspective, and three dimensional forms broken down into flattened planes of complimentary colours, to create a harmonious composition. In 1972, Rose Ganly was made an honourary member of the R.H.A., in recognition of her achievements as an artist. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, she continued to exhibit throughout Ireland and two major retrospective exhibitions of her paintings were held at the Gorry Gallery, Dublin in 1987 and the Dublin City Gallery – The Hugh Lane in 1998. Her paintings are now housed in many important private and public art collections throughout Ireland, including those of the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, the National Self Portrait Collection and the Dublin City Gallery – The Hugh Lane.

Georges Braque was one of the leading figures in the development of modern European art, from his association, in the early years of the 1900’s, with Post-Impressionism and Fauvism, to his later involvement, with Picasso, in the foundation of Cubism, one of the most revolutionary and influential movements in the history of 20th century art. Braque was born in 1882 in the village of Argenteuil-sur-Seine, a favoured location for many of the major French impressionist painters, such as, Edouard Manet, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet. Braque’s family subsequently moved to Le Havre, where he enrolled in evening art classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and also joined his father in the family painting and decorating business. His early training in painting and decorating, where he learned to grind pigments, mix colours and master painting techniques such as marbling and faux wood effects, are evident throughout his oeuvre.

Braque and Picasso met for the first time in 1907 and for the next seven years they forged a deep personal and artistic friendship, visiting each-others studios regularly, to examine each-others paintings and to discuss their ideas of art. It was from this close association that they evolved a style of painting, influenced primarily by the paintings of Paul Cezanne and by a mutual interest in African art, which sought to do away with received conventions of realist painting. Their new style of painting was disparagingly christened “Cubism”, by the French art critic, Louis Vauxcelles, on seeing Braque’s landscape paintings of L’Estaque in 1908, which emulated the landscape paintings of Paul Cezanne. Both Braque and Picasso attempted to portray the notion that we are not just neutral viewers of an objective external reality, but that our perceptions are also informed by our preconceived knowledge of the world. Cubism, as practised by Braque and Picasso, deconstructed objects and linear perspective (the illusion of depth on a flat surface) and reduced them to their basic elements of geometric forms and flattened planes. This reconstruction of objects and pictorial space led to the stylistic motif of showing objects from a variety of viewpoints simultaneously, a motif that became a hallmark of Braque’s artwork and of Cubism as an art movement.

Braque is also credited with the invention of the papier collé technique of collage, which he first used in 1912, when he drew on imitation wood grain paper that was pasted onto a white background. Papier collé differs from collage in that only paper cut-outs are used in the construction of the artwork, whereas collage employs various different materials. This method of picture making was central to what is now referred to as synthetic cubism. Early analytic cubist paintings dis-assembled different facets of various objects and reconstructed them, evoking the same object. Synthetic cubism focussed on constructing objects, often through paper cut-outs which in outline resembled the form of the actual object, such as a vase or a jug in a still life painting. In this way, both Braque and Picasso were innovators who created the first “mixed-media” artworks, and who also raised the question of whether an artwork could be composed of an assemblage of manufactured or everyday materials, such as newsprint or coloured paper.

This new visual language of Cubism, originated by Braque and Picasso had a far reaching influence over many visual artists both in France and throughout the world, such as Juan Gris, André Lhote, Albert Gleizes, Fernand Leger, Francis Picabia, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, and Diego Ribera. Two important Irish artists, who were at the forefront of the modern art movement in Ireland, and who were very much influenced by the theories of Cubism were Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, both of whom studied with André Lhote and Albert Gleizes in Paris. They, in turn, influenced a younger generation of Irish artists, such as Rose Ganly, who spent six months in Paris studying with Andre Lhote in 1951, and who produced a number of cubist paintings in this period.  
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As an artist, Braque was a ceaseless innovator and explored many different techniques of art making, including etching, lithography, sculpture, stained glass design and jewellery design. As testament to his standing as a giant of modern art, Braque became the first ever artist to have his work exhibited at the Louvre, during his own lifetime.

Constantin Kluge’s paintings show his captivation with the city of Paris, whether in the gaiety and animation of the flower markets, or the quiet serenity of the banks of the Seine, his skill in capturing changing sunlight, with vigourous brush strokes, and impasto paint, evokes the plein-air paintings of the French Impressionists. The architecture of the French capital features prominently in his paintings, possibly due to his own profession as an architect. As an artist, he was also renowned for his impressionistic landscape paintings of the French countryside.
 
Constantin Kluge was born in Riga, Latvia on January 29th 1912, of Russian parents. In 1914, Kluge’s father was drafted into the Czar’s army, however the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and the civil war that followed forced the family to leave their home. They moved frequently, finally settling in Manchuria in 1920. In 1925 they moved again to Shanghai, where Kluge graduated from the French Municipal High School. By the time he was seventeen he was an active member of the Shanghai Arts Club. He also had a talent for music, studying both the violin and cello. Although he had obvious artistic talents, from a young age, his parents decided against him pursuing a career in art, and encouraged him to study for a professional qualification, so in 1931 he left Shanghai for Paris, to study architecture. He then spent six years studying at the École des Beaux-Arts and graduated as a French Government Architect in 1937.
 
The years spent studying and living in Paris had instilled in Kluge a strong attachment to the city and after graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts he stayed another six months in Paris, where he painted numerous scenes of the city. On returning to China, he practiced as an architect for some time, but a successful exhibition of his paintings, inspired him to take his artistic ambitions, more seriously.
 
In 1946 he accepted an architectural post in Hong Kong and continued to paint in his spare time. In March 1950, with rumours that the Chinese Communists might invade Hong Kong, Kluge left Asia and returned to Paris. Already a mature and successful painter when he reached Paris, he gained considerable attention at the Paris Salon in 1951 and was given an award for his contribution that year. From that year on, he exhibited frequently at the Paris Salon and at the Salon of the Société des Artistes Français, where he was awarded the Medaille d’Argent in 1961 as well as the special Raymond Perreau prize, given by the Taylor Foundation at the Salon. In 1962, he achieved the highest honour at the Salon, when he was awarded the coveted gold medal.
 
In 1990 Kluge was made a Chevallier of the Légion d'honneur by the French Ministry of Culture for his contribution to art in France. The following year he was awarded the Grand Medal of the city of Senlis. In addition to his success as an artist, he was also a writer of considerable stature and his autobiography Constantin Kluge was published in 1987.
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Read Aisling O'Loughlin's interview with Ib Jorgensen on his life in fashion and art here
http://www.exquisite.ie/exquisite-life-ib-jorgensen-fashion-art/

Walter  Osborne  was  born  in  Dublin  in  1859,  the  son  of  a  well  known  animal  painter,  William  Osborne  (1823  -  1901).  He  studied  at  the  Royal  Hibernian  Academy  Schools  in  Dublin  and  at  the  Dublin  Metropolitan  School  of  Art.  In  1881  he  won  the  Taylor  scholarship  at  the  Royal  Dublin  Society,  which  allowed  him  to  travel  to  Antwerp.  There  he  enrolled  at  the  Academie  Royale  des  Beaux  Arts  and  joined  the  Natuur  (painting  and  drawing  from  life)  class  given  by  the  animal  painter  Charles  Verlat  (1824  -  1890).  In 1883 having completed his  training,  Osborne  travelled  to  Brittany,  by  then  a  popular  destination  for  painters  wishing  to  paint  en  plein  air.  Osborne worked in the countryside around the towns of  Pont  Aven,  Dinan  and  Quimperle.  One of his best known paintings from this period is his famous Apple Gathering, Quimperlé, now in the National Gallery of Ireland. During this time he became  friendly  with  many  artists  and  was  influenced  especially  by  Jules  Bastien  -  Lepage,  the  French  painter  who  used  a  grey,  even  light  in  his  paintings,  and  promoted  the  square  brush  technique,  a technique where paint is laid down in blocks of colour with a flat square brush.  Osborne  was  also  influenced  in  his  work  by  two  English plein air painters, George Clausen and Stanhope Forbes.

On  his  return  from  France  in  1884,  Osborne  spent  most  of  the  next  few  years  in  various  small  English  towns.  In  England  he  worked  with  Nathaniel  Hill  and  Edward  Stott  in  Worcestershire.  He  worked  in  the  open  air  continuing  to  paint  the  rural  scenes,  villages  and  cottage  gardens  that  he  had  painted  on  the  Continent.  He  spent  the  winter  months  in  Ireland  and  showed  annually  at  the   Royal  Hibernian  Academy  exhibition,  where  he  also  became  an  influential  teacher.  In  1883  he  was  elected  an  associate  of  the  RHA  and  in  1886  he  became  a  full  member.  He  then  settled  in  Dublin  where  he  assumed  responsibility  for  the  upbringing  of  his  niece,  Violet  Osborne,  who  on  the  death  of  her  mother  in  childbirth  was  sent  from  Canada  to  Ireland  to  be  reared  by  her  grandparents.   He  continued  to  paint  outdoors  in  and  around  Dublin,  but  these  works  proved  difficult  to  sell  and  so  he  entered  the  more  lucrative  area  of  portrait  painting,  where  he  was  very  successful.  He  continued  to  exhibit  at  the  RHA  and  at  the  Royal  Academy  exhibitions  in  London,  where  his  work  was  always popular.  His  later  works  show  an  "impressionistic"  influence  where  his  usual  dark  tonality  gave  way  to  brighter colours  and an  increased  interest  in  the  effects  of  sunlight and shadows.
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In  1900  for  reasons  unknown  he  refused  the  offer  of  a  knighthood.  His  career  ended  quite  tragically  in  1903,  when  aged  only  forty  four,  he  died  of  pneumonia.  It  is  with  some  justification  that  his unsentimental  atmospheric  paintings  with  their  popular  charm  earned  him  the  title  of  "the Irish Impressionist".