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Welcome to the Jorgensen Art Gallery Blog, where we feature articles on new paintings and sculpture on show at the gallery and news of the art and antique fairs that we participate in.

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Gallery Newsletter

​​Ib Jorgensen -  Interiors Sale

16/10/2020

 
The gallery auction of paintings, sculpture, antique & modern furniture will take place at Adam's Auctioneers
​on Tuesday, October 20th at 2.00 p.m.

Viewing :
October 16th 10.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m.
October 18th 2.00 p.m. - 5.00 p.m.
October 19th 10.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m.
October 20th10.00 a.m. - 1.00 p.m.

View the full catalogue here Ib Jorgensen Interiors Sale
Ib Jorgensen Interiors Sale with  Adams Auctioneers

William John Leech, RHA (1881 - 1968)

16/7/2018

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

Bernard Lorjou (1908 - 1986)

30/4/2018

 
Bernard Lorjou Still Life Painting with Flowers in a Vase
​Bernard Lorjou (1908 - 1986) "Still Life with Flowers" Oil on canvas, 25¾" x 19¾"
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​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.

Bernard Lorjou Still Life Painting with Vase of Flowers Framed
​Bernard Lorjou (1908 - 1986) "Still Life with Flowers" Oil on canvas, 25¾" x 19¾"
Bernard Lorjou Still Life Painting with Flowers
Bernard Lorjou (1908 - 1986) Vase de Fleurs, Oil on canvas, 29" x 23"
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Rose Brigid Ganly, HRHA (1909 - 2002)

8/2/2018

 
Rose Brigid Ganly, HRHA (1909 - 2002)
"Female Nude - 1951"
Oil on canvas laid on board, 21" x 18"
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​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 (1882 - 1963) La Table de Cuisine

18/1/2018

 
Georges Braque (1882 – 1963)
Georges Braque (1882 – 1963) "La Table de Cuisine" Lithograph with highlights. Signed in pencil & numbered 247/300. Printed in Paris by Maeght. Dated 1942.
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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.  
​
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 1912 - 2003

11/4/2017

 
Constantin Kluge Painting On the Seine, Paris
Constantin Kluge 1912 - 2003 "On the Seine" Oil on canvas, 28" x 38.5"
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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.
​

AN EXQUISITE LIFE Ib Jorgensen on fashion and art

20/2/2017

 
Ib Jorgensen in the Jorgensen Gallery Dublin
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/

Mildred Anne Butler, RWS 1858 - 1941

2/2/2017

 
Mildred Anne Butler Watercolour Painting
Mildred Anne Butler, RWS (1858 - 1941) "Peacocks, Kilmurry" Watercolour, 4" x 7"
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Irish artist, Mildred Anne Butler was born in 1858. She came from an artistic background, her father, Captain Edward Butler, being a keen watercolourist. She lived for most of her life at her family home, Kilmurry, outside Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny. The house and its gardens and grounds became her chief source of inspiration with flower pieces and landscapes with birds and animals featuring largely in her watercolours. In 1885 she visited France, Switzerland and Italy with her sketchbook. The following year she was in London and worked with fellow Irish artist, Rose Barton (1856 - 1929) under Paul Jacob Naftel (1817 -91). She studied with him for the next three years, sending her work from Kilmurry to London for him to inspect. The Dudley Gallery in London began showing her work in 1888. In 1890 she exhibited with the Watercolour Society of Ireland. Her work was included in a book of watercolours given by the Society of Lady Artists to Princess Mary, later Queen Mary on her marriage to the Duke of York. Queen Mary later bought a watercolour by the artist.

In 1894 she visited Paris and later that year she travelled with May Guinness (1863 - 1955) to Newlyn in Cornwall where she studied under the Irish painter Norman Garstin (1847 - 1926) who ran summer painting classes in Newlyn. She also returned there the following summer. It is quite likely that Garstin, who knew Degas and had written about Manet, introduced Mildred Anne Butler to the work of the Impressionists. In 1896 the purchase by the Chanterey Bequest of her painting "The Morning Bath" which she had shown at the Royal Academy was a major success and at the time a rare honour for a woman. Also that year she was made an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, but she had to wait forty-one years to become a full member.

As well as attending the Westminster School of Art, she also spent a term in the studio of the animal painter, William Frank Calderon (1865 - 1943). Although she rarely painted in England she exhibited there often, being one of the artists selected by Hugh Lane for his exhibition of Irish painters in the Guildhall of London Corporation in 1904. In 1907 she was included in an exhibition at the New Dudley Gallery, London with Percy French, Claude Hayes and Bingham McGuinness. She also exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. During her career she only ever exhibited five works at the Royal Hibernian Academy, the first in 1891 and the last in 1904.
​

In addition to painting in and around the family home, Kilmurry, Mildred Anne Butler also holidayed in Tramore regularly and painted there. From 1905 onwards she often travelled to France and painted in the town of Aix les Bains. She painted little in the last ten years of her life and she died on the 11th of October 1941. Her work is now housed in most major collections in Ireland and England, including the National Gallery of Ireland, the Hugh Lane Gallery, the Ulster Museum and the Tate Gallery. A major retrospective of her work was held at the Crawford Municipal Gallery in 1987.

Featured Artist - Sarah Purser

24/1/2017

 

Sarah Purser, RHA 1848-1943

Sarah Purser Irish Artist Portrait of a Lady
Sarah Purser, RHA (1848-1943) "Portrait of a Lady" Oil on canvas, 16" x 12"
Sarah Purser is one of the leading Irish artists of the twentieth century. Her reputation is founded not just on her skills as a painter, but also on her role as a major advocate of Irish art and culture, throughout her life. She was born in 1848 in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, the youngest of eight children and she was educated in Switzerland. In 1872, with the decline of her father's business, her parents separated and Sarah went to live with her mother in Ballsbridge. With the downturn in her family finances, she decided to pursue a career as a society portrait painter. She first studied art at the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin before moving to Paris in 1879, where she studied at the Academie Julian. One of her most famous paintings, "Le Petit Dejeuner",  now at the National Gallery of Ireland, dates from this period. In this painting she depicts her friend, Maria Feller, who was studying music in Paris, at that time, seated at a breakfast table in a Parisian cafe, lost in thought. Portrait painting was to become Sarah Purser's forte throughout her long career as an artist.

However, in addition to her career as a portrait painter, she also established herself in Dublin as a leading figure of cultural nationalism and her home on Harcourt Terrace became a hub for literary, artistic and social activity. In 1903, she established "An Tur Gloine" (The Glass Tower) in order to develop and sustain an indigenous Irish stained glass industry. Many important stained glass windows in churches throughout Ireland were produced there and most of the major Irish stained glass artists, such as Evie Hone worked there, until its closure in 1944. In 1924 Sarah Purser founded the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland. The purpose of this organisation, was to bring about the return of Sir Hugh Lane's collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings from London to Dublin, as there had been a dispute after his death as to where he wanted his art collection to be housed. She was also instrumental in securing Charlemont House as a premises for what is now Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane.

As a successful portrait painter and advocate for the arts, Sarah Purser was a key figure in the development of the visual arts in 20th century Ireland. She led the way for other Irish women artists, by showing them that they could take up art as a profession, and gain their own independence. She also made history in Ireland in 1924 as she was the first female artist to become a full member of the prestigious Royal Hibernian Academy.

Norman Garstin​ "Portrait of a Breton Fisherman"

18/1/2017

 
Irish Artist Norman Garstin (1847 - 1926) Portrait of a Breton Fisherman, Oil on canvas, 16
Norman Garstin (1847 - 1926) "Portrait of a Breton Fisherman" Oil on canvas, 16" x 10"
Norman Garstin was born in County Limerick in 1847. At a young age, due to ill health he was sent to live on the Channel Islands, but returned to Ireland frequently on holidays, where he spent his time hunting and painting. His family encouraged him to enter professional life and he first studied engineering in Cork, before moving to London to study architecture.

Seeking his fortune, he moved to Kimberley in South Africa, for two years, where he spent his time mining for diamonds. He then entered the newspaper business, and founded the Cape Times newspaper with Cecil Rhodes. On returning to Ireland, he was subsequently injured in a riding accident and lost the sight in one eye. Ironically it was then that he made the choice to become an artist.

In 1880 he travelled to Antwerp and studied under the artist, Charles Verlat, for two years. In Antwerp, it is quite likely that he would have met other Irish artists such as Joseph Malachy Kavanagh and Walter-Osborne who were also studying there at that time. He then moved to Paris, where he continued his studies at the atelier of the painter Carolus Duran and where he met the Impressionist painters Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas. He wrote enthusiastically of Manet's paintings as early as 1884 describing them as exuding "a delicious brightness and happiness ..He lets in light and air. Pictures like his later ones amongst the brown bitumen canvases of the average exhibition seem like patches of sunlight on a prison wall"

He first exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin in 1883 with a painting entitled "Birds Nesting", which he sent from Paris. During the years that he lived in Paris, he travelled extensively visiting Italy, Spain and North Africa. He then married and moved to England, settling in Newlyn in Cornwall, where he became an eloquent spokesman for the Newlyn School of Art.

In 1890 he moved with his family to Penzance, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1892 he recorded the opening of the Canadian Pacific Railway, sending back illustrations to the Art Journal. He also supported himself by holding annual summer schools of painting in northern France and by writing articles for various art magazines, including The Studio.

During his career, he contributed a total of thirty four paintings to the annual exhibitions at the Royal Hibernian Academy. In 1904 he was one of the artists chosen by Hugh Lane for a major Irish art exhibition, which was held at the Guildhall in London. Also, that same year he held a watercolour exhibition, entitled "In Border Lands" at the Fine Art Society, London showing landscapes from Normandy, Brittany and Holland. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Ridley Art Club in London and at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool.
​
His final contribution to the Royal Hibernian Academy was a painting entitled "The Sarine" which was exhibited there in 1916. His paintings are now housed in many important collections, including the National Gallery of Ireland, the Tate Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
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