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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. Comments are closed.
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