Featured Artists & Gallery News

​A Chinese iron painting depicting a landscape of pine trees growing from the edges of cliffs among clouds. The upper right-hand corner is inscribed with a poem written by Chairman Mao Zedong, following an inscription stating that this iron painting was created in December 1964. The rectangular mark in red at the end of the inscription reads Tie Hua (meaning ‘iron painting’). Another red mark in a square at the lower left corner of the painting reads Wu Hu Gong Yi (‘crafts from Wuhu’). The landscape, inscriptions and marks are all made of wrought iron elements, which are crafted individually.
 
“Amid the growing shades of dusk stand sturdy pines
Riotous clouds sweep past, swift and tranquil
Nature has excelled herself in the Fairy Cave
On perilous peaks dwells beauty in her infinite variety.”
 
The art of iron painting was developed in Wuhu city of Anhui province in the late 17th century.  According to Jenyns and Watson: “…T’ang T’ien-ch’ih, an iron worker, set the example by vying with the painter Hsiao Yun-ts’ung in depicting landscape.” The subject matter depicted here echoes the poem inscribed on the upper right-hand corner. The poem, consisting of four phrases with seven Chinese characters each, (known as Qijue), can be translated as follows “Amid the growing shades of dusk stand sturdy pines / Riotous clouds sweep past, swift and tranquil / Nature has excelled herself in the Fairy Cave / On perilous peaks dwells beauty in her infinite variety.” This poem was written by Chairman Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976) on 9th September 1961, with the title ‘The Fairy Cave- Inscription on a Picture Taken by Comrade Li Jin – a Qijue’; it was first published in The Poems of Mao Zedong in 1963.  The title refers to a poem written for a photograph taken by Li Jin, also known as Jiang Qing (1914 – 1991), the third wife of Mao. The pine tree enhances the scholarly theme, as it is a symbol of longevity. A set of four 18th century iron paintings representing the seasons are in the collection of the British Museum, one of which is illustrated by Jenyns.  A set of four further comparable iron paintings dated to the 17th century was included in the exhibition, The Chinese Scholar’s Studio: Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period from the Shanghai Museum in 1987.

Anthony Palliser was born in 1949, of an English father and a Belgian mother. He trained as an artist at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, before moving to Paris in 1970, where he still lives to this day. During the 1990’s he was visiting professor of fine art at the New York School of Visual Arts in Savannah, Georgia, a city that he still visits frequently.

As an artist, Anthony has exhibited extensively, with over twenty eight solo exhibitions and countless group exhibitions, throughout Europe and the United States. As a portrait painter, he is highly sought after, and one of his most famous portraits, that of the writer, Graham Greene now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London. He has also completed numerous portrait paintings of well-known people from the world of arts and music including the singer, Marianne Faithful, film directors, James Ivory and John Boorman, and actors, Helena Bonham-Carter, Kristin Scott Thomas and Pierce Brosnan.

Anthony has always had a long standing connection to Ireland, having met the well-known patron of Irish arts, and member of the extended Guinness family, Garech de Brún in France. In subsequent years, he became a frequent visitor to Luggala, the estate in the Wicklow mountains, which de Brún inherited from his mother. It was with the encouragement of de Brún, that Anthony embarked on painting a series of portraits of Irish poets and writers, such as John Montague, Seamus Heaney, Colm Toíbín and Derek Mahon.

In more recent years, he has invited friends to pose for him, and produced a series of very large scale portraits, where the canvas is dominated by the face of the sitter, often seen from the front, looking directly at the viewer. In this series of paintings, the direct gaze and imposing size of the canvas is in marked contrast to the sense of intimacy, that is an inherent element of Anthony’s portrait paintings.
 

James Campbell Noble, RSA (1846 -1913)

​James Campbell Noble was born in Edinburgh in 1846. He first studied art under William McTaggart at the Royal Scottish Academy, and his early paintings consisted mostly of portraits, idyllic plein air scenes of country life and rustic genre scenes, such as country cottage interiors. He was elected an associate member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1879, becoming a full member in 1892. He later became a teacher at the Academy and one of his pupils was the well-known Scottish artist, Robert Gemmell Hutchinson. Over the course of his career as an artist, he gradually broadened the subject matter of his paintings to include landscapes, and marine paintings, in particular. In addition to painting the landscape of his native Scotland, he also travelled extensively throughout Europe in search of suitable subjects to paint, and captured the scenic landscape of the rivers Seine, Merwede, Meuse and Rhine. He lived for part of his life in Holland and the area around the port of Dordrecht became one of his favourite places to paint. His Dutch port scenes and seascape paintings are now considered to be his most characteristic artworks, and are now in the collections of many art museums, such as the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, the National Gallery of Scotland, the Sheffield Art Museum and the Walker Art Gallery. Over the course of his life he was a consistent contributor to the Royal Academy exhibitions in London, where he exhibited from 1880 until 1896.

​Bernard Lorjou was a French artist, known for paintings that dealt 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 of France, Lorjou moved to Paris, as a teenager, where he lived in poverty in a small room on the rue de Raspail. After his financial situation deteriorated, he lost his accommodation, and spent many nights sleeping in the Orsay train station. His fortunes changed 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.
 
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 awarded 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.
 

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, but as an artist, he is 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. 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".