Featured Artist - Sarah Purser

Sarah Purser, RHA 1848-1943

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.