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19th Century Irish School - THE OLD FENIAN JOHN O'LEARY, c.1880-90

Currency:EUR Category:Art / General - Paintings Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 EUR
19th Century Irish School   - THE OLD FENIAN JOHN O'LEARY, c.1880-90

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Auction Date:2011 Oct 10 @ 18:00 (UTC+1)
Location:Royal Dublin Society, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Dublin, Dublin, ., Ireland
Artist: 19th Century Irish School
Title: THE OLD FENIAN JOHN O'LEARY, c.1880-90
Medium: oil on board
Signature: inscribed with title on reverse
Dimensions: 52 by 43cm., 20.5 by 17in.
Provenance:
Exhibited:
Literature:
Note: The Yeats family played a major role in immortalising the Fenian John O’Leary (1830-1907), John Butler Yeats in paint (his portrait can be found in the Yeats Museum, NGI, Dublin) and in word by his son, W.B. Yeats, whose lament on the death of “Romantic Ireland” in September 1913 repeatedly mentions O’Leary.
Fenian leader and Irish separatist O’Leary was born in Tipperary and well-educated having studied both law and medicine; however, he did not take a degree in the former because of his unwillingness to take the oath of allegiance required to become a barrister. O’Leary was variously involved in the revolts in Tipperary in the late 1840s but by 1850 had enrolled at Queen's College, Cork, to study medicine, later travelling to Dublin, Paris and London. In September 1865 O'Leary was arrested, tried and sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude, of which five years were spent in English prisons prior to his release and exile in January 1871. During this time he lived mainly in Paris where he was befriended by the American James MacNeill Whistler (1834-1903) among other artists. On his return to Ireland in 1885 he became a pivotal figure in influential political and artistic circles. When he died 1907 this painting was thought to have been acquired from his estate by Eily Carew, his grand-niece, whose family later moved to live in the English Midlands. We would date this work to 1880-1885. It is possible but unconfirmed that this may be the missing portrait of O’Leary thought to have been exhibited by Irish artist Katherine MacCausland (1859-1930) at an exhibition of Irish Art at Whitechapel, London, 1913.
For further reading see: Compagnons de Voyage, Julian Campbell examines the oeuvre of Katherine MacCausland who found comradeship and artistic fulfilment in France, Irish Arts Review, Winter 2008, Vol. 25, no. 4, p.100-103.