Patrick Hennessy (painter)

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Patrick Hennessy, RHA (28 August 1915 – 30 December 1980) was an Irish painter.

Life and Work

Patrick Hennessy was born in Cork, Ireland in 1915. The son of army officer John Hennessy, of 2 Shandon Terrace, and Bridget Hennessy (née Ring) he moved with his family, in the 1920s, to live in Scotland where they had many relations.[1] During the mid-1930s he studied at the Dundee College of Art under James MacIntosh Patrick (later RSA).[2] Here, he met fellow artist Harry Robertson Craig, who would become his lifelong partner.[3] He later conducted postgraduate work at Dundee and gained a travelling scholarship which enabled him to further his studies in Paris and Rome.[4] He subsequently studied at the Hospitalfield Advanced Art College in Arbroath.[5]

In 1939, at the dawn of World War II, Hennessy returned to his native Ireland to work as a professional painter. In 1940 he joined the Society of Dublin Painters which was co-founded by the artist Paul Henry and spent that decade living between Cork and Dublin. In 1947 he was resident in Crosshaven and by 1949 he had moved across Cork Harbour to nearby Cobh. He and Craig later settled at a Raglan Lane studio in Ballsbridge, Dublin.

In 1941, his work was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) for the first time. Between 1941 and 1971 he exhibited every year (but for three occasions) at the RHA, cumulatively showing in the region of one hundred paintings.[6] In 1948 he was elected associate to the RHA, and full member the following year. He also showed work at the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, St Stephen's Green, Dublin, in addition to submitting pieces to the Royal Academy (RA) and the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA).[7] As well as regularly exhibiting in group exhibitions, he also had several solo shows, among which included: a retrospective at the Dublin Painters Gallery in 1951; a London show in 1956; a flower painting show at the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery in 1957; Dublin winter shows in 1967 and 1978; as well as exhibitions in Chicago and his native Cork.[8]

Immensely productive but something of an outsider within the Irish Academy, his increasingly individual and precise style has been associated with Surrealism and anticipates Photorealism,[9] while his subjects range from still lifes and interiors to landscapes and portraits.[10] In 1939 he painted a portrait of Dr Eduard Hempel (as well as ones of his wife and their children, Liv and Berthold), who was the German Envoy to Ireland between 1937 and 1945.[11] In 1957 he painted a portrait of his friend, the author Elizabeth Bowen (CBE) at her ancestral home of Bowen's Court, near Kildorrery, County Cork, while in 1963 he painted Farewell to Ireland depicting President John F. Kennedy departing Ireland at Shannon Airport five months prior to his assassination in Dallas, Texas.[12]

In later life, he and Craig travelled extensively in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Greece, spending their winters for health reasons in Morocco and Portugal and their summers working in Cork and the West of Ireland. Patrick Hennessy died in Portugal on 30 December 1980 aged 65.

Examples of his work can be found in the public collections of the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery; the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane; the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA); the Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA); the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI); the National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland (NSPCI) at the University of Limerick (UL); and in the collections of University College Cork (UCC) and University College Dublin (UCD).

While self-portraits and works such as that of Liv Hempel routinely make between €2,000-€4,000 at auction,[13] owing to the prominence of its subject Hennessy's portrait of John F. Kennedy had an asking price of over €75,000 ($98,000) in 2012.[14]

Selected Exhibitions

  • Solo Exhibition: Dublin Painters Gallery, 1951
  • Group Exhibition: Irish Art 1900–1950: Cork Rosc Exhibition (curated by Hilary Pyle), Crawford Art Gallery, 1975/6
  • Group Exhibition: Catching a Likeness – Portraits on Paper National Gallery of Ireland (NGI), 3 September – 9 December 2007
  • Group Exhibition: Hero With a Thousand Faces, Crawford Art Gallery, 6 March – 30 May 2009
  • Associated Exhibition: Connolly/Cleary: Still life with..., Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA), 3 June 2010
  • Group Exhibition: The Politics of Memory (curated by Shane Cullen), Crawford Art Gallery, 20 November 2010 – Mid-2011

Selected Works

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See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Illustrated Summary Catalogue of The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery (1991), p.175
  2. ↑ Illustrated Summary Catalgoue of The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery (1991), p.175, and Literary Lives: Portraits from the Crawford Art Gallery and Abbey Theatre, Ireland (2010), p.62
  3. ↑ Illustrated Summary Catalgoue of The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery (1991), p.175, and Literary Lives: Portraits from the Crawford Art Gallery and Abbey Theatre, Ireland (2010), p.62
  4. ↑ Illustrated Summary Catalgoue of The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery (1991), p.175
  5. ↑ http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/irish-artists/patrick-hennessy.htm
  6. ↑ Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane (2006), p.80
  7. ↑ Illustrated Summary Catalgoue of The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery (1991), p.175
  8. ↑ http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/irish-artists/patrick-hennessy.htm
  9. ↑ Illustrated Summary Catalgoue of The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery (1991), p.175
  10. ↑ Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane (2006), p.80
  11. ↑ "Portrait of Hitler's envoy's daughter to be auctioned", The Irish Times, 29 January 2011
  12. ↑ "Irish JFK painting in US sale", The Irish Times, 12 February 2011
  13. ↑ "Patrick Hennessy Portraits at Whyte's", Antiques and Art Ireland
  14. ↑ "Farewell to Ireland by Patrick Hennessy", M.S. Rau Antiques
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