Page 69 - Whyte's Irish & British Art 4th March 2013 (Use full screen from menu for best Viewing)

WHYTESSINCE 1783
,S
SI 1783
69
95
Lily Williams ARHA (1874-1940)
PORTRAIT OF A GIRL
pastel on paper
with original inscribed ROSC exhibition label preserved
verso
17.25 by 13.25in. (43.82 by 33.66cm)
A contemporary of Beatrice Elvery and Estella Solomons, Lily
Williams was a Dublin born portrait and figure painter of
Unionist and Protestant stock. She exhibited regularly at the
RHA from 1904, the Dublin Sketching Club and she was one of
the Young Irish Artists who showed in Dublin in 1903. Among
her best-known sitters was Arthur Griffith who inspired
Williams and other “Protestant Sinn Féiners” to learn Irish.
Williams designed a Sinn Féin “postage stamp” and Ireland’s
struggle featured in several forms in her oeuvre; An Irish
Volunteer was among her exhibits at the 1916 RHA academy
exhibition. From prison in England, 1916-18, Griffith wrote to
the artist. In 1921 she presented an oil portrait of him to the
Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin (now housed in Áras
An Uachtaráin).Williams designed the Irish Free State Cross of
Cong stamp in 1922, a design still in use up to 1968. She was
appointed ARHA in 1929. Her work can be found in important
public collections including the Abbey Theatre, Civic Museum,
Liberty Hall, UCD and the Hugh Lane among others.
For further reading see: Snoddy, p.713-715.
€800-€1,200 (£690-£1,030 approx.)
96
Constance Gore-Booth, Countess
Markievicz (1868-1927)
GLENDALOUGH, COUNTY WICKLOW, 1895
watercolour
signed with initials “C. G. B.” and dated [August] lower
left
10 by 14in. (25.40 by 35.56cm)
Provenance:
A gift from the artist to Elizabeth Coventry, North Strand,
Dublin;
Thence by descent to previous owner;
Whyte’s, 29 November 2005, lot 155;
Private collection
The original owner of this work, Elizabeth Coventry, was a
relation of Mr Richardson, owner of The Lake Hotel,
Glendalough, where Countess Markievicz would occasionally
stay in the company of Mrs Coventry and her family.
€1,500-€2,000 (£1,300-£1,700 approx.)