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84
George Galway MacCann ARCA (1909-1967)
FISHES
oil on canvas
signed lower left
17½ x 21½in. (44.45 x 54.61cm)
Provenance:
Collection of George and Maura McClelland
George Galway MacCann, was a sculptor, muralist and stage designer born in Belfast to David, a monu-
mental sculptor and his wife Elizabeth. He studied at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution from 1920-
26 and at the Belfast school of Art under Seamus Stoupe 1926-29, where he met fellow art student and
his future wife Mercy Hunter. In 1929 he won a major scholarship to the Royal College of Art, London. He
was awarded a prize for sculpture in 1932, on the recommendation of his lecturer, Henry Moore.
On his return to Belfast MacCann exhibited at a show of sculpture and painting with William Conor, Mar-
garet Yeames and Joy McKean in November 1933. The following year MacCann and Yeames joined with
members of the recently formed Northern Ireland Guild of Artists, including Elisabeth Clements, Colin
Middleton, John Luke and Romeo Toogood, and established the Ulster Unit. At the Unit’s only exhibition,
in November 1934, MacCann showed abstracted paintings and two stone sculptures that illustrated the
influence of his teacher Henry Moore.
MacCann received his first public commission, a carved panel for above the entrance of Avoniel Primary
School, in 1935. While living in County Armagh he worked as an art teacher at the Royal School Armagh
and Portadown College, and from 1938-39 he was head of sculpture at the Belfast School of Art. During
WWII MacCann served in Burma as a captain in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. During the 1940s, MacCann
was depicted in his Inniskilling uniform by Sydney Smith - a painting now in the collection of the Armagh
County Museum. From 1946 MacCann taught at Sullivan Upper School, Holywood.
In the 1950s MacCann garnered several commissions and was represented at CEMA’s exhibition of sculp-
ture at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery in 1953 where his work was shown alongside Henry Moore,
Lynn Chadwick, Barbara Hepworth, Jacob Epstein and Uli Nimptsch. MacCann and Mercy Hunter were
well known and highly regarded in Belfast’s art and literary circles. They collaborated on costume de-
signs for the Patricia Mulholland Irish Ballet and some of these designs can be found in the Grand Opera
House, Belfast. A solo show of his work was held at the New Gallery, Belfast in 1963 and he also exhibited
at the IELA in Dublin. In 1964 he was elected associate of the Royal Ulster Academy. A memorial exhibi-
tion was arranged by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland at Queen’s University in 1968.
For further reading see Snoddy, p.364-365.
€500-€700 £420-£588
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