WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART Monday 19 October 2020

IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART · 19 October 2020 AT 6PM 135 96 Margaret Allen HRHA (1830-1914) HAPPY AS A KING, 1876 oil on board signed lower right; inscribed on reverse [‘Happy as a King / A Portrait by Margaret Allen / 12 Westland Row’]; with label of Charles Robertson & Co., London on reverse 24 by 20in. (61 by 50.8cm) Frame size: 29 by 25.5in. (74 by 65cm.) Exhibited: RHA, Dublin, 1876, catalogue no. 169 The present portrait was one of three works shown by the artist in the RHA in 1876, with her address listed as 12 Westland Row as per her inscription on the reverse of this work. The other works, also portraits, were titled ‘Louis; (no. 354) and ‘Charlie’ (no. 366). Margaret Allen was the first woman to be elected an honorary member of the RHA, yet relatively little is known about her life. During the years 1853-94 she showed more than fifty works at the RHA, mostly portraits and genre subjects such as The Last Hour in the Old Land, an eviction scene which sold through the Gorry Gallery in 1989. In addition to showing with the RHA, Allen also exhibited at the Manchester City Art Gallery, where she lived for some time in the 1890s, the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham and at Walker Gallery in Liverpool. She died in Balleen, Co. Kilkenny, in 1914 (see Snoddy, pages 14-15). For another work by this rare artist see lot 94. €3,000-€5,000 (£2,670-£4,440 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot96