Adam's Christmas Art & Literature 13 December 2016 : Click Lot Title for More Info

199

Art & Literature| 13th December 2016

Portrait of Josie MacAvin (1945)

Pencil, 28.5 x 25cm

Signed and dated (19)’45

Provenance: From the estate of David Clarke and thence by

descent.

Set decorator and art director Josie Macavin (1919-2005) is the

only Irish person to have been awarded an Academy award - for

Out of Africa 1985 - and an Emmy - for the miniseries, Scarlett

1994. Both trophies are on display at the Irish Film Institute,

Dublin.

Clarke (1920-2005), son of the artists Harry and Margaret Clarke,

was Macavin’s boyfriend at the time of the portrait. They fell in love

at the Dublin Ballet Club in 1941 and remained close for fifteen

years. They toured the US together with The Dublin Players, but in

1955 Clarke returned to Ireland to pursue a career in art, and as

a director of the Harry Clarke Stained Glass Studios. Macavin con-

tinued to work in the USA as set designer for the stage, and began

working on films sets in the late nineteen fifties.

€ 100 - 200