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Sir Gerald Festus Kelly KCVC PRA RHA (1879-1972)
Peaches and Figs
Oil on board, 67.5 x 81 (26½ x 31¾”)
Signed and dated ‘38
Exhibited: Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport (original label verso), The Royal British
Academy, 1970, Cat. No. 151
Sir Gerald Festus Kelly was born in London, 1879. He was educated at Eton College fol-
lowed by Trinity College Cambridge. After his university studies he travelled to Paris where
he remained for many years, receiving an artistic training and befriending Degas, Renoir,
Monet, Rodin and Cezanne among other artistic types. Kelly travelled extensively during his
lifetime, choosing exotic locations such as Burma and Africa as well as the closer climes of
Italy and Spain for his inspiration. Although Kelly’s choice of subject for his paintings was
varied, it was perhaps for his portraits that he became best known, executing several State
portraits and many paintings of society ladies and gentlemen, bishops and lords of the time.
Brian Kennedy writes in his book
Irish Art and Modernism 1880-1950
(p.167):
Apart from Dermod O’Brien, the other outstanding portraitists year after year were Sir
William Orpen (until 1917 when he last exhibited), Sir John Lavery and Sir Gerald Kelly,
but as they lived in England their influence was less than it might otherwise have been. Sir
Gerald Festus Kelly exhibited over 300 works at the Royal Academy in London from 1909
until 1970 and held the Presidency from 1949-’54. Although painted in 1938 this work was
not exhibited in the Royal Academy until 1970 the last year he exhibited there. In Ireland
Kelly exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy from 1905-1969, the Oireachtas Art Ex-
hibition in 1932 and also at the Ulster Academy of Arts in 1948. Gerald Kelly received a
knighthood in 1945 - no doubt for his astounding talent in representing people and places
with extreme delicacy and beauty. He was a highly successful artist during his lifetime but
his name seems not to have lived on as it did with his peers Sir William Orpen and Sir John
Lavery. Sir Gerald Festus Kelly died in London in 1972. His work is housed in several public
collections, among them the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Tate Gallery, London
and the Royal College of Music, London.
€8,000 - 12,000
