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Beatrice Salkeld (1925-1993)
Boy with Dog
Oil on canvas, 42 x 32 (16½ x 12½”)
Signed
‘I soon realised I was to play a minor role in this American carnival;
it was a role I was accustomed to in other countries, so I did not com-
plain. No one could accuse me of trying to compete with my husband,
he alone was news whether drunk or sober.’
Beatrice Salkeld was first introduced to her future husband
Brendan Behan (1923-1964) by her artist father, Cecil fFrench
Salkeld ARHA (1904-1969), while she was still a school girl.
Educated at the Loreto Convent on St. Stephen’s Green in
Dublin, she trained at the National College of Art and later in
Florence, Sienna, and Milan. From 1949 to 1955, she worked
as a botanical assistant in the National Museum of Ireland. At
this time, she exhibited at the RHA (1948-1950); had her work
shown at the Oireachtas Exhibition (1957, 1958), at the Irish
Living Art Exhibition (1959), in New York (1969, 1970) and at
the Irish Pavilion at the World Fair (1972). She also assisted her
father with painting his murals in Davy Byrne’s public house in
Dublin, and subsequently maintained them.
After marrying Behan in February 1955, Salkeld remained to
a great extent, in her husband’s shadow. She helped to support
him and their only daughter by working as a horticultural illus-
trator for the Irish Times. Regarding him as ‘a great, loveable
genius’, she also travelled frequently with Behan, accompanying
him to London, Paris, and New York, and was very tolerant of
her husband’s drinking and unruly behaviour. She illustrated
Behan’s
Hold your hour and have another (1963)
, and worked
with Alan Simpson on the revision of his unfinished play ‘
Rich-
ard’s cork leg’
. Upon his death, she settled his many debts and in
1973, published her memoirs,
My Life with Brendan
.
€500 - 800