Adams Important Irish Art 23rd March 2016 : You can Download a PDF Version from the Bottom Menu Down Arrow Icon

Wax Crayon on Paper, 47.5 x 34 cm (18¾ x 13½”)

Signed

Provenance: With The Bell Gallery (label verso)

€ 2,000 - 3,000

William Conor was born in Belfast and studied graphic design at the Government School of Design and was then apprenticed to a poster

designer. He exhibited at the RHA for the first time in 1918 and continued to do so until the year before his death. During both World Wars

Conor was commissioned by the British Government to produce records of soldiers in the form of sketches, some of which were included

in an exhibition of war artists at the National Gallery of London in 1941.

He spent a number of years in London in the 1920s where he met Sir John Lavery and Augustus John, and in 1926 travelled to America to

undertake various portrait commissions. Conor was the first Irishman to become a member of the Royal Institute of oil painters. He was a

founder member of Ulster Academy (later the RUA) and was president from 1957 to 1964. He was elected RHA in 1947 and awarded the

OBE in 1952.

His works can be found in major collections including the Ulster Museum, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Crawford Municipal Gallery, Impe-

rial War Museum in London, The Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Brooklyn Museum in New York