Adam's HOMAN POTTERTON A LIFETIME OF COLLECTING 7th September 2021

112 104 LEO WHELAN RHA (1892-1956) Portrait of Guendolen Wilkinson, Seated in an Elegant Interior Oil on canvas, 126 x 100cm (49.6 x 39.3”) Signed Exhibited: Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy 1926, catalogue no.74. € 15,000 - 25,000 Guendolen Wilkinson was one of two daughters to Sir Nevile Wilkinson and his wife Lady Beatrix Herbert, 1st daughter of the 14th Earl of Pembroke. In the early years of the 20th century the family lived at Mount Merrion House in south county Dublin. In 1908 Sir Nevile was appointed Ulster King of Arms and as such he was Principal Officer of Arms of Ireland and one of the chief heraldic officers in the United Kingdom, a role he fulfilled until his death in 1940. Wilkinson designed two spectacular doll’s houses, Pembroke Palace and Titania’s Palace. The latter was hand built by the renowned Dublin cabinet-maker James Hicks of Pembroke Street, and was com- pleted in 1922. It’s inspiration apparently came from Guendolen who claimed to have seen a fairy in the woods at their home. Her father designed the palace to consist of eighteen rooms filled with hand carved mahogany furniture. It was bedecked with three thousand tiny works of art from around the world. The Wilkinson family, who had retained Titania’s Palace put it up for auction in London in 1978 where it was purchased by Legoland in Denmark. It is now on display at the 16th century water castle, Egeskov in Denmark,. Born in Dublin in 1892, Leo Whelan studied painting and drawing at the Metropolitian School of Art under the tutelage of Sir WilliamOrpen. He would become, along with Sean Keating and Patrick Tuohy a highly influential member of the school of Irish painting in the early 20th century - a school which adhered strongly to the academic style of portraiture promoted by Orpen. He first exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1911 with a portrait of Dr. O’Connell Redmond and over the course of his career he would contribute 250 paintings to the annual show. In 1916, as a student at the RHA art school, he won the Taylor Art Scholarship. A number of portrait commissions followed, including one of the IRA headquarters in 1922, featuring Michael Collins whom Whelan painted several times. In 1924, Leo Whelan was elected a full member of the RHA and became Visiting Teacher of painting and drawing at the RHA schools. His commissioned works, such as the present full-length portrait of Guendolen Wilkinson were treated with his signature meticulous attention to detail. Exhibited at the 1926 RHA annual show he presents a young society lady in a relaxed pose, fashionably attired in a red silk dress, and seated before a Geor- gian mantelpiece. Another portrait by Whelan was exhibited that year, one of another Gwendoline, Count John McCormack’s daughter. The tenor was one of Whelan’s closest friends and tried unsuc- cessfully to get the painter to relocate to the United States. Whelan however developed a hugely suc- cessful practice in Dublin as the principal portraitist in the country and was the immediate choice for commissions for the church hierarchy, politicians, medics and senior business figures until his death in 1956.