57
Irish Women Artists 1870 - 1970
Summer 2014
42. Muriel Brandt RHA (1909 - 1981)
Christmas Eve
Oil on board, 43 x 29cm
Signed
Exhibited:“Muriel Brandt” Exhibition,The Dawson Gallery November 1963
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Born in Belfast Muriel Brandt studied at the Belfast College of Art and won a scholarship to
the Royal College of Art in London where she studied for three years. Brandt’s first major
commission was seven paintings for the Church of the Franciscan Friars on Merchant’s Quay
in Dublin, the sketch for which is now housed in the National Gallery of Ireland.
Brandt’s forty year long association with the Royal Hibernian Academy began in 1938, and
in 1948 she was appointed an associate. In 1961 she became a full member. Brandt’s skill
of effortlessly capturing likeness was commented on by fellow painter James Nolan RHA,
“she was a compulsive draughtsman and sketched like lightning, achieving in minutes those
likenesses of her contemporaries.”
