Mary Swanzy (1882 - 1978)

Part of the Irish Archive

Description

Swanzy, Mary (1882–1978), landscape and genre painter, was born 15 February 1882 in Dublin, second of three daughters of Sir Henry Rosborough Swanzy, ophthalmic surgeon and vice-president of the College of Surgeons, and his wife Mary, daughter of Dr John Denham. The family resided at 23 Merrion Square, Dublin. She was educated at Alexandra College, Earlsfort Terrace, and was sent to finishing school at the Lycée in Versailles, France, and on to a day school in Freiburg, Germany. Hence she was fluent in French and German and used to travelling abroad from a young age. She attended art classes at the studio of May Manning under the tuition of John Butler Yeats. To improve her drawing skills, Manning, a contemporary of Sarah Purser , encouraged her to study modelling with John Hughes at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, and living within a short walk of the National Gallery she could study and copy the great masters. She first exhibited with the RHA (1905) with ‘Portrait of a child’. With her father's encouragement it seemed likely she would be a portraitist, and till 1910 she exhibited portraits every year with the RHA. She went to Paris (1905) and worked long hours in Delacluse's studio for women artists; here the model was draped. The following year she attended the studio of the portrait painter de la Gandara and took classes at La Grande Chaumière and Colarossi's studios in the company of students from all over the world. Paris was the centre for the avant-garde movements in art and she could see the latest works, hanging unframed in Gertrude Stein's house, 27 Rue de Fleurus, including artists such as Gauguin, Matisse, Bracque, and Picasso; she particularly admired Picasso's portrait of Stein. The work of these artists made a lasting impression on her. Back in Dublin she painted portraits and some genre scenes and held her first show at Mill's Hall, Merrion Row, Dublin (1913). She held another there (1919) showing almost fifty works. Sarah Purser reviewed this exhibition and commented on the light optimism and lack of melancholy in her Irish landscapes. It was noted by critics that she painted in a variety of styles, and indeed she did so throughout her career, with much of her work reflecting the major artistic developments in Paris. The death of her parents within three years of each other caused an upheaval in her life, but with financial independence she could avail herself of the opportunity to travel, and during the first world war moved between Saint-Tropez and Dublin, painting all the time. She exhibited in the Salon des Indépendants (1914, 1916) and in 1920 was elected to the committee. Her sister St Clair was involved in relief work with the protestant mission in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, and while visiting her she painted landscapes, peasant scenes, and village life. These she exhibited in the Dublin Painters' Gallery autumn show (1921) with six other artists, among them Jack Yeats (qv), Paul Henry, and Clare Marsh (1870–1923), with whom she shared a studio. Her travels took her to more exotic locations: Honolulu (c.1923), where she stayed with her aunt, Mrs F. M. Swanzy; and Samoa, where she painted tropical flowers, trees, and native women in the bright palette reminiscent of the Fauves. In Santa Barbara, California, she stayed with a friend and worked in a local studio. She showed some of her Samoan canvases at the Santa Barbara Arts Club Gallery. On her return to Ireland (February 1925) she exhibited three of her Samoan paintings with the RHA and showed fourteen at a one-woman show (October 1925) in the Galerie Bernheim Jeune, Paris. Gertrude Stein wrote to congratulate her on the exhibition. Finally settling in Blackheath, south London, in the mid 1920s, she made regular trips abroad and to Dublin. On one occasion (1932) Sarah Purser held an exhibition of Swanzy paintings in her house for invited guests. Her work at this period reflected the influence of ‘orphism’, a colourful softer form of cubism, and although the reviews were positive, the paintings were largely derivative and decorative in style. Her late work is more striking, personal, and allegorical in nature; for example, ‘The message’ in the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin. During the second world war she stayed with her sister in Coolock, Co. Dublin, for three years, reentering the Dublin arts scene with a one-woman show at the Dublin Painters' Gallery (1943) and showing in the same year at the first Irish Exhibition of Living Art. She was represented in a group show at St George's Gallery, London (1946), with many distinguished artists such as Henry Moore, Chagall (with whom much of her late work is compared), and William Scott (qv). She was made an honorary member of the RHA (1949), and showed with them (1950, 1951), from her London address. For a number of years she did not exhibit in Ireland, but a major retrospective of her work was held at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art (1968) when she was 86 years of age. Encouraged, she reestablished relations with Ireland and held two one-woman shows with the Dawson Gallery, Dublin (1974, 1976). She was represented in Cork Rosc (1975) and resumed showing work with the RHA. This renewed interest in her painting gave her the impetus to keep working till her death at her home in London, on 7 July 1978 at the age of 96. The Taylor Galleries held an exhibition of works from her studio on the centenary of her birth (1982) and an exhibition of her paintings was held at Pyms Gallery, Belgravia, London (1986). - Biography written by Ruth Devine for the Dictionary of Irish Biographies (https://www.dib.ie/biography/swanzy-mary-a8397)

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