Lot 75
WILLIAM CONOR O.B.E., R.H.A., R.U.A., R.O.I. (IRISH 1881-1968) §
THE RED HAT
Auction: 29 March 2014 at 10:00 GMT
Description
Signed, pastel and pencil
Dimensions
20.5cm x 17.5cm (8in x 7in)
Footnote
Note:
William Conor was born in Belfast, the son of a sheet metal worker. His origins strongly influenced his artistic life and inspired him many portraits of the working-class life in Ulster for which he is stil highly celebrated today. When he was ten, his music teacher recognised his talent and helped him entering the Belfast College of Art. Immediately after school he worked as a commercial artist but was soon enlisted by the British government as an official war artist during the First World War. In 1920 Conor moved to London and there a flourishing period of his artistic career began. He met and became good friends with Sir John Lavery and Augustus John and started exhibiting at the Royal Academy. He was also the first Irish artist to gain membership to the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He remained faithful to his favourite subject: the people and street life of the industrial Belfast, which he always depicted with a warm and sympathetic approach. Between 1918 and 1967 he exhibited nearly 200 works at the Royal Hibernian Academy of which he became full member in 1946. Further honours followed: the Order of the British Empire in 1952 and President of the Royal Ulster Academy in 1957. More than 50 watercolours are held now in the permament collections of the Ulster Museum.