SKU: 11883
Sir Gerald Festus Kelly
(1879 - 1972)
Mandalay
Private Collection
Sir Gerald Festus Kelly (1879 - 1972)
Size:
Height – 114.3cm
Width – 88.9cm
Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.129.
Kelly first met Lilian Ryan in 1916 when she was working as an artist’s
model, and the two were married four years later. Affectionately
nicknamed Jane, Kelly went on to depict his wife in over fifty portraits
and sketches throughout his career, titling them with roman numerals
for the date that the work was first exhibited at the Royal Academy.
This composition was reused by Kelly some eight years later in a more formal version of the portrait in which the the coral jewellery is omitted and the shawl fully covers Jane’s shoulders.
Portrait of Jane with a white shawl XXVII
signed ‘Kelly’ (lower right)
oil on canvas
113 x 87 cm. (44 1/2 x 34 1/4 in.)
Provenance: The Contents of The Studio of the Late Sir Gerald Kelly; Christie’s, London, 8 February 1980, lot 151.
Painter in oil of portraits and landscapes. Born in London, he was educated at Cambridge University, later living and studying art in Paris. Whistler was an early influence. Kelly was an enthusiastic traveler, visiting among other countries Spain, America, South Africa and Burma, where he painted some of his most characteristic and charming figure studies. He became known as a sound academic painter of attractive children and elegant women. His sitters included Somerset Maugham, whom he painted several times, and he undertook numerous state portraits. Kelly is represented in many public collections, including the Tate Gallery, which holds seven works. He had retrospective exhibitions at the Leicester Galleries in 1950 and in 1957 at the RA. He was elected RA in 1930, was the Academy’s keeper 1943-45 and President, 1949-54. Kelly held a number of official positions, such as his membership of the Royal Fine Arts Commission, 1938-43, and was knighted in 1945. Between 1909 and 1970 Kelly exhibited over 300 works at the RA. During his lifetime his work became well known through popular prints. Since his death however – and in spite of his technical brilliance and colourful, wide-ranging subject matter – his reputation has stagnated.
The artist John Napper worked as his assistant.
