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Watercolour Society of Ireland |
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The Water Colour Society of Ireland (WCSI) started out as a local Irish art society founded in 1870 by six ladies: the Baroness Pauline Prochazka, Miss Currey, the two Miss Keanes, Miss Musgrave and Miss Phipps. The agreed objects of this art society were the mutual improvement in painting and drawing, as well as the cultivation of a taste for art. In May 1871, the society held its first exhibition in Lismore, County Waterford. By the time of its second exhibition - held in Clonmel in October 1871 - the society was known as the Amateur Drawing Society. Then in 1878 it changed its name again: this time to the Irish Fine Art Society, a title it kept until 1888 when it became the Water Colour Society of Ireland (WCSI). By this point, many of the watercolour painters in Ireland had become members, and its exhibitions were almost exclusively devoted to watercolour painting. In 1891, the Water Colour Society of Ireland took its first national step by abandoning its provincial exhibition venues and staged its annual Spring Exhibition at the Hall in Molesworth Street, Dublin. It continued to invite Irish artists there annually until 1975, when it moved the show to the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery. Then, in 1981, it moved to the Bank of Ireland Exhibition Hall in Baggot Street. Finally, from 1989 onwards, the Society's annual Water Colour Exhibition has been staged at the Royal Hibernian Academy's Gallagher Gallery, in Ely Place. Past and Present Members The list of present and past members of the Water Colour Society of Ireland reads like a roll-call of the greatest painters in the history of Irish art. Members have included: Rose Barton, Mildred Anne Butler, George Campbell, Lilian Davidson, Gerard Dillon, Percy French, May Guinness, Letitia Hamilton, Fr Jack Hanlon, Paul Henry, Harry Kernoff, Maurice MacGonigal, Nora McGuinness, Frank McKelvey, Flora Mitchell, Kitty Wilmer O’Brien, Walter Osborne, Nano Reid, George Russell (AE), Gladys Wynne and Jack B. Yeats. |
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• For facts about famous artists in Ireland, see: Guide to Irish Art. • How to Update This Mini Review of Watercolour Society of Ireland. Irish
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