Bridgit
- a picture of Miss Elvery
(Beatrice Elvery)
1909
Sir William Orpen
(1878-1931) Irish painter
Owner?
Oil on canvas
43.25 x 33.25 in
signed and dated on bottom
left - 'Orpen 1909'
Jpg: Friend
of the JSS Gallery
From: Wendy & Gordon Hawksley
<g w@whawksley.fsnet.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002
Beatrice Elvery, a young irish girl
and sculpture student, developed a friendship with Orpen when she first
him at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin in 1897. In later years
Orpen was based in London and Beatrice had her own studio in Kildare Street,
Dublin but they continued their friendship via their correspondence with
each other. He would address her as 'Bridgit' and would sign himself as
'Digit'. In 1912 Beatrice married Patrick Campbell [or Gordon Campbell.
He later became 2nd Baron Glenavy (details in "Dictionary of Irish Artists"
by Theo Snoddy) 1]
and she became Lady Glenavy. She moved in the highest literary circles
including Yeats,
Lawrence, Mansfield and Shaw.
From: Tomás Maher
<to m aher@eircom.net>
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003
I recently bought an old edition
of Patrick Pearse's collection of short stories in Irish entitled
"Iosagan" with beautiful colour illustrations by Beatrice Elvery.
I had never heard of Beatrice before so a friend did a search on Yahoo
and came up with her portrait and the info from wendy and Gordon Hawksley.
The book Iosagan is one of
the first collections of short stories Published in Irish (seemingly about
1907, Though there is no Publication date in the small octavo volume I
have). As you may know P. Pearse (Padraic Mac Piarais) was the Leader of
the 1916 Rising and was subsequently executed by the British army. In earlier
years he was an innovative educator and prolific author in irish and english.
. . . .
I can send you translations of the
captions on the pictures if you wish. The book Iosagan is available in
translation. The script used in the 1907 edition is the old gaelic script
based on the ancient manuscripts.
Yours sincerely,
Tomas Maher
Tallaght, Dublin
Notes:
Special thanks to Wendy & Gordon
Hawksley, of Sheffield, England, and Tomas Maher of Dublin, Ireland, all
friends
of the JSS Gallery, for sending me the images and notes.
1) Tomas Maher found the information
and e-mailed me 8/11/2003
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