Lot 10: Lady Beatrice Glenavy RHA 1881-1970 A serEnade Oil

Lady Beatrice Glenavy RHA 1881-1970 A serEnade Oil on canvas, 18" x 26" (46 x 69cm), signed and dated 1933. Beatrice Elvery was the second of seven children brought up in comfortable surroundings in Foxrock. The family ancestors had originated in Spain. Beatrice entered art college in Dublin where William Orpen was the star attraction. In later years Orpen painted several portraits of her and used her as a model. In 1901 she won the Taylor Scholarship. In 1902 she exhibited her first work, a statuette of a boy at the Royal Hibernian Academy. She went on to exhibit approximately 200 works at the Academy. In 1912 she married Gordon Campbell, later 2nd Baron Glenavy and settled in London where she moved in a very artistic circle. She returned to Ireland after the war and concentrated mainly on her painting. She was to exhibit at the Royal Academy and Royal Scottish Academy as well as the principal Dublin Galleries over the following years. Her work has a wonderfully romantic, fairy like quality and this is a particularly fine example. See Theo Snoddy, "Dictionary of Irish Artists, 20th Century", p. 142/143