Dolly Robinson (born Dorothy Travers Smith; 26 October 1901 – 4 November 1977) was an Irish artist and theatre designer.

Early life

Dolly Robinson was born Dorothy Travers Smith in Dublin on 26 October 1901. She was the daughter of Richard Travers Smith MD, FRCPI and

Hester Hester is both a female given name and a surname. As a given name Hester is a variant of Esther. As a surname it is of Germanic origin and uncertain meaning, possible roots being the Middle High German ''heister'' beech tree indicating residence ne ...

(née Dowden). Her maternal grandfather was

Edward Dowden Edward Dowden (3 May 18434 April 1913) was an Irish critic, professor, and poet. Biography He was the son of John Wheeler Dowden, a merchant and landowner, and was born at Cork, three years after his brother John, who became Bishop of Edinburgh ...

, a noted literary critic. Robinson initially studied art with

Estella Solomons Estella Francis Solomons (1882–1968) was one of the leading Irish artists of her generation. Early life and family She was born in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of Maurice Solomons (1832–1922), and poet Rosa Jane Jacobs. Her father was an o ...

, going on to attend

Chelsea College of Arts Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educati ...

in London, living with her mother at Cheyne Gardens.

Career

She moved into theatre design, and in 1926 designed the set of the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the pu ...

's staging of ''

The Emperor Jones ''The Emperor Jones'' is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed, ...

'' by

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

. In 1927 the Abbey commissioned her again to design the costumes for

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

's ''Caesar and Cleopatra''. As a result of this work the Abbey commissioned her to produce set and costume designs, and she worked with the Theatre continuously between 1927-1935. For the Abbey's first attempt at a Shakespeare play, ''King Lear'', in 1928, Travers Smith futurist designs were employed. She also worked on Yeats' ''Fighting the Waves,'' for which

Ninette de Valois Dame Ninette de Valois (born Edris Stannus; 6 June 1898 – 8 March 2001) was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of classical ballet. Most notably, she danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, ...

''was the choreographer,'' and on ''Fedelma,'' as well as on G. B. Shaw's ''

John Bull's Other Island ''John Bull's Other Island'' is a comedy about Ireland, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1904. Shaw himself was born in Dublin, yet this is one of only two plays of his where he thematically returned to his homeland, the other being ''O'Flaherty ...

'', and on future husband

Lennox Robinson Esmé Stuart Lennox Robinson (4 October 1886 – 15 October 1958) was an Irish dramatist, poet and theatre producer and director who was involved with the Abbey Theatre. Life Robinson was born in Westgrove, Douglas, County Cork and raised in ...

's ''Ever the Twain''. In Robinson's autobiography, he recalled Travers Smith working with

Norah McGuinness Norah Allison McGuinness (7 November 1901 – 22 November 1980) was an Irish painter and illustrator. Early life Norah McGuinness was born in County Londonderry. She attended life classes at Derry Technical School and from 1921 studied at ...

on the design for ''Plays for Dancers''. She showed one work in the

Royal Hibernian Academy The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the RIA, the academy retained the word "Royal" after most of Ireland became in ...

in 1936 and had a solo show in 1938. Robinson established her studio, nicknamed "the grimery", on North Frederick Street, Dublin.

Harry Clarke Henry Patrick Clarke (17 March 1889 – 6 January 1931) was an Irish stained-glass artist and book illustrator. Born in Dublin, he was a leading figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement. His work was influenced by both the Art Nouveau and ...

's studio was on the same street, and Robinson also became friends with

Thomas MacGreevy Thomas MacGreevy (born Thomas McGreevy; 26 October 1893 – 16 March 1967) was a pivotal figure in the history of Irish literary modernism. A poet, he was also director of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1950 to 1963 and served on the f ...

and the Yeats family. She believed that she had inherited some

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

ability, and practised

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spiri ...

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

incorporated one of her spirits, Thomas of Odessa, into his poem ''Vision''. Yeats gave her the nickname "Chinatown" owing to her slightly Asian looks. Yeats said to her in 1929 'you combine aesthetic sensitivities and novelty with a grasp of the necessities of the stage'.

Micheál Mac Liammóir Micheál Mac Liammóir (born Alfred Willmore; 25 October 1899 – 6 March 1978) was an actor, designer, dramatist, writer and impresario in 20th-century Ireland. Though born in London to an English family with no Irish connections, he emigrated ...

described her in his autobiography as 'easy to know, bubbling with good nature, barbed with wit.' Robinson designed the costumes for two Abbey productions by Yeats in 1934: ''The resurrection'' and ''The king of the clock tower''. In 1936, she exhibited with the

for the only time with ''Bungalows''. She exhibited 49 works, including numerous Irish landscapes, at 7 St Stephen's Green in 1938. In 1943 she exhibited ''Donegal in March'' at the

Irish Exhibition of Living Art The Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA) was a yearly exhibition of Irish abstract expressionism and avant-garde Irish art that was started in 1943 by Mainie Jellett. Background World War II Ireland During World War II, Ireland remained ...

. Robinson was a member of the Dublin United Arts Club, organising exhibitions. She was the curator for the Joyce Museum, Sandycove for a short period in the 1960s.

Marriage and later life

She married Lennox Robinson on 8 September 1931 in the Chelsea registry office, with the couple honeymooning in America as the Abbey toured there. Upon their return to Dublin, they settled into Sorrento Cottage,

Dalkey Dalkey ( ; ) is an affluent suburb of Dublin, and a seaside resort southeast of the city, and the town of Dún Laoghaire, in the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown in the historic County Dublin, Ireland. It was founded as a Viking settlement ...

. Due to Lennox's homosexuality and alcoholism, the marriage was an unhappy one. The couple had no children. Robinson also drank excessively. The couple left Sorrento Cottage around 1949, and moved to a flat on Longford Terrace, Monkstown. Robinson died on 4 November 1977 in a Dublin nursing home. She was buried at

St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Saint Patrick's Cathedral ( ir, Ard-Eaglais Naomh Pádraig) in Dublin, Ireland, founded in 1191 as a Roman Catholic cathedral, is currently the national cathedral of the Church of Ireland. Christ Church Cathedral, also a Church of Ireland ca ...

with her husband. The

Crawford Art Gallery The Crawford Art Gallery ( ga, Áiléar Crawford) is a public art gallery and museum in the city of Cork, Ireland. Known informally as the Crawford, it was designated a 'National Cultural Institution' in 2006. It is "dedicated to the visual arts ...

holds her 1935 painting ''Cordyline palms'', and a charcoal drawing of her by Margaret Clarke. The correspondence of Robinson and Lennox is among the collections in the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Dolly 1901 births 1977 deaths Artists from Dublin (city) 20th-century Irish women artists Theatre people from Dublin (city) Irish scenic designers Women scenic designers Irish curators Irish theatre designers Women theatre designers Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts Irish women curators