James Sinton Sleator (27 June 1885 – 9 January 1950), was an Irish artist, born in Portadown,

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

, Ireland. Painter of portraits and

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

, James Sleator was son of William Slator (different spelling, as James changed this, along with his middle name from Samuel to Sinton), who taught at Derryvane National School, near Portadown, and was later principal of Strandtown National School,

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

. The son studied at

Belfast School of Art The Belfast School of Art, is a School in thUlster University Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciencesand is physically located at the Belfast campus. Following the results of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 Ulster is ranked within ...

and in 1910 secured a scholarship for study at the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, where he was under Sir

William Orpen Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, (27 November 1878 – 29 September 1931) was an Irish artist who worked mainly in London. Orpen was a fine draughtsman and a popular, commercially successful painter of portraits for the well-to-do in ...

(1878–1931) and won several prizes. Continuing his studies at the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

, London, from there he went to Paris. He returned to Dublin in 1915 to become a teacher at the metropolitan. He was elected an Associate of 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 1917, and he became a member in the same year. Five years later he went to Florence when he painted portraits and landscapes, finally returning to London where he set up a studio (1927) as a portrait painter and where he was closely associated with

. Sleator was a member of the Chelsea Arts Club and exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

and with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. He taught painting to

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

, taking over the job from Orpen. In 1935 he was made an honorary member of the Ulster Arts Club, Belfast. He kept in touch with his sister Ethel Slator in Belfast and visited her and his friends. He returned from London to Dublin in 1941 and, apart from an occasional journey abroad, remained there until his death (1950).

Works

In the

Ulster Museum The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasure ...

is a portrait of Forrest Reid. The Armagh County Museum and the

National Gallery of Ireland The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on ...

, Dublin, have self-portraits. In 1951 a memorial exhibition at the Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin was opened by

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

playwright, Rutherford Mayne.

References

Ruth Devine, ‘Sleator, James Samuel (Sinton)’, Dictionary of Irish Biograph
Sleator, James Samuel (Sinton) , Dictionary of Irish Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sleator, James 1880s births 1950 deaths 19th-century Irish painters 20th-century Irish painters Irish male painters Alumni of Belfast School of Art Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art People from County Armagh Members of the Royal Hibernian Academy 19th-century Irish male artists 20th-century Irish male artists