Mary or May Ruth Manning (1853 – 27 January 1930) was an Irish landscape painter and teacher.

Life

Mary Ruth (May) Manning was born in Dublin in 1853, the daughter of engineer Robert Manning and Susanna (née Gibson). Apart from a period of time living in Hampstead, London from 1889 to 1892, Manning lived in the family home at Ely Place from 1880. One of her sisters, Georgina Manning (aka Geraldine) was a

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

who vandalised a bust of

John Redmond John Edward Redmond (1 September 1856 – 6 March 1918) was an Irish nationalism, Irish nationalist politician, barrister, and Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. He was best known as lead ...

at a

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 ...

exhibition in 1913. Neither Manning nor her sisters married, living in Ely Place until after their father's death, and then on Winton Road, Lesson Park. She died there on 27 January 1930.

Artistic work and influence

Manning studied in Paris in the 1870s with

Louise Catherine Breslau Louise Catherine Breslau (6 December 1856 – 12 May 1927) was a German-born Swiss painter, who learned drawing to pass the time while bedridden with chronic asthma. She studied art at the Académie Julian in Paris, and exhibited at the salon of t ...

and

Sarah Purser Sarah Henrietta Purser RHA (22 March 1848 – 7 August 1943) was an Irish artist mainly noted for her work with stained glass. Biography Purser was born in Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire) in County Dublin, and raised in Dungarvan, County Wate ...

. She worked primarily in oil and watercolour. From 1880 to 1892, her work was exhibited by the

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists or RBSA is an art society, based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England, where it owns and operates an art gallery, the RBSA Gallery, on Brook Street, just off St Paul's Square. It is both a re ...

, the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

, the

(RHA), and in Brussels. Manning is best known for her influence on a number of Irish women artists of the time. She and sisters held art lessons from a studio for young women who could to enter the RHA, many of whom she encouraged to study in Paris. Amongst the artists she taught and influenced are

Mary Swanzy Mary Swanzy HRHA (15 February 1882 – 7 July 1978) was an Irish landscape and genre artist. Noted for her eclectic style, she painted in many styles including cubism, futurism, fauvism, and orphism, she was one of Ireland's first abstract pai ...

and

Mainie Jellett Mary Harriet "Mainie" Jellett (29 April 1897, Dublin – 16 February 1944, Dublin) was an Irish painter whose ''Decoration'' (1923) was among the first abstract paintings shown in Ireland when it was exhibited at the Society of Dublin Painter ...

. Her teaching took up most of her time, which led to her exhibiting her own work infrequently. Manning became a member of the Dublin Sketching Club in 1885. An oil painting of a landscape and setting sun by Manning is on display in 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 ...

, whilst her ''Study of a boy'' is in the collections of the

Hugh Lane Gallery The Hugh Lane Gallery, officially Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and originally the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, is an art museum operated by Dublin City Council and its subsidiary, the Hugh Lane Gallery Trust. It is in Charlemont House ( ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manning, Mary 1853 births 1930 deaths 20th-century Irish painters 20th-century Irish women artists 19th-century Irish painters 19th-century Irish women artists Artists from Dublin (city) Irish women painters 20th-century women painters