William Conor statue Belfast 2023-05-24 1

William Conor OBE RHA PPRUA ROI (1881–1968) was a Belfast-born artist. Celebrated for his warm and sympathetic portrayals of working-class life in

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 ...

, William Conor studied at the Government School of Design in

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 ...

in the 1890s. Born in 5 Fortingale Street, which ran from Agnes Street, off the Shankill Road to the Old Lodge Road in north Belfast, the son of a wrought-iron worker, his artistic talents were recognized at the early age of ten when a teacher of music, Louis Mantell, noticed the merit of his chalk drawings and arranged for him to attend the College of Art. On finishing his studies at the College of Art he became apprenticed to David Allen and Sons a firm of lithographers where he worked in the poster design department. Although he had become skilled in a trade, he did not want to spend his life working in a lithographic firm. Conor left David Allen around 1910/1911 to pursue a career as an artist. According to the account of a family friend he then spent some months living on the

Great Blasket Island The Great Blasket () is the principal island of the Blasket Islands, Blaskets, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It was home to a small fishing community of Irish speakers until the island was abandoned in 1954 when living there becam ...

Co. Kerry. Also around this time there were sketching trips made to Ardara and

Kinlough Kinlough ( ; ) is a village in north County Leitrim. It lies between the Dartry Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, and between the River Duff and the River Drowes, at the head of Lough Melvin. It borders counties Donegal and Fermanagh and is near ...

in Co. Donegal. Sometime during 1912 /1913 Conor made his way to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, studying the Dutch and Italian masters and learning the craft of representational painting. However he found it difficult to survive financially in

and returned home after six months. In 1913 he was elected to the Committee of the Belfast Art Society Council.Conor, The Life and Work of an Ulster Artist - Judith C. Wilson 1981 Following the outbreak of

WWI World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914 William Conor was commissioned by the British government to produce official records of soldiers and munitions workers. He moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1920 and there met and socialised with such artists as Sir

John Lavery Sir John Lavery (20 March 1856 – 10 January 1941) was a Northern Irish painter best known for his portraits and wartime depictions. Life and career John Lavery was born in inner North Belfast, baptised at St Patrick's Church, Belfast a ...

and

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

. He exhibited at the RA in 1921 and in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

at the RHA from 1918–1967, showing there nearly 200 works. Conor was one of the first Academicians when the Belfast Art Society became the Ulster Academy of Arts in 1930. He became an Associate RHA in 1938 and a full member in 1946. Exhibitions at the Victor Waddington Galleries were held in 1944 and 1948. In 1952 he was awarded the OBE and in 1957 he was elected President of the RUA - an office he held until 1964. More than 50 works of his in crayon and watercolour are in the permanent collections of 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 ...

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conor, William 1881 births 1968 deaths Artists from Belfast 20th-century painters from Northern Ireland Male painters from Northern Ireland Officers of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Ulster University Alumni of Belfast School of Art Members of the Royal Ulster Academy