Norah Allison McGuinness (7 November 1901 – 22 November 1980) was an Irish

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complic ...

Early life

Norah McGuinness was born in

County Londonderry County Londonderry ( Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry ( ga, Contae Dhoire), is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty two counties of Ireland and one of the nine counties of Ulster. ...

. She attended life classes at Derry Technical School and from 1921 studied at the

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

Metropolitan School of Art under Patrick Tuohy ( 1894–1930 ), Oswald Reeves ( 1870–1967 ) and

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 an ...

. Through Clarke she obtained a commission to illustrate Sterne's ''A Sentimental Journey'' (London, 1926). She attended the Chelsea Polytechnic in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

before spending the 1920s working in Dublin as a book illustrator and stage designer. She settled in 1925 in Wicklow and was involved in the literary and theatrical life of Dublin, designing for the Abbey and Peacock theatres and illustrating

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 ...

’s ''Stories of Red Hanrahan'' (London, 1927). On

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 Painte ...

’s advice she went to Paris in 1929 to study with André Lhôte and came under the influence of the Ecole de Paris. She married the editor

Geoffrey Phibbs Jeoffrey "Geoffrey" Basil Phibbs (1900–1956) was an English-born Irish poet; he took his mother's name and called himself Geoffrey Taylor, after about 1930. Phibbs was born in Smallburgh, Norfolk. He was brought up in Sligo, and educated i ...

, but they divorced in 1930 after Phibbs had left her more than once, notably for the poet Laura Riding. From there she moved to London where she was a member of

Lucy Wertheim Lucy Carrington Wertheim (''née'' Pearson; 1882, in Whitechapel, London – 1971, in Brighton) was an English gallery owner who founded the Twenties Group of "English artists in their twenties" in 1930 and was Christopher Wood's main patron b ...

's 'Twenties Group' and of the avant-garde

London Group The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...

. From 1937-39 she lived in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. After New York, she returned to Ireland in 1939, settled in Dublin and concentrated on painting. She died in

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

Work

Although her work remained figurative, she painted vivid, highly coloured landscapes; her work shows the cubist influence of Lhote and she was associated with the modern movement in Ireland. She helped found 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 ...

in 1943 and became its president in 1944 after the death of Mainie Jellett. With

Nano Reid Nano, Nano-, NANO or NaNo may refer to: People * Nano (singer) (born 1988), Japanese-American J-pop singer * Nano Omar (born 1986), Swedish singer * Nano Riantiarno (born 1949), Indonesian director * Agnese Nano (born 1965), Italian actress * ...

sh
represented Ireland
in the 1950

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. This was the first time Ireland participated in this international exhibition. By 2017, th
official list of artists
representing Ireland since 1950 showed that the majority of artists chosen in the years since McGuinness and Reid's participation were women. She was elected an honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1957, but later resigned. There was a retrospective of her work in the Douglas Hyde Gallery,

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

in 1968, and in 1973 the college awarded her an honorary doctorate. Her work featured in IMMA’s 2013 ‘Analysing Cubism’ exhibition.

Work in collections

* Crawford Art Gallery, Cork *

The Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...

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 ...

**Portrait of Michael Scott **Portrait of Denis Johnston **The Startled Bird *

Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane 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 ( ...

*The

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

London *The Arts Council of Ireland *The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, including *
''Inlet'' (1976)
*Meath County Council, including *

*The

National Library of Ireland The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ga, Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann) is the Republic of Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland i ...

External links and references

*S.B. Kennedy (2002), McGuinness, Norah in Brian Lalor (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. *David Scott (1989), The Modern Art Collection, Trinity College Dublin. Dublin: Trinity College Dublin Press, Dublin. .
Meath County Council biographical note
's ''Tristram Shandy'']
Norah McGuinness works on Artnet
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGuinness, Norah 1901 births 1980 deaths 20th-century Irish painters 20th-century Irish women artists Alumni of the National College of Art and Design Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Irish expatriates in the United States Irish illustrators Irish watercolourists Irish women painters People from County Dublin People from County Londonderry Women watercolorists