Flora Mitchell

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Flora Mitchell
Born
Florina Hippisley Mitchell

1890 (1890)
Omaha, Nebraska
Died1973 (aged 82–83)
Known forPainting
Spouse
William Jameson
​
​
(m. 1930⁠–⁠1939)​

Flora Mitchell (1890 - 1973) was an American-born Irish artist, remembered in particular for her mid-20th-century paintings of old Dublin architecture that has since disappeared.

Early life and family

Florina Hippisley Mitchell was born on 23 December 1890 in

Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (DMSA).[3][4] During World War I, Mitchell was a volunteer, and during the 1916 Easter Rising her family supported the British Army.[2]

She married William George Jameson (born 1851), a great-grandson of John Jameson, the founder of the distillery, in 1930. They lived at St Marnock's, County Dublin.[2] A sailor and yachtsman, he died in 1939. A few years later she moved to Killiney, where she lived and worked for the remainder of her life at her home, Alloa. She died at her home on 13 April 1973.[5]

Artistic career

While still at the DMSA, Mitchell developed an interest in pencil and ink drawings of topographical, urban, and architectural drawings, exhibiting with the Dublin Sketching Club in 1912 to 1914 with views of Dublin landmarks including the O'Connell Monument and the Shelbourne Hotel.[3] Mitchell moved to Canada to take up a post as a private teacher in 1919, but returned to Dublin by the late 1920s.[2] She contributed to the 1927 Dublin Civic Week Handbook and 1929 A book of Dublin.[2][3]

In 1955 Mitchell had a solo exhibition at the Dublin Painters' Gallery, St Stephen's Green. She had another solo exhibition at the Upper Grosvenor Galleries in London in 1969.[6] Mitchell exhibited her work at the Royal Hibernian Academy annually from 1957 to 1970,[2] and at the Dublin Sketching Club in 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1972.[6]

In later life, Mitchell produced hundreds of sketches of the streets and buildings of Dublin, many of which are now in the possession of the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI). Fifty finished ink and watercolour drawings were used to illustrate her book Vanishing Dublin (1966). The images represent a Dublin that no longer exists, as many of the buildings depicted have since been demolished, which was her motivation for recording these streets and buildings.[3] The book is a valuable collector's item as the original plates were destroyed after the book was published. Her work has been placed within the tradition of recording the streetscapes of Dublin beginning with James Malton, and was compared with her contemporary, Harry Kernoff.[2]

The NGI held an exhibition of her work, "Flora Mitchell, views of Dublin", in 1999.[2]

Publications

  • Vanishing Dublin, with an Introduction by the Earl of Wicklow. Published by Dublin: Allen & Figgis, 1966

See also

References

  1. ^ "Florina Hippisley Mitchell". Famous Jamesons. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Minch, Rebecca (2009). "Mitchell, Flora Hippisley". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  3. ^
    OCLC 1241730606
    .
  4. ^ Obituary, Irish Times, 23 April 1973
  5. ISBN 1-903582-17-2
    .
  6. ^ a b "Mitchell, Flora - Exhibitions". National Irish Visual Arts Library. National College of Art & Design. Retrieved 8 December 2017.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flora_Mitchell&oldid=1204035807"