Details

Name

Gerald Festus Kelly

Brief Biography

1879 - 1972, English

Occupation

Artist

Description

Kelly was of Irish descent, his grandfather being the innovator of Kelly’s Directories and his father curate of St Michael’s, Paddington at the time of his birth. Enrolled at Eton in 1892, he was removed in 1895 because of ill health and was sent to South Africa. His desire to become an artist was resisted by his father, who prevailed upon him to go to Cambridge, where he studied poetry. There he befriended the poet and occultist Aleister Crowley, who married his sister Rose. He went to Paris in 1901 and obtained a studio in Montparnasse, studying the Old Masters in the Louvre. He mixed with great artists such as Degas, Sickert and Rodin, writers such as Somerset Maugham, Clive Bell and Arnold Bennet and also Sarah Bernhardt. John Singer Sargent, the greatest of the Edwardian society portrait painters, was one of his chief influences.

The patronage of Sir Hugh Lane in Dublin launched him on his successful career as a portrait painter, and he became a member of the Salon d’Automne and first exhibited with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in London in 1904. In 1908-9 he went to Burma, on a trip financed by Somerset Maugham, and made a large number of studies of exotic landscapes and dancers which provided him with material for the rest of his life. On his return to London he set up his studio and settled into a long string of portrait commissions including Maugham (1911), Sir Malcolm Sargent (1948), Dr Marie Stopes (1952), Vaughan Williams (1952) and Harold MacMillan (1955). His outstanding commission was for the State Portraits of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1939-45, during which time he resided in Windsor Castle). Between the wars he divided his time between London and Spain, painting many portraits of Spanish girls. He also traveled to Italy, France and New York. He was knighted in 1945.

In 1949 he was elected President of the Royal Academy, a post he held until 1955. During that time some important exhibitions were mounted; Holbein; the First 100 Years of the Academy; Leonardo Quincentenary; Kings and Queens; Flemish Art. He was honoured with a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Royal Academy in 1957, a selection of which was shown at Glasgow Art Gallery.

An accomplished technician, he ground his own pigments, mixed his own paints and prepared his canvases. His wife Jane, whom he married in 1920, provided the subject for over 50 portraits. Although conservative by inclination like many Royal Academicians, he was nevertheless more tolerant than most of modern styles. He was known as a bon viveur, wit and entertainer, and even showed a gift as a television presenter. ‘ I am a naughty old man, unrepentant in my love of things beautifully done.’ Royal Academy speech, 1953.