Frank McKelvey, RHA, RUA (1895-1974) "Portrait of a Man," O...

Hammer

€680

Frank McKelvey, RHA, RUA (1895-1974)

"Portrait of a Man," O.O.C. 92 h x 71 w cms (36” x 28”)

An understated and dignified portrait by Frank McKelvey, depicting a man dressed in a grey business suit, with matching waistcoat, white shirt and grey silk tie. The identity of the sitter is not known, and few clues are provided by the setting, in terms of architecture or context. Seated in a wooden chair beside a desk, the man—perhaps a senior civil servant, accountant or bank manager—is pleasant looking, with thinning hair. He wears a wedding ring, wristwatch and horn-rimmed spectacles. He has a candid and open expression, and although seated at an angle, with his hands folded, his head is turned slightly so as to look directly at the observer.

 

Although a leading member of the Northern landscape painters, and best known for his Impressionist/Realist views of coastline and countryside, from the outset of his career McKelvey was also a talented portrait painter. In 1918, while a full-time student at the Belfast College of Art, he won the Taylor art competition with his painting The Grandmother. In Queen’s University there are ten portraits by him, while in the Ulster Museum there are thirteen portrait drawings, of US presidents of Ulster extraction.

 

Born in Belfast in 1895, McKelvey attended evening classes at the Belfast College of Art, before enrolling  in 1911 as a full time student. He also trained as a poster designer for David Allen and Sons. Over the following years he painted views in the vicinity of Bessborough, Co. Armagh, where his in-laws had a farm. While the Realism of his early work gradually gave way to a more Impressionist palette and approach, McKelvey never swayed from providing an authentic depiction of life of the Irish countryside and coastline, and this ability to capture likenesses is evident also in his portraits. Early in his career, McKelvey was commissioned by Thomas McGowan to paint a series of views depicting the older parts of Belfast city: these are now in the collection of the Ulster Museum. In 1920 he established a studio in Royal Avenue and over the following years became a member of the Belfast Art Society, the Ulster Society of Painters and, in 1930, the Royal Hibernian Academy. In 1924, after marrying he settled in Co. Down, but two years later moved back to Belfast. In New York McKelvey was one of a number of Irish artists shown at the Hackett Gallery, while in Dublin, in 1937, he had his first exhibition at the Victor Waddington Gallery. A founder member of the Royal Ulster Academy in 1930, he last exhibited with the RUA in 1969. McKelvey’s favourite locations for painting landscape were Co. Armagh, the Antrim Coast and, in later years, Co. Donegal.

Dr. Peter Murray, 2022