Michael Collins
Artist
Sir John Lavery
(1856 - 1941)
Datec.1935
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions65 × 45 cm
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery.
Lady Lavery Memorial Bequest through Sir John Lavery, 1935.
Object number732
DescriptionMichael Collins is best known for running a highly effective spy network during the War of Independence. The portrait Lavery painted of Collins during the Treaty negotiations, with the telltale moustache he wore at the time as a disguise, was given by the artist to Collin's fiancée Kitty Kiernan (painting untraced). This portrait now in the Hugh Lane was most probably painted posthumously and given to the Gallery to complete the collection of portraits of the Irish delegates. Lavery also sold facsimiles of the sketches for the Griffith and Collins portraits, signed by both the artist and the sitter.(Catalogue Entry [32]: Hazel, Lady Lavery Society and Politics, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, 18 September - 3 November 1996, pp. 225-226)
On View
Not on view
