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Sarah Purser
Sarah Purser

Sarah Purser

Artist (1882 - 1978)
Datec. 1926
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions58.5 x 49.5 cm
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland, 1944. © The Estate of Mary Swanzy.
Object number921
DescriptionThe initial impetus for Hugh Lane establishing the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin was the exhibition he saw of work by the Irish artists Nathaniel Hone and John Butler Yeats at 6 St Stephen's Green, organised by the artist Sarah Purser in 1901. As well as personally presenting work to this Gallery, Purser founded the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland in 1924 which has led to many important works of art entering public collections in Ireland. She also suggested to the Taoiseach William T. Cosgrave that the recently vacated Charlemont House be given to the city to house the municipal collection. The Gallery here was formally opened in 1933. Purser and Mary Swanzy were great friends and an exhibition of Swanzy's Orphic chromatic work has held in Purser's home at Mespil House in Dublin in 1932. In a review of that exhibition Swanzy was described as a 'capital portrait painter.' However, Swanzy was not an artist who was content with painting what others wanted but pursued a stimulating exploration of subjects and styles in her work throughout her long life. (JO'D)
On View
On view
Mother and Child
Sarah Henrietta Purser
c. 1894
Landscape
Mary Swanzy
1920s
W. B. Yeats
Sarah Henrietta Purser
c. 1904
Landscape with Red Gable
Mary Swanzy
c. 1920s
Self Portrait
Sarah Cecilia Harrison
1889
Old Rutland Square
William John Leech
1928-34
Miss Maud Gonne
Sarah Henrietta Purser
1890
William Butler Yeats
John Butler Yeats
c. 1886
Miss Jane Barlow, D.Litt.
Sarah Henrietta Purser
By late December 1894
The Message
Mary Swanzy
c. 1942
Flower Piece (Flowers)
Ernest Quost
1880s