Harry Kernoff

Born in London of a Russian father and Spanish mother, Kernoff moved with his family to Dublin when he was fourteen years old. His father was a cabinetmaker and Kernoff was apprenticed to this trade. At the same time he attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and in 1923 he was awarded the Taylor Art Scholarship. A period of study in London and Paris followed and in 1925 he held the first of his sixteen one-man exhibitions in Dublin. In 1936 he was elected to the Royal Hibernian Academy. The artist lived in Dublin until his death though he travelled widely in Ireland and made a few trips abroad. He was a painter of landscapes, urban views, portraits and genre scenes. He also produced book illustrations and drawings for theatre sets. He was much involved in Dublin's theatrical and literary world and among his portraits, which are noted for their rendering of character, are paintings of Brendan Behan and James Joyce.