May Guinness

May Guinness was born in Tibradden, Co. Dublin, a rural area south of Dublin City. She was educated at home, but any early artistic interests she may have had were limited by the expectation that she was to assist in education the younger members of her family. It was not until the death of her father in 1888 that she began to study art seriously, which suggests his disapproval of her artistic career. In 1894 she went to Newlyn on a sketching trip taught by Norman Garstin, and in 1905 she studies with him again in Belgium. Following a period of travel in Italy in 1902-3 she went to Paris c. 1907 where she spent three years studying at various academies.

May Guinness quickly absorbed contemporary artistic developments in Paris. In 1912 she attended a course given by the Dutch artist Kees van Dongen and her work of this date reveals the influence of Fauvism. Her artistic studies were interrupted by the First World War, during which she served as a nurse and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for her bravery,

After the war she continued painting, alternating between Dublin and Paris. She also worked in a variety of media such as glass painting and embroidery and her work was illustrated in Vogue magazine. Throughout this time she exhibited in Dublin, London and Paris. Despite the three years (1922-25) she spent studying with the cubist painter Andre Lhote, she retained many elements of her early loosely expressionist style, and all traces of Lhote's influence had gone by the 1930s. May Guinness continued to paint until late in her very long life, holding her last exhibition in 1946. She was also a major art collector, owning works by Picasso, Bonnard and Chagall.