Ruth Brandt

Ruth Brandt was born on 22 June 1936 in Dublin. Her father, Frank Brandt, was a designer for the Electricity Supply Board. Brandt taught for a short time in a Paris convent and later attended the National College of Art in Dublin where she studied painting and was awarded a three-year scholarship. She subsequently spent a year in Florence on an Italian government grant. In 1961 she married a Dublin artist, Michael Kane and as well as lecturing at the National College of Art and Design, Brandt found success as an illustrator. Her work came to the fore with Sheelagh Kirby's The Yeats Country, 1962, and John Irvine's A Treasury of Irish Saints, 1964, both published by Dolmen Press for whom she also contributed title lettering and devices. Her drawings after the manner of early woodcuts, proved popular in both the Irish and New York editions and ten of her black ink drawings were subsequently included in the W.B. Yeats Centenary Exhibition, held in the National Gallery of Ireland in 1965. As well as being a regular illustrator for Structure magazine, Brandt also designed decorative panels for two Irish churches, St. Michael's Church, Creeslough, Co. Donegal and St Brigid's Church, Blanchardstown, Co. Dublin. Subjects for her paintings and etchings were largely domestic, dealing with themes of familiarity and a sense of place. In the course of her career she contributed to many group shows in Ireland, Britain and Zurich, as well as holding solo shows in Dublin at the Emmet Gallery (1976), the Lincoln Gallery (1982) and the James Gallery (1985). In 1986 at the RHA, she won the graphic prize and was a member of the Graphic Studio Dublin until her death on 13 August 1989.

Reference: Snoddy, Theo. Dictionary of Irish Artists: 20th Century (Wolfhound Press, Dublin 1996) 35-36.