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George Russell (Æ) (1867-1935)
The Phoenix Park
Currently not on view
- Year
- 1885
- Size
- Image size: 38.7 x 46cm; Framed size: 54 x 60.5cm
- Medium
- Watercolour on paper
- Provenance
- Presented by The Friends of the National Collections of Ireland, 1943
George Russell grew up in Lurgan, Co. Armagh but moved to Dublin at the age of 11. He is known not only for his paintings but as a writer, poet, critic, theosophist and economist, and by his pseudonym ‘Æ’ (a derivative of the word Aeon).
He began night time painting classes at the Metropolitan School of Art just two years after moving to Dublin, and went on to receive academic training at the RHA. AE supported Hugh Lane’s campaign for the gallery of modern art and was active in the Irish Literary Revival. He exhibited abroad at the 1913 Armory Show in New York and at the Whitechapel in London, and created a large scale series of murals of 3 Upper Ely Place in Dublin which has been compared to the work of Goya.
His paintings can be found in the collection of the Ulster Museum, National Gallery of Ireland, Hugh Lane, OPW, Trinity College Dublin and the Crawford Gallery.
George Russell's work was included in 'Ulster Artists' exhibition (2010) and 'Ireland: Her People and Landscape' (2013).
