BRIGID GANLY: Brigid Ganly HRHA, who died on March 25th aged 93, was a respected and talented artist best known for her informal portraits and still lifes.
She was one of five children of the painter Dermod OBrien and his wife Mabel (née Smiley). Dermod OBrien's grandfather, William Smith OBrien, had been prominent in the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
Dermod OBrien became the longest-serving president in the history of the RHA, occupying the position from 1910 until his death in 1945.
Rose Brigid Ganly was born in Dublin on January 29th, 1909, and spent her early childhood on a farm at Cahirmoyle in Co Limerick, a place she remembered fondly throughout her life.
In 1919, the family moved to 65 Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin, where Brigid Ganly attended the Metropolitan School of Art (now the National College of Art and Design) and studied under Patrick Tuohy, Seán Keating and the sculptor Oliver Sheppard.
She excelled at sculpture and won several awards, including the Taylor scholarship in 1929, for her allegorical male nude, Pity. For tuition in painting she attended the Royal Hibernian Academy School, then located behind Smyth's at No 6 St Stephen's Green. Among her contemporaries was the art dealer Leo Smith, who later ran the Dawson Gallery, where Brigid Ganly exhibited in 1965. Their visiting teachers included Margaret Clarke and Seán O'Sullivan.
Elected an associate of the RHA in 1928, and a full member in 1935, she remained closely associated with the organisation throughout her life, on occasion defending it in print. However, she by no means fitted the stereotype of the unthinkingly conservative academician. In 1969, she went so far as to resign because of the lack of opportunity for young artists to exhibit at RHA annual exhibitions. She eventually returned in 1982 as an honorary member.
In 1951, she travelled to Paris and spent a short time studying at the atelier of André Lhote, who practised and taught a form of Cubism that held great appeal for Irish artists. Lhote's highly formalised approach to picture-making influenced the work she did in Paris and later in Greece, but in the long term did not fundamentally alter her artistic outlook.
She was essentially a representational artist, equally at home in oil, watercolour and pastel, whose work exemplifies the academic virtues of solid draughtsmanship and practised, unshowy technique. A sympathetic portraitist, she also painted numerous landscapes, interior and still life subjects, ranging as far afield as Australia and Tasmania.
Among her best works are portraits of her father, her husband, her sister Ethel, and her friend, the writer Sheila Pym, whose books and book-jackets she illustrated.
She exhibited extensively, including at the RHA and Watercolour Society annual exhibitions. The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery held a retrospective exhibition of her work in 1998. There are works by her in the collections of the Hugh Lane and of the Waterford Municipal Gallery.
In 1936, she married Andrew Ganly, a dental surgeon and writer with a strong involvement in theatre. He died in 1982.
Brigid Ganly is survived by her son Eoghan, daughter Phillida and brother Donough.
Rose Brigid Ganly: born 1909; died, March 2002.