The Water-colour Society of Ireland
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
This Society owes its origin to a local drawing society founded in 1870, which held its first exhibition in the Courthouse in Lismore, Co. Waterford, in May, 1871. This Society was started by six ladies, the Baroness Pauline Prochazka, Miss Keane, Miss Frances Keane, Miss Phipps, Miss Currey and Miss F. Musgrave, with the object of mutual improvement in painting and drawing: and the cultivation of a taste for art. The second exhibition was held in Clonmel, in October, 1871, when the name was changed to the Amateur Drawing Society. In May, 1872, under the title of the Irish Amateur Drawing Society, the third exhibition was held in Carlow. Under this name it continued to hold exhibitions until 1878 when it became the Irish Fine Art Society, and retained this title until 1888. Its exhibitions had become practically confined to water-colours; the Society had in its ranks most of the water-colour painters in Ireland, and in 1888 therefore it adopted the name of the Water-colour Society of Ireland. In 1891 the provincial exhibitions were discontinued, an annual Spring Exhibition in Dublin was inaugurated, and held in the Hall in Molesworth Street until last year, and the Society has continued its work successfully to the present time.
« The National Gallery of Ireland | Contents and Search | Belfast Schools of Art »