Eileen Black recounts the life and work of Post-Impressionist painter, Georgina Moutray Kyle
Georgina Moutray Kyle (1865-1950) The Lifting of the Fog at the Gasworks, Belfast c.1926 oil on canvas 55.1 x 73.5cm ©National Museums NI, Ulster Museum Collection
Eileen Black recounts the life and work of Post-Impressionist painter, Georgina Moutray Kyle
Georgina Moutray Kyle’s relegation to the ranks of the almost forgotten stems largely from the fact that she was neither prolific nor interested in self-promotion. In the words of her great-niece Elinor Meynell, ‘Aunt Georgie’s career as an artist was limited by her outlook on life rather than deficiencies in ability to paint. Incredible as it may seem nowadays, [she] held to the belief that her identity depended solely on who she was (with which she was well pleased) and not in any sense on what she did‚’. With this approach, which smacks of the amateur rather than the professional, it is perhaps not surprising that her position in Ulster art has been a secondary one, irrespective of the quality of her work. Despite the obvious merits of her painting, only two exhibitions have been held of the work of Georgina Moutray Kyle, the first in 1945-6, the second in 2004.
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Georgina Moutray Kyle’s relegation to the ranks of the almost forgotten stems largely from the fact that she was neither prolific nor interested in self-promotion. In the words of her great-niece Elinor Meynell, ‘Aunt Georgie’s career as an artist was limited by her outlook on life rather than deficiencies in ability to paint. Incredible as it may seem nowadays, [she] held to the belief that her identity depended solely on who she was (with which she was well pleased) and not in any sense on what she did‚’. With this approach, which smacks of the amateur rather than the professional, it is perhaps not surprising that her position in Ulster art has been a secondary one, irrespective of the quality of her work. Despite the obvious merits of her painting, only two exhibitions have been held of the work of Georgina Moutray Kyle, the first in 1945-6, the second in 2004.
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