An abstract and figure painter, Mainie Jellett started to take watercolour lessons as a young girl, later working under Sarah Cecilia Harrison and May Manning. She entered the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art in 1914 while William Orpen was teaching there. Three years later she went to study at the Westminster Art School in London with Walter Sickert. It was there that she met Evie Hone who became a life-long friend. In 1920 she won the Taylor Scholarship and this money allowed her to travel to Paris with Hone where they worked in André Lhote’s studio. Here they got their first taste of Cubism, however, after a while they both decided to move into the realm of pure abstract painting and transferred to work with Albert Gleizes. On her return to Ireland, Jellett continued to visit him during the summer for the next ten years. In Dublin she gave painting lessons from her home and began to exhibit her cubist paintings which received hostile criticism from George Russell.
During the 1920s she exhibited regularly at the Dublin Painter’s Gallery while also showing at several exhibitions in Paris. Her art developed a greater realism in the 1930s and also became more religious in subject matter. She exhibited at the RHA from 1930 to 1937 while at the same time contributing to the Watercolour Society of Ireland until 1943. She became a leader in the modern movement in Ireland and joined the avant-garde group of painters, the White Stag in 1940, regularly lecturing and exhibiting with them. She exhibited in the first ever Irish Exhibition of Living Art where she had been appointed chairman but was unable to attend as she fell ill and died a short time later. Her works are in all the major Irish collections.
This is part 2 of 4 parts on the works of Mainie Jellett:
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| 1928 Composition gouache 28.5 x 42 cm |
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| 1928 Homage to Fra Angelico oil on copper |
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| 1929 Abstract Composition gouache 43.7 x 18.5 cm |
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| 1929 Composition gouache on paper 29.2 x 34.9 cm |
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| 1929 Death of Procris oil on canvas 67.5 x 117.5 cm |
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| 1930 Abstract Hemisphere Crawford Art Gallery, Cork |
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| 1930 Composition gouache 23.5 x 19 cm |
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| 1930 Painting oil on canvas 76.2 x 91.4 cm |
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| 1930 Virgin with Angels gouache 43.2 x 33 cm |
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| 1930 Winsor and Newton advertisement Crawford Art Gallery, Cork |
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| 1932 Abstract gouache 66 x 51 cm |
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| c1932-35 Composition oil on canvas 91.1 x 71.1 cm Ulster Museum, Belfast |
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| 1933 Abstract Composition oil on canvas |
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| 1934 Abstract Composition gouache 39 x 18.5 cm |
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| 1934 Abstract Composition gouache 32 x 40 cm |
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| 1934 Wave gouache 53.5 x 38 cm |
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| 1935 Abstract Composition Crawford Art Gallery, Ireland |
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| 1935 Abstract Composition oil on canvas 119.5 x 96.6 cm |
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| 1935 Composition oil on canvas 91 x 71 cm |
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| 1936 Painting oil on canvas 121 x 69 cm |
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| 1937 A Man oil on canvas |
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| 1937 Flower Form oil on panel |
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| 1937 Study for a Woman gouache |
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| 1938 Achill Horses oil on canvas 91.5 x 66 cm |
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| 1938 Painting oil on canvas 76 x 64.6 cm Ulster Museum, Belfast |
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| c1938-39 Design for "The Roof Garden" gouache 26.6 x 40.6 cm The Roof Garden was a play written by Andrew Ganly. It was produced by Olive March at the Actors Studio Theatre, Hammersmith, London, on 21 January 1938. This design by Mainie Jellett was subsequently made for the author to help him to get a Dublin production of the play in 1938/39. |
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| 1939 Achill Horses II study pencil and gouache 22.2 x 36.9 cm |
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| 1939 Achill Horses oil on canvas 61 x 92 cm National Galley of Ireland |
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| 1939 Spring Madonna study gouache 40 x 20 cm |
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| 1940 Adam and Eve gouache 24.5 x 12 cm |
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| 1940 Study for Bog and Sea gouache on paper 27 x 36 cm |
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| 1940 The Land Éire oil on canvas 62.2 x 74.9 cm |
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| 1940 The Nativity oil on canvas 89 x 89 cm |
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| 1940 Untitled (Abstract) pencil and gouache 25.5 x 17.5 cm |
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| 1940 Western Landscape Study watercolour 27.9 x 40.6 cm |
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| 1941 Hayfields (possibly Achill Island) watercolour on paper 28.5 x 20.9 cm |
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| 1941 Landscape watercolour 17.7 x 33.6 cm |
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| 1941 Looking across Lismore gouache 21 x 25.5 cm |
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| 1943 I have trodden the wine press alone oil on canvas 76 x 56 cm National Gallery of Ireland |
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| 1943 The Virgin of Éire oil on canvas 64 x 92 cm National Gallery of Ireland |
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| n.d. Abstract Composition gouache 48 x 38 cm |
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| n.d. Abstract Composition gouache 30 x 23 cm |
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| n.d. Abstract Composition gouache 25.5 x 9.5 cm |
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| n.d. Abstract Composition gouache 23 x 11.5 cm |
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| n.d. Abstract Composition gouache 15 x 11.5 cm |
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| n.d. Abstract Composition gouache 12 x 23 cm |
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| n.d. Abstract Composition (Pink and Aquamarine) watercolour and gouache with pencil 22.5 x 17.5 cm |
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| n.d. Abstract Composition (Holy Family) gouache over pencil on card 20 x 22 cm |
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| n.d. Abstract (design for a rug) gouache 28 x 15 cm |
