Mary Swanzy

Mary Swanzy HRHA (15 February 1882 – 7 July 1978) was an Irish painter. One of Ireland's first abstract painters, Swanzy was a representative of cubist, futurist, fauvist, and orphist art movements.

Early life and education Swanzy was born on 15 February 1882 in Dublin to Mary Knox Swanzy and Sir Henry Rosborough Swanzy, an ophthalmologist and vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Swanzy grew up at 23 Merrion Square as one of five siblings, two of which died in infancy.

Swanzy attended Alexandra College, Earlsfort Terrace, a finishing school at the Lycée in Versailles, France, and a day school in Freiburg, Germany. This education meant that Swanzy was fluent in French and German. She went on to take art classes at Mary Manning's studio, under the direction of John Butler Yeats. Manning encouraged Swanzy to study modelling with John Hughes at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. Living within walking distance of the National Gallery of Ireland, she spent a lot of time studying and copying the great masters. Swanzy's first exhibition was with the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in 1905 with Portrait of a child, continuing to exhibit portraits every year until 1910. In 1905 she went to Paris, and worked at the Delacluse studio. She went on to attend the studio of Antonio de La Gándara in 1906, and took classes at Académie de la Grande Chaumière and Académie Colarossi. Whilst in Paris Swanzy was exposed to the works of Gauguin, Matisse, and Picasso, which made a lasting impression on her.

Swanzy began to travel to more exotic countries from the 1920s, Honolulu around 1923, and later Samoa. As a result, she painted local tropical flowers, trees, and native women, with a palette and style similar to that of Fauvism. She stayed for a time in Santa Barbara, California, working in a local studio and exhibiting some of her Samoan work at the Santa Barbara Arts Club Gallery. She returned to Ireland in February 1925 and exhibited three of her Samoan paints at the RHA, and 14 at her one-woman show in the Galerie Bernheim Jeune, Paris in October 1925. Gertrude Stein wrote to Swanzy to congratulate her on her Paris exhibition. Following this she held two one woman shows at the Dawson Gallery in 1974 and 1976. In 1975 she was featured at the Cork ROSC and resumed showing with the RHA. She continued to paint until her death at her home in London on 7 July 1978. In 1982 the Taylor Galleries held her exhibition to mark the centenary of her birth. From October 2018-February 2019, also in IMMA, she was the subject of the solo exhibition Mary Swanzy Voyages.