Patrick Tuohy

Patrick Tuohy (27 February 1894 – August 1930) was an Irish portrait, narrative, and genre painter.

Early life Patrick Joseph Tuohy was born in Dublin on 27 February 1894, at 77 Lower Dorset Street. His parents were the surgeon, John Joseph Tuohy, and Máire Tuohy (née Murphy). His father had a surgery at 15 North Frederick Street, and his mother was a member of numerous nationalist organisations such as Cumann na mBan. He had two older sisters, Maura and Bride. Tuohy was born without a left hand, and would later wear a metal prosthesis which he covered with a black glove, and he used to hold a painting palette. He attended a Christian Brothers school in Dublin and later became one of the first pupils at Patrick Pearse's St. Enda's School, there he studied art under William Pearse. In 1908, his watercolour sketch, "In Co. Wicklow", was published in the school magazine An Macaomh. He attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art at night, going to become a full-time student, studying under William Orpen for five years. It was Orpen who encouraged him to work on his life drawing, with his 1910 "Girl in a white pinafore" an early example of his portraiture. Along with his father he fought in the Easter Rising and was based alongside James Connolly in the General Post Office.

Career

Tuohy exhibited 3 paintings at the Small Concert Rooms, Dublin in 1911, an exhibition that included George Russell and Jack B. Yeats. Having spent the summer of 1911 in Tourmakeady, County Mayo, his preliminary sketches for his 1912 "A Mayo peasant boy" which demonstrates his realistic portraiture which reveals human vulnerability and his emerging distinctive style. His first commission was in 1912 for 10 ceiling painting of the life of Christ in Rathfarnham Castle for the Jesuit order. He then executed ceiling paintings at the La Scala theatre, Dublin. He won the Taylor art scholarship in 1912 for his watercolour, "Supper time", and later won the Taylor award in 1915 for his watercolour portrait of May Power. She was his most frequently used model. Tuohy was able to use these and other prizes to travel to Spain, living in Madrid for a year while teaching painting at the Loreto convent, as well as studying the work of Francisco de Zurbarán and Diego Velázquez. He began exhibiting with the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in 1918, exhibiting "The Wicklow labourer" and "A Mayo peasant boy". He continued to show work at the RHA until 1927. He contributed a pencil sketch to The book of Saint Ultan: a collection of pictures and poems by Irish artists and writers (1920) which was edited by Katherine MacCormack. His sister Bride and Mooney claimed that he would not have taken his own life and that his death was accidental. His body was repatriated to Ireland on the Scythia liner, and he was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery. In his studio were the unfinished portraits of actors Dudley Digges and Claudette Colbert.

In 1931, a posthumous exhibition of his sketches, drawings, and paintings from 1911 to 1930 was held in Mills' Hall, Dublin. In 1985, two of paintings, "Near the Bull Wall" (1912) and "Portrait of Dominic Bowe" (circa 1915) were shown a major exhibition of Irish painting at the Gorry gallery, Molesworth Street. The Hugh Lane Gallery holds two of his early works from St. Enda's, "The flight of Cuchulainn" and "Entry into battle". The painting "The agony in the garden" from circa 1919 was originally held in the Loreto convent on North Great George's Street, Dublin, but was later moved to the Christ the King church, Cabra. The National Gallery of Ireland holds his papers.