Sarah Cecilia Harrison

1890 self-portrait, currently on display in the Hugh Lane Gallery. Sarah Cecilia Harrison (21 June 1863 – 23 July 1941) was an Irish artist and the first woman to serve on Dublin City Council.

Early life and education Harrison, who went by the name Cecilia, was born to an affluent family in Holywood House, in Holywood, County Down. She was the third child of Letitia (nee Tennent) and landowner Henry Harrison JP (d. 1873). One of her brothers was politician and writer Henry Harrison, a supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell. Her maternal grandfather was Robert James Tennent, a liberal MP for Belfast. At the age of ten her father died and she and her family relocated to London.

Harrison studied at Queen's College, London where she was awarded a silver medal by University College, London, for painting from the antique style. She studied under Alphonse Legros at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1878 to 1885 and won the Slade scholarship. She travelled widely on the continent as part of her studies

Career In 1889 Harrison moved to Dublin and established herself as one of Ireland's foremost portrait artists. She submitted 60 paintings to the Royal Hibernian Academy's annual exhibition and numerous other works to the Royal Academy in London during her career. She was closely involved in Hugh Lane's efforts to establish a gallery of modern art in Dublin.

Following Lane's death on the Lusitania in 1915, she claimed that they had been engaged to be married.

Harrison's artistic style is precise and realistic. There are examples of her work in the collections of the National Gallery of Ireland, the Hugh Lane Gallery, the Office of Public Works, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the Ulster Museum Sarah Cecilia Harrison is known as an artist, nationalist, social reformer and feminist. Cecilia Harrison became a well known portrait artist. On 24 November 2014 Harrison's 'Portrait of a Young Lady Reading' sold at auction for €6,600.

Feminism For some 30 years Sarah was part of social reform and women's rights in Ireland. In 1912 she was the first woman to be elected to the Dublin City Council. Here she worked closely with Alderman Alfie Byrne. Sarah is also recognised for her prominent place in the suffrage victory procession and escorting Anna Haslam to vote in the Williams Street Courthouse, Dublin, in the 1918 general election

Well-known works Portrait of Henry Joy McCracken which is shown in the Ulster Museum.

Portrait of Hugh Lane.

Portrait of Scottish Writer 1897.