Thomas Mulvany

Thomas James Mulvany (1779–1845) was an Irish painter and keeper of the Royal Hibernian Academy.

Life Mulvany was an exhibitor with the Dublin Society of Artists, at the rooms of the Dublin Society in Hawkins Street, Dublin, in May 1809. When the Dublin Society disposed of their premises in 1819, the artists were left without a place for exhibition. Mulvany, together with his brother, John George Mulvany (also a painter), was active in advocating for a charter of incorporation to the artists of Ireland. A charter was obtained in 1823 and the Royal Hibernian Academy founded under the presidency of Francis Johnston; Mulvany and his brother were two of the 14 academics first elected.

Subsequently Mulvany became keeper of the Academy in 1841. He died in 1845.

Family Mulvany married Mary Field, and they had seven children, the eldest being William Thomas Mulvany. Their son George Francis Mulvany (1809–1869), also practised as a painter. He succeeded his father as keeper of the Royal Hibernian Academy, and in 1854 he was elected the first director of the newly founded National Gallery of Ireland.