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I
rish
& I
nternational
A
rt
A
uction
M
onday
25
th
A
pril
2016
at
6.00
pm
73
87
Leo Whelan RHA (1892-1956) Portrait of Desmond Edmund Conor McGillycuddy (c.mid 1950’s)signed lower left & inscribed Leo Whelan RHA / 65 Eccles St. on reverse
oil on canvas
Provenance:
Family of the Sitter
Private Collection
€4,000-6,000 (£3,125-4,687)
Leo Whelan was born in Dublin in 1892 and was educated at Belvedere College and the Metropolitan School of Art where he was a
student of William Orpen. Whelan first exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1911, and was awarded the Taylor Art Scholar-
ship five years later in 1916. He exhibited nearly 250 works at the RHA from 1911 until 1956. He painted many portraits of Irish
Republican Army volunteers, including General Richard Mulcahy and Michael Collins. He was the designer of the first Free State
commemorative stamp, issued in 1929 for the Centenary of Catholic Emancipation.
Whelan painted portraits of Dermod McGillycuddy Esq. and Mrs Dermod McGillycuddy and these were exhibited at the RHA in
Dublin, in 1939, numbers 205 and 210 respectively. In 1938 Patricia Kennedy and Dermot McGillycuddy (son of Senator Lieutenant
Colonel The McGillycuddy of the Reeks), were married and their wedding ceremony is recorded in print and film as a High Society
event in Dublin that year. The present work depicts their son who was born in 1949 at Bishopscourt, Kill, Co. Kildare. He is shown
here with his Kerry Bog Pony, Jack Russell terrier and holding a hunting horn.