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I
rish
& I
nternational
A
rt
A
uction
M
onday
5
th
D
ecember
2016
at
6.00
pm
117
134 Gladys MacCabe ROI FRSA MA HRUA (b.1918) Night at the Operasigned lower right
oil on board
50 x 61cm (20 x 24in)
Provenance:
Private Collection
€1,750-2,500 (£1,521-2,174)
Gladys MacCabe was born in County Antrim in 1918. One of her ancestors was a famous 18th-century Scottish painter, Sir George
Chalmers. She had a picture published in the Royal Drawing Society’s magazine when she was 16 years old and went on to study
at the Belfast College of Art. In 1941 she married fellow artist and musician Max Maccabe (who died in 2000). Gladys and Max
exhibited together on many occasions, starting in Ireland at Robinson & Cleaver in Belfast, 1942, and in England at the Kensington
Art Gallery in 1949. Gladys and Max were members of the group of artists known as The Contemporary Ulster Group, which in-
cluded Dan O’Neill, George Campbell, and Gerard Dillon. William Conor was also an associate and Gladys painted his portrait in
1957 (now hanging in the Ulster Folk Museum). She formed the Ulster Society of Women Artists in 1957, as she felt that there was
an untapped wealth of talent among the women artists of Northern Ireland. The Society’s first major exhibition was in the Belfast
Museum and Art Gallery in 1959.