Estella Frances Solomons HRHA (1882-1968)
The Morrow Family and Frank Gallagher
Oil on canvas, 71 x 91.5cm (28 x 36'')

Provenance: The Artist's Estate.

Exhibited: 'Estella Solomons...

Estella Frances Solomons HRHA (1882-1968)
The Morrow Family and Frank Gallagher
Oil on canvas, 71 x 91.5cm (28 x 36'')

Provenance: The Artist's Estate.

Exhibited: 'Estella Solomons Exhibition', The Crawford Gallery, May-June 1986, Catalogue No.98.

This work depicts the family of fellow artist Jack Morrow (1872 - 1926) along with writer and journalist Frank Gallagher (1898 -1962). Jack Morrow was one of eight artistic sons of the Belfast artist George Morrow. He was heavily involved in the republican movement and it was thought that part of the planning of the Easter Rising took place in his studio.

 

After his arrest in 1919 and while he languished in Mountjoy Jail Estella gave support to the family and his daughter Moppie was to feature in a number of her works. Frank Gallagher joined the Irish Volunteers and worked closely with Erskine Childers on the publication of Irish Bulletin . He took the republican side after the treaty and was imprisoned and survived a lengthy hunger strike. He wrote of his visits to Estellas studio in The Four Glorious Years (Written under the pseudonym David Hogan) and among the people he met there were Padraic OConaire, Austin Clarke, Seamus MacManus, Jack B. Yeats and Kathleen Goodfellow. Estellas fine portrait of him was used as the frontispiece. He was later to become the first editor of The Irish Press in 1931.

 

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