George Russell AE (1867-1935)
Figures in the Dunes
Oil on canvas, 53 x 80cm (20¾ x 31½'')
Signed 'AE'

George Russell grew up in Lurgan, Co. Amargh but moved to Dublin at the age of 11. He...

George Russell AE (1867-1935)
Figures in the Dunes
Oil on canvas, 53 x 80cm (20¾ x 31½'')
Signed 'AE'

George Russell grew up in Lurgan, Co. Amargh but moved to Dublin at the age of 11. He is known not only for his paintings but as a writer, poet, critic, theosophist and economist, and by his pseudonym AE (a derivative of the word Aeon).

He began night time painting classes at the Metropolitan School of Art just two years after moving to Dublin, and went on to receive academic training at the RHA. AE supported Hugh Lanes campaign for the gallery of modern art and was active in the Irish Literary Revival. He exhibited abroad at the 1913 Armory Show in New York and at the Whitechapel in London, and created a large scale series of murals of 3 Upper Ely Place in Dublin which has been compared to the work of Goya.

Iberianreviewed George Russells first exhibition in 1904 in the Irish Homestead It is, perhaps, in his treatment of atmospheres that Mr Russells most charming and satisfying effects are produced, and the sense of brooding tranquility and a living peace. [His] use, too, of a solitary figure, or of a few figures wrapped about with silence and the spaces of the air and the hills, is a revelation of the nearness of natural men to the heart of nature itself. (The Irish Homestead, Vol. X, No.35, 27 August 1904). This sense of the magical power of nature and its spiritual and enigmatic character is what defines the best specimens of George Russells work. Although he was sometimes criticised for his prolific output, there are many fine examples among his industrious oeuvre.

His paintings can be found in the collection of the Ulster Museum, National Gallery of Ireland, Hugh Lane, OPW, Trinity College Dublin and the Crawford Gallery.

 

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