CULTURE Estella Solomons: A portrait of the artist as a Republican

Painter concealed ammunition in her studio, writes Róisín Kennedy

STELLA SOLOMONS came from a prominent Jewish family. Her E father, Maurice, was a well-known optician and his practice on Nassau Street is mentioned in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Solomons trained at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art where Willie Pearse had also been a student. Her contemporary at the school, Beatrice Elvery remembered that ‘it was difficult not to be swept away in a flood of patriotism’. Solomons continued her studies at the Chelsea School of Art in and at Colorossi’s Studio in Paris where she was accompanied by Elvery and Cissie Beckett, aunt of the future writer Samuel Beckett. A visit to a major exhibition of the work Estella Solomons’ portraits of Erskine Childers and Sinn Féin activist Darrell Figgis, and a self-portrait. of Rembrandt in Amsterdam in 1906 had a decisive impact on one of Seán Milroy, a frequent back in Limerick, discovered that in this endeavour by Kathleen her art practice. Not only did his visitor, and Frank Gallagher, a fellow volunteer was using his Goodfellow, a lifelong friend who approach influence Solomons’ who she painted in 1920 after belt. He had taken it from a Black had joined Cumann na mBan at style of portraiture but the Dutch she moved her studio to No 26 and Tan who had been shot at the the same time. master’s etchings inspired her to Great Brunswick Street. She also Drumkeen ambush weeks before. The Sunday afternoon salons take up printmaking. painted Frank Aiken, IRA Chief O’Malley clearly regarded the belt held by the O’Sullivans at their In 1915 Solomons joined the of Staff, in 1923. During the Civil as a kind of talisman and kept it home at Grange in branch of Cumann na War the studio was often raided until his final capture in Dublin were frequented by the Dublin mBan. Phyllis Ryan, future wife by Free State troops as Solomons during the Civil War. literary circle including the of Seán T O’Kelly, drilled the unit. supported the anti-treaty side. Many of Solomons’ prints artist and critic, George Russell The women studied signalling She resigned her job as an art depict the alleyways, byways and (AE). Solomons accompanied and first aid and Solomons was teacher rather than take the Oath parks of contemporary Dublin. him on his annual painting taught how to fire a revolver by of Allegiance. She illustrated DL Kelleher’s trips to Donegal. Her two solo a Sinn Féin agent, known as ‘the IRA commander Ernie The Glamour of Dublin in 1928. exhibitions, the first held in her Butterman’ because his official O’Malley knew Solomons well. Originally published after the Pearse Street studio in 1926, job was a milkman. She actively He corresponded with her when devastation of the 1916 Rising, the and the second at the Dublin The Irish artist Robert Ballagh assisted the Republican cause by he was recovering from hunger later edition features eight views Painters Gallery in 1931, were returned to Paget’s epic image distributing and concealing arms strike in Kilmainham in 1923. of familiar locations in the city dominated by landscapes. In in 2012, reinterpreting it for a and ammunition, sometimes in One of his letters refers to a centre including Merchant’s Arch 1938 the O’Sullivans relocated limited edition print that was her studio. She apparently also uniform and belt she had given and King’s Inns. Her etching of A to Morehampton Road in sold to fund the refurbishment hid weapons in the vegetable to him years before. While on Georgian Doorway was included Donnybrook bringing their of a graveyard plot for volunteers patch of her parents’ garden manoeuvres in Limerick in the in Katherine MacCormack’s 10,000 books with them. After who died in the Rising. in Waterloo Road, surprising War of Independence, the house Leabhar Ultáin in 1920. This the death of her husband in 1958, The Anglo-Irish artist them by her sudden interest in he was staying in came under publication featured illustrations Solomons continued to live there Kathleen Fox was actually in gardening. attack from the Black and Tans. by several prominent Irish artists in relative tranquillity until she Dublin that Easter and, like In 1910 Solomons had taken In the resulting shoot-out the and was sold in aid of the new died ten years later. many, went in to the city-centre a studio at the top of 17 Great belt was lost in a muddy field. It children’s hospital in Charlemont Like many artists of her to see what all the fuss was Brunswick Street, now Pearse was quite distinctive as O’Malley Street, Dublin that had been generation, Solomons was devoted about. She recognised a woman Street, where she installed an had had it adjusted by a local founded by two prominent to the cause of Irish nationalism. being arrested outside the Royal etching press. Portraits of the cobbler. Six months later, having members of Cumann na mBan, Her willingness to get directly College of Surgeons and made leading literary patriots of the escaped from an earlier sojourn Kathleen Lynn and Madeleine involved in military activity and a quick sketch of the scene. day including Alice Milligan, in Kilmainham Jail, O’Malley, ffrench-Mullen. to assist fellow republicans was Fox later worked the sketch, Joseph Campbell and Padraig de Having withdrawn from her courageous. But ultimately in the of Countess Markievicz, into a Brún were painted here. James political activities after the Civil aftermath of the Civil War she painting titled The Arrest which Stephens, the novelist, who lived War, Solomons was elected an pursued a more conciliatory path is now in the Niland Collection in the flat immediately below her associate member of the Royal by focusing on the promotion of in Sligo. It is virtually unique, studio, was another sitter. Hibernian Academy in 1925. In artistic and literary culture. Given being an eye-witness image of the Séamus O’Sullivan later 1926 she married the poet James the conservative climate of the events. Fox was so moved by the recalled the studio, where Starkey, also known as Séamus new state this was regarded by scene, she included herself in the many War of Independence O’Sullivan. The couple, then in artists such as Solomons as an painting as an onlooker. revolutionaries hid out: ‘With its their forties, had delayed their essential goal, without which an In more recent, popular pleasantly-arranged throne and wedding until after the death of independent Ireland would have culture, the US TV series The curtains, was not only a centre her parents as they would not had little to offer its citizens. Young Indiana Jones Chronicles of artistic activity and goodly have approved of their daughter’s devoted an entire episode to conversation, but it was also a marriage to a gentile. Dr Róisín Kennedy is Lecturer our youthful hero landing in centre of quiet, of calm; a place of Solomons and O’Sullivan’s in the UCD School of Art History Dublin on the eve of the Rising. refuge for many whose political collaborated on the Dublin and Cultural Policy. She is a He meets up with Seán Lemass and national activities had Magazine, a new literary contributor to ‘Making 1916: The and hangs out with a struggling brought them a very undesirable journal he had founded in Material and Visual Culture young playwright called O’Casey. amount of notice in “the bad 1923. Solomons provided vital of the ’, Liverpool The dialogue is pretty hilarious, times”.’ financial support particularly University Press and to featuring gems along the lines of; Sometimes Solomons painted in sourcing advertising, an the forthcoming ‘Atlas “Hey Shaun! Why don’t you call their portraits, destroying them Dr Róisín Kennedy of the UCD extremely difficult task in the of the Revolution’, Cork it after that flag? The Ploughy, as security measures required. School of Art History and tough economic climate of the University Press. starry one over there!” Surviving portraits include Cultural Policy. FRANK McGRATH new Free State. She was helped

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