Original charcoal on paper

size - 34 x 27 cms

framed size : 78 x 67 cms

#MAR1146

Sean Keating PRHA (1889-1977)

One of Ireland's best known and most sought after painters. Seán Keating studied drawing at the Limerick Technical School before a scholarship, arranged by the acclaimed painter Sir William Orpen, allowed him at the age of twenty to study at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. Keating subsequently worked as Orpen's studio assistant in London in 1915.

He was elected an Associate of The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in 1918, and a full member in 1923 and served as President of the academy from 1950 to 1962.  Keating was an intellectual painter in the sense that he consciously set out to explore the visual identity of the Irish nation, and his paintings show a very idealised realism. He feared that the modern movement would lead to a decline in artistic standards. Keating showed at the annual RHA exhibition for 61 years from 1914 onwards showing nearly 300 works.