Beschreibung:

Estella Frances Solomons HRHA (1882-1968) Darrell Figgis Oil on canvas, 61 x 46cm (24 x 18'') Provenance: From the Artist's Studio and thence from the estate of the late Geoffrey O'Connor, Kerry Exhibited: ''Estella Solomons'' Exhibition, Crawford Gallery, Cork, May/June 1986, Cat. No. 23; ''Irish Women Artists 1870-1970'', Adam's, Dublin, July 2014, AVA Gallery, Clandeboye Aug-Sept 2014, Cat. No.19 Literature: ''Irish Women Artists 1870-1970'' 2014, illustrated p29 Darrell Figgis (1882-1925) was born into a wealthy tea merchant family moving to Ceylon while an infant but the tea business was not for him as he preferred to write both as a poet and journalist. He moved home to Ireland around 1910 and quickly discovered Irish politics and nationality. In 1913 he joined the volunteers and was one of the instigators of the Howth gun-running incident of July 1914 having bought the arms in Hamburg and moved them to the Roetigen lightship off the coast of Belgium where they were transferred to the yachts belonging to Erskine Childers and Conor O'Brien. Although not active in the 1916 rising he was arrested and transferred with the elite to Reading prison one of many detentions imposed in the following years of which he wrote about in two chronicles in which he apparently exaggerated his role as he was generally unpopular. However Arthur Griffith admired and trusted him as they were both wary of the more militarist wing of the Nationalist movement. He supported the treaty and was elected to the Sinn F�in executive in 1922 where he was appointed vice- chairman of the committee to draft the Free State Constitution. He ran as a pro-treaty Independent candidate in June 1922 when he topped the poll. His political career went into decline after that and eventually he took his own life in London in October 1925. Estella Frances Solomons HRHA (1882-1968) Darrell Figgis Oil on canvas, 61 x 46cm (24 x 18'') Provenance: From the Artist's Studio and thence from the estate of the late Geoffrey O'Connor, Kerry Exhibited: ''Estella Solomons'' Exhibition, Crawford Gallery, Cork, May/June 1986, Cat. No. 23; ''Irish Women Artists 1870-1970'', Adam's, Dublin, July 2014, AVA Gallery, Clandeboye Aug-Sept 2014, Cat. No.19 Literature: ''Irish Women Artists 1870-1970'' 2014, illustrated p29 Darrell Figgis (1882-1925) was born into a wealthy tea merchant family moving to Ceylon while an infant but the tea business was not for him as he preferred to write both as a poet and journalist. He moved home to Ireland around 1910 and quickly discovered Irish politics and nationality. In 1913 he joined the volunteers and was one of the instigators of the Howth gun-running incident of July 1914 having bought the arms in Hamburg and moved them to the Roetigen lightship off the coast of Belgium where they were transferred to the yachts belonging to Erskine Childers and Conor O'Brien. Although not active in the 1916 rising he was arrested and transferred with the elite to Reading prison one of many detentions imposed in the following years of which he wrote about in two chronicles in which he apparently exaggerated his role as he was generally unpopular. However Arthur Griffith admired and trusted him as they were both wary of the more militarist wing of the Nationalist movement. He supported the treaty and was elected to the Sinn F�in executive in 1922 where he was appointed vice- chairman of the committee to draft the Free State Constitution. He ran as a pro-treaty Independent candidate in June 1922 when he topped the poll. His political career went into decline after that and eventually he took his own life in London in October 1925.