George Russell AE

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Artist Bio

George Russell (1867-1935) was an Irish poet, playwright, editor, critic, mystic, and artist. Born in 1867 in Lurgan, his family later moved to Dublin during his childhood. In 1884, Russell attended Dublin’s Metropolitan School of Art where he first met William Butler Yeats whom he continued to hold a contentious friendship with. In classes, Russell preferred to paint imaginary compositions rather than real-life models. His spirituality strongly influenced his painting which often depicts his dreams of cosmic happenings and surreal meetings, these imaginary scenes became Russell's primary artistic sources. His monogram, AE meaning Aeon, was revealed to him in a dream as a young man. These early visions shifted Russell’s perception as he wrote later how ‘the visible world became like a tapestry blown and stirred by the winds behind it. If it would raise but an instant I knew I would be in Paradise.’

Russell was involved across many fields, he became a theosophist and wrote extensively on Irish politics and economics, while continuing also to write poetry and paint. He was Assistant Secretary to the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society and editor of The Irish Statesman. Despite his other exploits, Russell remained an avid painter, exhibiting at the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Fine Arts Society in London and Leinster Hall in Dublin. A memorial exhibition was held in his honour at the Daniel Egan Gallery in Dublin, at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery and at the National Gallery of Ireland. He later moved to England in 1932 after his wife’s death. He pursued a final lecture tour of the United States, before returning home in ill-health, he died in Bournemouth in 1935.
 

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'THREE GIRLS BY THE WATERS EDGE' SIZE: H 16" x W 22" Result: £4,100 Date: 13/02/2024