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George Atkinson (artist)

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Not to be confused with George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson (1806–1884), the maritime painter from Cork.
Professor
George Atkinson
R.H.A., A.R.C.A.[2]
Born(1880-09-18)18 September 1880
Queenstown (Cobh), County Cork, Ireland
Died24 March 1941(1941-03-24) (aged 60)
National College of Art, Dublin, Ireland
Resting placeMount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland
EducationCrawford School of Art, Cork, Ireland
Alma materRoyal College of Art, London, England
Known foretching, engraving, mezzotint, painting, design
ElectedRoyal Hibernian Academy, Royal College of Art[1]
Signature

George Atkinson (18 September 1880 – 24 March 1941) was an Irish designer, printmaker, painter, and educator.[3] Born in County Cork, Ireland, he became the director of the National College of Art in Dublin and played a significant role in the development of art education and the arts and crafts movement in Ireland during the early 20th century.[4][5]

Early life and education

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George Atkinson was born in 1880 in Queenstown (now Cobh), the son of Thomas W. R. Atkinson, a Protestant timber mill owner and merchant.[3][4] He decided to pursue art after he was inspired by the painter James Barry, also from Cork.[6] He attended the Crawford School of Art in Cork from 1897, and worked in Dublin in from 1902.[4]

In 1905, Atkinson moved to London to study at the Royal College of Art and was taught there by the prominent printmaker Frank Short.[7][8] He remained there until 1910 before returning to Ireland. His artistic education focused on etching, mezzotint, and typography.[4]

Career

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He first exhibited his work in 1911 at the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts (RHA), becoming a full member of the institution in 1916.[3] In 1914, he began working as the assistant headmaster at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. In 1918, he was appointed head of the school, perhaps causing the reduction in his artistic output over the following years.[3]

The former Griffith-Collins Cenotaph, Leinster Lawn, Dublin

Atkinson organised the 1921 exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland, at which he had exhibited works in previous years.[9] He was one of the main organisers of an exhibition at the Galerie Barbazanges in association with the 1922 World Congress of the Irish Race in Paris.[5]

After the Irish War of Independence and establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, Atkinson designed a temporary cenotaph which featured medallion busts by sculptor Albert Power commemorating Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins.[10][11] The monument was unveiled in August 1923 and stood on Leinster Lawn in Dublin until 1939.[10][12] Atkinson furnished the Celtic inscriptions on the presentation scroll for Mia Cranwill's Senate Casket, commissioned by senator Alice Stopford Green to hold to a scroll signed by the first members of the Free State Seanad.[13]

Shannon Scheme etchings, c. 1926–1929
1: Keeper Mountain
3: The Excavations
2: The Culvert

Atkinson created a series of three etchings as part of a government commission to document the construction of the Free State's ambitious Shannon hydroelectric scheme, beginning in 1925.[14][4] Shannon Scheme No. 2: The Culvert was displayed at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, to which an Irish delegation was sent by the government to showcase the new state's modernity.[15] In this period he also continued his work to promote Irish arts culture, becoming the treasurer and organiser of the arts section of the Tailteann Games in 1924, 1928 and 1932, later becoming a trustee and chair of the finance committee.[1]

As of 1926 he sat on the art advisory committee of the Dublin Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, and was credited as an accomplished etcher and painter, responsible for reviving the mezzotint technique in Ireland after it had fallen out of use for 100 years.[2] In 1926 he also created the memorial to Thomas William Lyster, a bronze plaque with silver inscriptions in the National Library of Ireland, on behalf of W. B. Yeats and the Friends of the National Library.[16]

Commemorative stamp designs
200 years of the Royal Dublin Society (1931)
150 years of the US constitution and presidential office (1939)

In 1931, Atkinson designed a postage stamp to mark the 200th anniversary of the Royal Dublin Society. He was also responsible for the design of the 1939 postage stamp celebrating the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution and the installation of its first President.[17] As of 1939 he had become the secretary of the RHA and was active in its ongoing struggle to rebuild after the organisation's main building and collection of artworks had been destroyed by fire in the Easter Rising.[18]

As part of the Gibson Bequest committee, Atkinson worked over the 1920s and 1930s to expand the collection of artworks at the Cork School of Art (now at Crawford Art Gallery).[19][20] In 1936, Atkinson was appointed Director of the Metropolitan School of Art, retaining this position when it became the National College of Art. He held this position until his death in 1941.[21]

Personal life and death

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Atkinson married in 1916 and the couple had two children. He had a long-running feud with colleague Seán Keating.[22] Atkinson was found dead by suicide in his office at the National College of Art on 24 March 1941.[22][23] He is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Mr George Atkinson ARHA, ARCA". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951. University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII. 2011. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  2. ^ a b Crampton, Walker J. (1926). Irish life and Landscape (PDF). Dublin & Cork: Talbot Press.
  3. ^ a b c d "IE TCD MS 11574: THE CUALA PRESS PRINT COLLECTION" (PDF). tcd.ie. Trinity College Dublin. 2023-07-21. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e O'Brien, Sorcha (September 2011). "Representing the Shannon Scheme: electrical technology, modernisation and national identity in the Irish Free State, 1924-32" (PDF). Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  5. ^ a b McKernan, Jim (1989). "Irish Educational Studies, Vol. 8, Nos. 1 and 2, 1989". eric.ed.gov. Education Department, University College Dublin, Belfield, Ireland. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  6. ^ "Exhibitions Archive | Saturday 2 December 1922". Crawford Art Gallery. 21 February 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  7. ^ "George Atkinson". The British Museum. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Works – George Atkinson – Artists – eMuseum". onlinecollection.hughlane.ie. Hugh Lane Gallery. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  9. ^ "Made in Cork: The Arts and Crafts movement from the 1880s to the 1920s" (PDF). Crawford Art Gallery. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  10. ^ a b Bréadún, Deaglán de (1 January 1970). "At Leinster House, a Historically Significant Monument Lies Overlooked". Dublin Inquirer. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  11. ^ "Lest We Remember. Why does the Irish State not commemorate the National Army soldiers who died during the Civil War?". Journal Of Military History and Defence Studies. 3 (1): 90. 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  12. ^ "1923 – Cenotaph, Leinster House, Merrion Square, Dublin | Architecture @ Archiseek.com". Archiseek.com. 1 February 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  13. ^ Kreilkamp, Vera (2016). The arts and crafts movement: making it Irish [exhibition, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, February 6-June 5, 2016]. McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. ISBN 978-1-892850-25-6.
  14. ^ "WORK OF THE WEEK | 19 May 2020 - Crawford Art Gallery". 19 May 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  15. ^ Maxwell, Nick (21 December 2022). "'NO THATCHED COTTAGES'—REPRESENTING THE IRISH FREE STATE AT CHICAGO'S WORLD'S FAIR". History Ireland. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  16. ^ REPORT of the Department of Education The School Years 1925-26-27 and the Financial and Administrative Year 1926-27. Saorstát Éireann. 1927. p. 63. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  17. ^ Lennon, John (25 February 2011). "The 1939 US Sesquicentennial Issue" (PDF). Irish Philately. 1 (March) (2011). Irish Philatelic Circle. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  18. ^ Atkinson, George (1939). "Circular letter from George Atkinson, Secretary, Royal Hibernian Academy, enclosing statement on the poor financial situation of the RHA,". catalogue.nli.ie. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  19. ^ "Exhibitions Archive | Saturday 2 December 1922". Crawford Art Gallery. 21 February 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  20. ^ "History". Crawford Art Gallery. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  21. ^ "Prof. George Atkinson". Chicago Tribune. 25 March 1941. p. 24. DUBLIN, Ireland, March 24 — Prof. George Atkinson, 61 years old, director of the National College of Art, died today.
  22. ^ a b O’Sullivan, John P. (12 May 2013). "Painter offering feud for thought". The Times. Retrieved 5 September 2024. Atkinson committed suicide in 1941 [...] he gassed himself in his office in the school. Artist Maurice MacGonigal [...] found the body
  23. ^ "Keating . . . the man who painted Ireland". www.independent.ie. 12 May 2013. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
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