19th and 20th century European and British Paintings

Ronald Ossory Dunlop was an Irish author and painter in oil of landscapes, seascapes, figure studies, portraits and still life. He studied at Manchester School of Art, Wimbledon and in Paris, having spent some time working in an advertising agency. He became a prolific exhibitor, venues including the RA, NEAC, Leicester and Redfern Galleries, RSA, RHA and the Glasgow Institute of Fine Art.

His first one man show (1928) was at the Redfern Gallery. In 1923 he had founded the Emotionist Group of writers and artists, and his own work is characterised by a painterly exuberance. Dunlop's work is in a number of public galleries, including the Tate.

Most of his life was spent in England, latterly at Barnham, West Sussex, close to Chichester. He achieved fame in his lifetime, having been elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1950, and his work is instantly recognisable. Alex Fraser of Vancouver was Dunlop's dealer in London and again later in Canada once Fraser had emigrated in the 1940s. Dunlop spent quite some time in Canada and exhibited regularly with Alex Fraser.

Dunlop's mother, Eleanor (née Fitzpatrick) was a watercolour artist and his father, Daniel Nicol Dunlop (1868-1935), was a great friend of W. B. Yeats, James Stephens and George Russell, or ‘Æ’. Together Yeats, ‘Æ’ and Daniel Nicol Dunlop published The Irish Theosophist from the home of Eleanor’s father, the Shakespearean scholar R.H. Fitzpatrick. Thus Dunlop grew up surrounded by the seminal figures of the Irish Literary Renaissance, in an atmosphere smacking of mysticism and Spiritualism. The Dunlop family moved to New York in 1899, then London three years later. From here, they made the annual pilgrimage back to Dublin during Horse Show week, with Dunlop’s father returning to London clutching two or three more ‘Æ’ canvasses each time. Dunlop trained in art in London, associating with a group of young artists who exhibited at the Hurricane Lamp Gallery in Chelsea. Dunlop soon expanded his exhibiting circle, showing with the NEAC and later with the RA and the RBA. He maintained his Irish connections, returning periodically to paint in Dublin and submitting a number of works to the RHA in the 1940s and 1950s.

In addition to painting, he was a prolific author; writing many books on painting. Dunlop's paintings can be seen in the Crawford Gallery, Cork, the Tate Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery, London.