The British Roadshow Archive

Constance Georgine Markiewicz - Irish Artist

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Constance Georgine Markiewicz - Irish Artist

   Countess Markiewicz (Formerly Gore-Booth) Born: 4th February 1868 – Died: 15 July 1927)   

 Constance Markiewicz was an Irish artist, but beyond that a Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician who held a position and reputation as a revolutionary nationalist and suffragette in a difficult period of history..

 Constance Markievicz was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, though she did not take her seat and along with the other Sinn Féin TDs formed the first Dáil Éireann. She was also the first woman in Europe to hold a cabinet position (Minister of Labour of the Irish Republic, 1919–1922).

The biography and history of one of Eires finest female revolutionaries is well covered on the internet and it is not necessary to repeat it here.

The specialness of this work of art however is well worth its publication.

 Mary Brennen was also an active member of the Irish women's army movement (Comamanban) and was drawn in the pencil sense by Constance Markiewicz at a fair in southern Ireland in 1923 at a fund raising event.

 Sketches of this period and from the same fair have realised over $3,500.00 at auction in the past few years>

This portrait therefore is of the owners mother and is more special than she realises.

 This pencil sketch dating from late 1923 is included in nest Saturday's manuscript and paper sale at Whyte's of Dublin. The drawing of a young woman was made by Constance Markievicz at that time Sinn Fein T.D for Dublin City South, In the same month as she drew the portrait, Markievicz was imprisoned for supporting republican prisoner's hunger strikes. Because of her political activities, it is easy to forget that art was the original interest of Constance Markievicz ( nee Gore ) She studied at both the Slade School in London and in Paris. During the first decade of this century, together with her husband, Constance Markievicz exhibited art work in Dublin on several occasions. Theo Snoddy in his Dictionary of Irish Artists, notes that the two pictures Constance Markievicz showed at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1905, were each priced at £50.00 " Far higher than the prices asked for by Jack B Yeates." However,  the amount of work she produced soon began to diminish as Constance Markievicz became more involved with the cause of Irish Independence. In addition, Constance Markievicz had problems with her eyesight.

 Nonetheless, as this picture - produced less than four years before Constance Markievicz's death in July 1927- shows she never abandoned art altogether, producing a large number of watercolours while imprisoned in Holloway jail.30 such landscapes are now in the collection of the National Museum of Ireland.

The Constance Markievicz picture in next weeks Whyte's of Dublin sale is expected to fetch £450-00 to £500.00

It made $3,200.00