DISTINGUISHED PAINTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 5, 28 March 1927, Page 12

DISTINGUISHED PAINTER

DEATH OF AMBROSE MCEVOY PASSES IN HIS PRIME England has lost one of its most fashionable portrait painters by the death of Mr. Ambrose McEvoy, A.R.A., in a London nursing home, at the early age of 48. Mr. McEvoy had been ill for only a week, suffering from pneumonia. He was born in 1878 in the West Country, of Irish parentage. His father served on the Confederate side in the American war. Whistler was a friend of the family. At i 5 young McEvoy was working in the Slade School, with Augustus John and Wiliam Orpen. In the brilliant period of the New English Art Club, in the early years of the century, he was one of the lesser lights. His early pictures were interiors and landscapes, and not till he tui'ned to portraiture did his exceptional gifts emerge. He painted a number of portraits of men, including Mr. Birrell and Lord D’Abernon, but his work that will live are his portraits of women. His finest *works are his portrait of Mrs. Charles McEvoy (wife of his brother, the dramatist), Mrs. Claude Johnson, Lady Wimborne, “Madame,” and the Duchess of Westminster. He also painted many children, and his delightful understanding of their roguishness and individuality, as well as his swift and vivid technique, resulted in some very notable pictures. He had to work many years before his gifts were recognised, but once he reached success the smartest sitters of England and America flocked to him. He died at the height of his fame and success. His wife is herself an artist of distinction, although the public has seen little of her work in recent years. He left one son and one daughter.