Harry Kernoff RHA : (1900 – 1974)
An icon of Irish painting Harry Aaron Kernoff was born in London on 9 January 1900. His parents were Isaac and Katherine Kernoff (née Bardanelle), his Russian father worked as a furniture maker and his mother was from an old Spanish-Jewish family.
The family moved to Dublin in May 1914 where Isaac Kernoff started a furniture making business. Harry initially served as an apprentice cabinetmaker to his father, however he showed an early interest in art and enrolled for night classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School Of Art under the tutelage of Sean Keating, becoming the first night student in the history of the school to win the prestigious Taylor scholarship in 1923, thus becoming a full-time day student and henceforth devoting all his energies to art.
Kernoff was greatly influenced by his mentor Sean Keating and also by his contemporaries Patrick Touhy and Maurice MacGonigal. He painted the Irish landscape, genre scenes, and portraits and was particularly interested in drawing streetscapes, buildings and the people of Dublin and rural Ireland. Kernoff’s work has been stylistically compared with that of L.S. Lowry
His studio was based at Stamer Street, Dublin, from where he painted portraits of leading literary and theatre figures, including Brendan Behan, James Joyce, W B Yeats Flann O’Brien and Sean O’Casey. Kernoff preferred to finish his portraits in a single sitting.
International attention came in 1928 when his work was shown at Summer Olympics and again in 1938 & 1939 when he represented Ireland at the New York and Glasgow World’s Fairs. He first exhibited with the Royal Hibernian Academy in1926 and was elected a full member of the academy in 1936, he continued to exhibit there until his death
Kernoff visited Paris in 1931, In that same year he had a one-man show at Gieve’s Gallery, London. He was one of the illustrators of the Cuala Press A Broadside second and third series in 1935 and 1937. He sat on the arts advisory committee of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art for a number of years and was elected a life member of United Arts Club Dublin in 1974
He developed an interest in modernism and the avant-garde movement in the 1920s, but returned to realism for his works documenting social life in both rural and urban Irish settings. He frequented many Dublin Pubs including The Palace Bar on Fleet Street, and The Bailey and Davy Byrnes on Duke Street and would trawl Dublin pubs looking for more portrait subjects.
Kernoff was a prolific painter holding an annual solo show in Dublin From 1926 to 1958, many of these shows were held at the premises of The Dublin Society of Painters at their studio in no. 7 St. Stephen’s Green. He also had three solo shows with the Victor Waddington Galleries in 1936,1937 & 1940 along with numerous other shows abroad in London, Glasgow, Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Chicago and Toronto.
From the 1940s onwards Kernoff favoured small canvases, painting miniature oils . His depictions of working-class Dublin and smaller towns across the country are highly sought after by collectors. He published his first book of woodcuts in 1942, followed up with A storyteller’s childhood in 1946.
It has been suggested that Kernoff’s painting, A Bird Never Flew on One Wing, was the inspiration for the ears of the character Spock in the original Star Trek television series. The painting hung in O’Brien’s pub, Leeson Street, where it is believed a Hollywood designer saw it, though this story may be apocryphal. The painting sold in 2008 for €180,000
Four of his portraits of W. B. Yeats were exhibited as part of the National Gallery of Ireland Yeats centenary exhibition in 1965. The National Library of Ireland hold his papers and a memorial exhibition was held in his honour at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery (1976).
Kernoff died in Dublin on Christmas Day 1974.
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Highest prices achieved for Harry Kernoff works at auction
- €180,000 – Adams, Dublin – 28-05-2008
- €169,261 – Sothebys, London – 18-05-2000
- €116,115 – Sothebys, London – 18-05-2000
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Collections
National Gallery of Ireland
National Library of Ireland
Ulster Museum
Irish Jewish Museum
The Hugh Lane Gallery
The artist’s work is also held in numerous important private collections worldwide