Leo Whelan RHA
1892 – 1956
Born in Dublin Leo Whelan was educated at Belvedere College and trained at the Metropolitan School of Art, under the tutelage of Sir William Orpen. He first exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1911, and was awarded the Taylor Art Scholarship five years later in 1916. He exhibited almost 250 works at the RHA from 1911 until 1956.
He was well known for his many portraits of IRA volunteers, including General Michael Collins and for his brilliant portraits of Irish public life in the first half of the 20th century. His portraits are treated with meticulous attention to details. He presents his sitters in the traditional format of three quarter or half length compositions. The figures exude a sense of importance in recognition of their position within Irish society. His greatest successes concerned the portrayal of people who built up modern Ireland, his subjects included a wide range of eminent public figures from the political, academic, legal and celebrity worlds.
He was the designer of the first Irish Free State commemorative stamp, a portrait of Daniel O’Connell, issued in 1929 for the Centenary of Catholic Emancipation. Whelan also participated in the 1932 Olympics painting event – One of Whelan’s closest friends, the acclaimed Irish tenor John McCormack, unsuccessfully tried to persuade him to move to the United States
