Clodagh Finn: The ‘twin-souls’ who brought modern art to Ireland

As the National Gallery of Ireland opens its exhibition, Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, The Art of Friendship, Clodagh Finn examines how the artists' tenacity overcame the art world's initial merciless criticism so that they became 'champions, teachers, collectors, donors, organisers and supporters of other artists' in the modern art scene in Ireland

Sat, 12 Apr, 2025 - 00:56

Clodagh Finn

A little wave of excitement rippled through me when I noticed that the name ‘Jellett’ was still on the doorbell at 37 Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin, the house where pioneering modern artist Mary Harriet (Mainie) Jellett grew up.

Had I been dressed for it, I might have called unannounced, just as she and fellow artist Evie Hone once did when they pitched up, without warning, on the doorstep of radical Cubist Albert Gleizes’s studio at the Boulevard Lannes on the western edge of Paris.

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