Quick Facts
Biography
John F. Kelly (1921-1995) was an Irish painter and artist. He had painted portraits of several people in public, business, and private life.
Education and career
Kelly was born in 1921, in Ballinagore, a small village located between Kilbeggan and Mullingar, in County Westmeath, Ireland.
He studied arts at the National College of Art, Dublin, and later, at the Academia di Belle Arte, Florence, Italy. He also received education in Madrid, Spain.
He was elected to the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in 1959 and was a Keeper of the RHA from 1960 to 1978. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was on the Board of Governors of the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI.)
Kelly was Professor of Painting at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin, from 1969 until retirement in 1985. Celebrated Irish artists like Sean Keating and Maurice MacGonigal were his colleagues.
Kelly died in March 1995.