This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Rebecca Minch. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 12 September 1880, Ireland
Died: 17 August 1963
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: NA
Fox, Kathleen (1880–1963), painter, enamellist, and stained-glass artist, was born 12 September 1880 at Glenageary, Co. Dublin, daughter of Capt. Henry Charles Fox of the King’s Dragoon Guards. She received her artistic training at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, where she studied under William Orpen and her talent and versatility soon became evident; for a time she was Orpen’s assistant.
While studying enamelling under Oswald Reeves (1870–1967), she produced an enamelled cup depicting a procession, entitled ‘Going to the feast’, for which she was awarded a gold medal in the 1908 national competition which was open to all art students within the British empire. The piece was subsequently shown at an exhibition of prizewinners at the Victoria & Albert museum, London, and at the 1924 Aonach Tailteann exhibition in Dublin. She received another prize at the national competition of 1909 for an enamelled copper plaque entitled ‘Music’. Working under Arthur Child (1875–1939), Fox also produced stained glass. Her window of 1909 depicting St Tobias was later erected as a family memorial in St Joseph’s church, Glenageary.
Fox’s work of this period may be placed in the context of the Celtic revival, with its emphasis on craftwork in a variety of media in styles reminiscent of work of the medieval and Celtic past. She was also exposed to the ideas of the arts and crafts movement, particularly through Arthur Child, while works such as her ‘Shaving mirror with pendant on stand’ in copper and silver (1910) suggest a familiarity with the art nouveau style.
Prior to the outbreak of war in 1914 Fox spent some time in London and Paris. In Easter 1916 she went into Dublin to paint scenes of the rising, an exploit that earned her the nickname ‘little rebel’ when she later taught at the Dublin Metropolitan School as an assistant to Orpen. Her painting of the surrender of Countess Markievicz, ‘The arrest 1916, the Royal College of Surgeons’ is in the collection of Sligo county museum and art gallery. She also painted a portrait of her friend Grace Gifford. During her time in London Fox had met Lt. Cyril Pym of the British army, whom she married in 1917. The following year he was killed in action and she subsequently gave birth to their daughter.
She exhibited at the RHA between 1911 and 1923 and again from 1944 to 1957. One of her submissions for 1911, wittily entitled ‘Science and Power’, depicted her friend the sculptor Albert Power at work on the statue ‘Science’ for the new College of Science, Merrion St. A version of this work was later donated by the artist to the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin. By the early 1920s Fox was concentrating on painting in oils and was beginning to establish a reputation as a portrait painter. In 1921 her portrait of Lady Rosamund Gallwey-Robertson was favourably received when shown alongside the work of Orpen and John Lavery at the National Portrait Society exhibition in London. In the same year she exhibited her portrait of Archbishop Mannix at the Royal Academy. After considerable difficulty Fox had managed to arrange four sittings with Mannix. She then gained permission for Albert Power to share the sittings. He later produced a marble bust from his models, which greatly impressed the archbishop. Fox’s portrait, also a success, is in the collection of the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, having been donated by the artist in 1937 along with her portrait of Albert Power.
She also showed her work in London at the New English Art Club, the Society of Women Artists, and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. On occasion she sent work for exhibition to the Walker Gallery, Liverpool, and the Royal Scottish Academy. In 1930 an enamel plaque by Fox was included in the exhibition of Irish art held in Brussels. Her paintings were also seen in Dublin at the Oireachtas exhibitions.
During the 1940s and 1950s she became particularly known for her paintings of flowers and interiors such as those shown at her exhibition held in Dublin at the Dawson gallery in 1946. During the early 1950s she designed and executed in oils a set of stations of the Cross for the Jesuit House of Studies, Milltown Park, Dublin. In 1953 examples of her work were included in the exhibition of contemporary Irish art held at Aberystwyth, Wales. From 1947 she lived at Brookfield, Richmond Avenue South, Milltown, Co. Dublin, and she died there 17 August 1963.