The Artist
Sarah Cecilia Harrison - Portrait of Conolly Norman
A portraitist and social campaigner, Sarah Cecilia Harrison trained as an artist at the Slade School of Art, London, under the tuition of French painter, Alphonse Legros.
Born in Holywood, County Down, Harrison lived in London from early childhood but maintained links to Ireland. Following her training and a period of travel in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands she move to Dublin permanently in 1904.
Living on Harcourt Street, she was immersed in the vibrant artistic and cultural life of the city. Harrison worked with Irish art collector and gallery director Hugh Lane to campaign for the foundation of a municipal gallery and initiating a memorial exhibition for the influential British painter, George Frederic Watts.
Harrison also joined the Gaelic League and became involved in the city’s labour and political life. She founded the Dublin City Labour Yard becoming its honorary secretary, and served as secretary to the Vacant Land Cultivation Society, advocating for the provision of allotments in the city.
A strong and vocal supporter of women’s suffrage, in 1912 she was the first woman elected to the Dublin Corporation as a city councillor for the South City ward. In this role, Harrison served on committees overseeing markets, old age pensions, and was the Corporation representative on the National Maternity Hospital and Richmond District Asylum boards.
Harrison maintained her professional portrait practice throughout this busy period of cultural and political activity, exhibiting regularly at the Royal Hibernian Academy.