Estella Solomons

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Estella Frances Starkey (Solomons)

Birthdate:
Birthplace: Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Death: 1968 (85-86)
Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Immediate Family:

Daughter of Maurice Elias Solomons and Rosa Jane Solomons
Wife of Seamus O'Sullivan
Sister of Edwin M. Solomons; Bethel Solomons; Sophie Solomons and Sophie Solomons

Occupation: Artist, republican activist
Managed by: Randy Schoenberg
Last Updated:

About Estella Solomons

Estella Solomons was an Irish revolutionary as well as one of the leading Irish artists of her generation.

She was born in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of Maurice Solomons (1832–1922), an optician whose practice in 19 Nassau St., Dublin, is mentioned in Ulysses. Her family, the Solomons, who came to Dublin from England in 1824, are one of the oldest continuous lines of Jews in Ireland.

In 1898, at the age of 16, she entered the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. She went on to study in London and Paris, and upon her return to Ireland spent some time painting in County Kerry. She studied under two of Ireland's leading artists, Walter Osborne and William Orpen, and was an early member of the Irish impressionist school. She exhibited in the Leinster Hall, Molesworth St., with contemporaries such as Beatrice Elvery, Eva Hamilton and Grace Gifford.

She joined the Ranelagh branch of Cumann na mBan about 1918 and was active in politics before and during the Irish war of independence. She took the republican side in the civil war and her studio was used as a safe house by republican volunteers. She married poet and publisher Seamus O'Sullivan (1879–1958) (real name James Sullivan Starkey) although her parents opposed the relationship as O'Sullivan was not of the Jewish faith. They married in 1929 after her parents had died. She collaborated with her husband in The Dublin Magazine (1923–1958), the renowned literary and art magazine, of which O'Sullivan was editor for 35 years.

Estella took up a teaching position at Bolton Street, Dublin. She painted landscapes and portraits, including Jack Yeats, Arthur Griffiths, poet Austin Clarke, James Stephens and George Russell.

TV documentaries on her life have been shown on RTÉ and on the History Channel.

The works of Estella Solomon are held in The Niland Collection, at The Model, County Sligo.

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Estella Solomons's Timeline

1882
1882
Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
1968
1968
Age 86
Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland