Gerald F. Kelly

Sir Gerald Festus Kelly (9 April 1879, London – 5 Jan. 1972, Exmouth) was a Irish-British illustrious painter known for his portraits (including those of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother), and for his graceful depictions of Southeast Asian princesses and female dancers.

Born into a wealthy family — his father was the vicar of the church of Camberwell- , Gerald Kelly went to Eton College and Cambridge — after a sojourn in South Africa to cure his fragile health — before moving to Paris in 1901 to study art. There, he met many notorious artists, such as Degas, Monet, Rodin, Cézanne and Maillol — with whom he shared a “taste for pretty girls and fine Bordeaux”, according to biographer Ted Morgan -, and befriended British writer Somerset Maugham. The two men had met in 1904 at Kelly’s brother’s summer house [1], and shared the excitement of the Belle Epoque when Maugham himself moved to Paris. Starting from 1911 with The Jester, a portrait of Maugham with a Burmese lacquered cabinet in the background, Kelly would paint some 30 portraits of the writer during his career [1]. In Paris, Kelly also got acquainted with some disciples of the sulfurous, self-described “ceremonial magician” Aleister Crowley (1875−1947), whom London newspaper headlines called “The Wickedest Man in the World,” an old friend he had introduced to his sister, Rose Edith Kelly (1874 – 1932). The occultist and Rose married in 1903 and practised some self-cooked ‘Tantric experiences. They had two daughters, Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith (1904– 1906, died of typhoid in Rangoon) and Lola Zaza (1907 – 1990).

After Kelly’s failed love affair with a Montmartre French dancer, Maugham — who was to reflect Kelly in some of his fictitious characters, for instance as Harry Griffiths in Of Human Bondage (1915) — encouraged him to travel to Burma (now Myanmar) in 1908. Kelly thus went to Southeast Asia before Maugham himself - the writer traveled through Burma, Siam, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Malays States and Singapore in 1923 — and on the boat over met an Old Etonian appointed as District Judge of Mandalay. Enchanted by the “gorgeous landscape, and how sweet the women and children were” during his stay from November 1908 to April 1909, he painted a vast amount of post-impressionist landscapes and Burmese dancers portraits.

1) Burmese Dancer, circa 1909, during his visit to Burma [Myanmar]. 2) ‘Consuelo, Chorus Girl Dancer, Sevilla’, c. 1921. 3) ‘Sun VI’ [Cambodian Dancer], 1937.

In Rangoon, he was the guest of Daw Mya May (the wife of nationalist leader U May Oung), a well known socialite and patron of the arts. It was likely in her house that he met the Burmese dancers Ma Si Gyaw and Ma Sein Nu. But it was back in London, in 1931, that he met and painted the Shan Princess Sao Ohn Nyunt. The young lady, who had traveled for the Roundtable Conferences on Constitutional Reform in Burma and India, was “bored to tears” by England and its abominable weather, according to Kelly [quoted in the 2014 Christie’s Catalog], yet her portrait established his reputation as a major Orientalist painter, and to these days reproductions remain popular across the Commonwealth.

1) **Somerset Maugham** with the portrait of Princess Sao Ohn Nyunt in the background, by Sir Gerald Kelly [c.1932], one of the some 30 portraits of the famous writer’s he painted. [National Portrait Gallery, London]. 2) A portrait of Lililian Ryan, **Jane**, Sir Gerald’s wife, in 1921.

With wife Lilian Ryan, a model Kelly had married in 1920 and who was his official muse under the name of Jane, the artist traveled extensively, from Spain to the Americas. Their world tour in 1936 – 1937 brought them to China, Vietnam, Japan and Cambodia, where Kelly rekindled his passion for dancers, portraying several female performers of the Royal Ballet in Phnom Penh and in Angkor.

A favorite painter of the British Royal Family, he was the President of the Royal Academy of Arts from 1949 to 1954, after being knighted in 1945. Sir Gerald was never “academic”, though, and the painting he presented as Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation Gift in 1953 (RCIN 923040 in the Royal Collection Trust) was titled “Sem, A Cambodian dancer”.

1) ‘Jane XXX’ by Sir Gerald Kelly, 1930 — the artist painted one portrait of his wife’s every year, and numbered them with the year in roman numerals [Royal Academy of Arts, London]. 2) Sketch for the portrait of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother by Sir Gerald Festus Kelly [National Portrait Gallery, London].

Also working as a TV presenter, Sir Gerald continued to paint until in his 90s, when his deficient eyesight forced him to give up the brush. His personal archive kept as the National Portrait Gallery of London reflects the way he researched his compositions, taking photographs during his travels, collecting postcards and sketches…Dance and female dancers remained a major theme in his body of work: during his numerous trips to Spain, for instance, he painted in Seville “Consuelo, A Seville Chorus Girl”. Sir Gerald always made a point in naming his dancing subjects, an acknowledgement of their status as “true” artists.

[1] Ted Morgan, Maugham, New York, Simon amd Schuster, 1980, p. 107 – 109.

Related Photos: Cambodian Dancers by Sir Gerald Kelly (1937)