Charles Napier Kennedy, Portrait and Figure Painter
(b. 1852, d. 1898)
Portrait and Figure Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Was born in London in February, 1852, son of Lt.-Colonel John Pitt Kennedy (son of John Pitt Kennedy, rector of Carndonagh, Co. Donegal), who, after a lengthy service in the army, was Inspector-General under the National Board in Ireland, and afterwards distinguished himself as an engineer in the service of the Indian Government, and died in 1879. Charles Napier studied at the Slade School and in Paris. He exhibited for the first time in the Royal Academy in 1872 and was a frequent contributor until 1894, as well as at the Society of British Artists, the New Gallery and elsewhere. In 1886 he began to exhibit in the Royal Hibernian Academy, and was made an Associate on the 18th July, 1896. He was also a member of the Institute of Painters in Water-colours. Some of his best pictures were shown at the New Gallery, including "The fair-haired Slave who made himself a King," now in the Corporation Art Gallery in Manchester. His "Neptune," a fine, vigorously painted picture, is in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; it was etched by P. A. Masse/ for the "Art Journal" for January, 1890. The National Gallery of Ireland possesses "The Boy and the Dryad," the gift of his widow. Two large full-length portraits of William Alexander, Archbishop of Armagh, and his wife, belonged to the late Archbishop. Kennedy died at St. Ives, Cornwall, on 17th January, 1898.
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