Kathleen Marescaux | |
---|---|
Born | Kathleen Dennis 14 April 1868 |
Died | 14 April 1944 Kilkenny, Ireland | (aged 75)
Nationality | Irish citizenship |
Spouse | Gerald Marescaux |
Kathleen Marescaux (3 July 1868 – 14 April 1944), born Kathleen Louisa Rose Dennis, was an Irish artist, best known as a painter of botanical subjects and rural landscapes.
Kathleen Louisa Rose Dennis was born in Kilkenny, the daughter of James Benjamin Dennis and Emma Salmon Dennis.[1] Her father was a military officer, and her mother was born in India, into an English military family.[2]
Marescaux was best known for painting botanical subjects and rural landscapes.[3] She first exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1893, and continued there until 1935. Her works were also seen at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne,[4] and in shows with the Dublin Sketching Club, the WCSI, the Fine Art Society (London) and the Ulster Academy of Arts.[5]
Kathleen Dennis married London-born Royal Navy officer (later Vice-Admiral) Gerald Charles Adolphe Marescaux at St. Canice's Cathedral in 1894.[1][6] She had two sons, Geoffrey (1901-1986) and Laurence (born 1903).[2] Kathleen Marescaux was widowed in 1920,[7] and she died in 1944, in Kilkenny, aged 75 years. There is a collection of her papers, and another of her family's papers, in the National Library of Ireland.[8][9]
In 2009, to mark the 400th anniversary of Kilkenny as a city, the Butler Gallery held "Kilkenny: An Artists Celebration", an exhibition featuring Kilkenny artists, including Kathleen Marescaux.[10]
Marescaux is associated with Bonnettstown House in Kilkenny, through her son, Commander Geoffrey Marescaux de Saubruit, and through her sister, Ethel Mary Dennis Knox. A book about Bonnettstown House was published in 1989 by American photographer Andrew Bush and author Mark Haworth-Booth.[11] The house was sold most recently in 2017.[12]