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John F. Kelly, Irish, b.1921
Title: Portrait of James Geiran
Date: 1981
Medium: Oil on canvas
Signed: lower right: John F. Kelly '81 (lower right)
Credit Line: Presented, the Geiran family, 2015
Object Number: NGI.2015.34
DescriptionJim Geiran was employed as an attendant at the NGI in 1948 at the age of twenty-five. He remained on the staff for some thirty-eight years, ascending to the position of Head Attendand, and lived on the premises with his wife and seven children, two of whom were born there. In a letter to Geiran on his retirement in 1986, former Director James White wrote that 'by the fact that you were always there, day and night, you gave [the Gallery] an air of homeliness and a feeling of warmth and your friendliness and readiness to help were an invaluable part in the creation of that atmosphere for which the Gallery became noted'. This painting, which featured in the RHA annual exhibition in 1981, hung above Geiran's own fireplace for many years.
Exhibition HistoryAnnual Exhibition, RHA, Dublin, 1981