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Early life and Career

Little to nothing is known of Dublin born painter Joseph Malachy Kavanaghs’ family background. He was born in 1856 and went on to have his first exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy. He was a free student at the Dublin Metropolitan school of art. He went on to win the grundy prize in 1877. Kavanagh and his friend Walter Osbourne were both students of Augustus Burke. It seemed that Burke greatly impacted both of their works as he painted impressionistic paintings in Brittany. Kavanagh then went on to study in Antwerp (1881) in the Academie Royale where he was subsequently awarded the Albert scholarship. Kavanagh, Osbourne and Nathaniel Hill studied there under the tutelage of Charles Verlat (1824-90)

The three artists enrolled in Verlat's "Nature" course while it was being taught there. The three then focused on landscape painting in Brittany and Normandy the next year after taking Verlat's "Life" figure drawing workshop. In contrast to French impressionism, Kavanagh was identifying with the more traditional realist style of the Hague school, as shown in his picture "Old convent gate, Dinan." The National Gallery of Ireland currently houses this naturalist masterpiece. Kavanagh continued to work with the RHA while remaining in France until 1887. He also occasionally made contributions to the Royal Academy in London.

In 1887, Kavanagh moved to Clontarf when he returned to Dublin, and it was then that he began to concentrate on painting beaches, dunes, waterways, and coastal scenes. He was swiftly chosen as an associate member of the RHA in 1889 after returning home and as a full member in 1892. He afterwards relocated to Blackrock, where he was named Keeper of the RHA and later settled down in their Lower Abbey Street residence.

Joseph Malachy Kavanagh - Gipsy Encampment on the Curragh