John Francis Kavanagh
Other names: ARCA, ARBS, Prix de Rome (Sculpture), NS
Born 24 September 1903
Died 1985
Active: 1933 - 1985
Country of birth: Ireland
Country of death: New Zealand
Sculptor, painter
Born in Birr, County Offaly, Ireland. Kavanagh began his training at Liverpool School of Art in 1920–1 and won a Scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1925. He studied there between 1925 and 1930 under Ernest Cole, Henry Moore and Gilbert Ledward. Kavanagh also named Charles Sargeant Jagger as one of his teachers. In 1930 Kavanagh won the Rome Scholarship in Sculpture and was at the British School in Rome from 1930–3.
Between 1933 or 1934 and 1939 Kavanagh was Head of the School of Sculpture and Modelling, also teacher of stone and marble carving and letter cutting in the School of Industrial Design and Crafts at Leeds College of Art. He joined the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1935 and remained a member until 1945. Kavanagh's commissions included the corner figures and reliefs for Walthamstow Town Hall (1940) and a Madonna and Child for the Catholic Hospital, Lambeth Road, London (c.1944 based on a work exhibited at the Royal Academy that year). His portrait of a 'Russian Peasant', 1935-39 was presented to the Tate Gallery by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest in 1943. This was one of about a dozen works of 'peasant types' that Kavanagh made in the 1930s and which were lost during the Second World War.
He was appointed as a senior lecturer at Elam Fine Art School, University of Auckland, New Zealand, in 1951. He and his wife settled in New Zealand and he died there in 1985. There was an exhibition of his work entitled 'John F. Kavanagh, Sculptor: An Exhibition of Sculpture and Models from the Collection of the Artist', at Auckland City Art Gallery, between August and October 1979, which was accompanied by a catalogue.
This record includes information from Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I, an entry on 'Russian Peasant' in the collection of Tate by Chris Stephens, available at http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kavanagh-russian-peasant-n05441/text-catalogue-entry (accessed 4 January 2014) and from 'The Sculptures, Paintings & Drawings of John Francis Kavanagh' by Gordon H. Brown, Art New Zealand, http://www.art-newzealand.com/Issues11to20/kavanagh.htm (accessed 4 January 2014).
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Wanda Tiburzzi
1938
Locations
Address 10 Mallord Street London | View on map
1936 (Circa) - 1946 (Circa)
This was Kavanagh's home address.
Address given as c/o James Bourlet and Sons Ltd. London | View on map
1957
Used when Kavanagh exhibited a bust of Dr. Douglas Robb at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1957, by which time he was living and working in New Zealand.
Studio located at British School at Rome Rome | View on map
1930 - 1933
Studio located at 5 St. Oswald's Studios London | View on map
1934 - 1936 (Circa)
Moved his studio from here to 4 Radnor Studios in 1936 or 1937.
Studio located at 4 Radnor Studios Radnor Street, King's Road London SW3 | View on map
1937 (Circa) - 1943 (Circa)
Based on information given by Kavanagh's wife to Tate, her husband also maintained a studio at his parents' home in Greencastle (no dates given). [See references to Margaret Kavanagh, letter to Tate Gallery, 1 May 1996, at http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kavanagh-russian-peasant-n05441/text-catalogue-entry (accessed 4 January 2014)]
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at Leeds City Art Gallery, Yorkshire Artists' Exhibition, 1935
Multiple works
Exhibited at The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts Eighty-Second Annual Exhibition, 1943
Multiple works
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1933 - 1957
Exhibited 9 times (quite regularly until 1946), eighteen works in all (chiefly portraits but also figure groups).
Exhibited at Palace of Arts Empire Exhibition Scotland, 1938
1938
Won prize The British School at Rome Scholarship in Sculpture
1930
Institutional and Business Connections
Associate member of Royal Society of British Sculptors
1935 - 1945
Became fellow in 1945.
Fellow of Royal Society of British Sculptors
8 March 1945 - 1971
Reinstated in the membership lists in 1963.
Head of department at Leeds College of Art
November 1933 - January 1939
Head of School of Sculpture and Modelling, also Teacher of Stone and Marble Carving and Letter Cutting in the School of Industrial Design and Crafts
Member of council Royal Society of British Sculptors
1940 - 1942
Unsuccessful in ballot for election to Royal Academy of Arts
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA], despite nominations in 1937, 1945 and 1952.
Personal and Professional Connections
Nominated by Henry Bishop
22 April 1937
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA]; unsuccessful.
Nominated by Thomas Cantrell Dugdale
22 April 1937 - January 1945
Two nominations for Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA], in 1937 and 1945, both unsuccessful.
Nominated by Alfred Frank Hardiman
22 April 1937
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA]; unsuccessful.
Nominated by William Goscombe John
22 April 1937
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA]; unsuccessful.
Nominated by Gilbert Ledward
22 April 1937 - February 1952
Three nominations for Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA], 1937-1952, all unsuccessful. Date of nomination not specified as 'start date' or 'end date': January 1945.
Nominated by Charles Thomas Wheeler
22 April 1937 - February 1952
Three nominations for Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA], 1937-1952, all unsuccessful. Date of nomination not specified as 'start date' or 'end date': January 1945.
Nominated by Sydney Lee
22 April 1937
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA]; unsuccessful.
Nominated by Edwin Landseer Lutyens
22 April 1937
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA]; unsuccessful.
Nominator of Herbert Harry Cawood
1943 (Presumed)
For membership of the Royal Society of British Sculptors
Sources
Catalogue of the Yorkshire Artists' Exhibition 1935
1935
Cat. Nos. 149, 150, pp. 5, 6
City of Leeds College of Art, Prospectus, 1935-6
1935 (Presumed)
pp. 4, 16, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27
City of Leeds College of Art, Prospectus, 1936-7
1936 (Presumed)
pp. 4, 5, 17, 19, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28
City of Leeds College of Art, Prospectus, 1937-8
1937 (Presumed)
pp. 4, 18, 20, 22, 26, 27
City of Leeds College of Art, Prospectus, 1938-9
1938 (Presumed)
pp. 4, 5, 19, 21, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30
List of Members: Royal Society of British Sculptors
2008
Palace of Arts
Empire Exhibition
Scotland
1938
The Fine Art Section of the Empire Exhibition
1938
P. 17 (137)
Royal Academy of Arts Nominations for Associateship, 1927-1938
1938
p.241.
Royal Academy of Arts Nominations for Associateship, c.1939-c.1961
1961 (Circa)
p.98.
The British School at Rome: one hundred years
2001
p. 211
The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Catalogue, 1943
1943
p. 25
Citing this record
'John Francis Kavanagh', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1217332018, accessed 01 Jun 2023]
