…playwright, poet and painter ‘AE’ [birth name: George Russell], 37, is writing to his Irish-American friend, art collector John Quinn, 34:
My exhibit has just opened and my heart is full of woe because I have sold over half of them the first day.”
AE has been drawing and painting for years, but this is his first exhibit. Its success means he will now have to actually think of himself as a professional painter. He continues…
I think I have sold 37 altogether and I believe I have beaten the record in Dublin for any show of the kind. I will hardly have a picture on my walls and I had grown fond of them.”
The Winged Horse, by AE, included in the 1904 exhibition
Despite his forlorn tone, AE was actually pleased to think he might have an alternative career to his work with the Irish National Theatre Society. Lately, the fights among the directors—William Butler Yeats, 39, Lady Augusta Gregory, 52, John Millington Synge, 33—had gotten nasty. AE had pulled out, but then been drawn back in to help re-organize the group into a limited company.
However, as he’d written to Quinn earlier this year,
I am always fighting with [Yeats], but if I hadn’t him to fight with it would make a great gap in my life.”
The Spirit of the Pool by AE, included in the 1904 exhibition
Thanks to our new ‘Such Friends’ at The New York Public Library (John Quinn Memorial Collection) for permission to quote from AE’s letter to John Quinn.
This year, we’ll be telling stories about these groups of ‘such friends,’ before, during and after their times together.
SuchFriends Blog 