Born: 1853, Ireland
Died: 27 January 1930
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Mary Ruth Manning
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Stefanie P. Jones. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Mary Ruth (‘May’) Manning (1853–1930), landscape and figure painter, was born in Dublin. She was an artist of some accomplishment, having studied in Paris during the 1870s with Louise Breslau and Sarah Purser. Her medium was oil and watercolour, and during the period 1880–92 she exhibited in the Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham; the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; the RHA, Dublin; and Brussels. Save for a brief period spent in Hampstead, London (1889–92), May permanently settled in the family home on Ely Place in 1880. She and one of her sisters ran a studio that offered art lessons for young girls not eligible to enter the RHA; May encouraged many of her students to study in Paris and played a prominent role in the development of several female artists at the turn of the century, including Mary Swanzy. Teaching took precedence over her own work, hence the infrequency of her exhibitions; but she continued to practice her craft and in 1885 became a member of the Dublin Sketching Club. Neither she nor her sisters ever married; May lived with her father till his death, and remained in his home for several years after before settling (1905) on Winton Road, Leeson Park, Dublin, with at least two of her sisters, where she died on 27 January 1930. Her oil painting of a landscape and setting sun hangs in the NGI and her ‘Study of a boy’ (also in oil) in Dublin City Gallery (The Hugh Lane).