Born: 23 December 1890, United States
Died: 13 April 1973
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Flora Jameson
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Rebecca Minch. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Mitchell, Flora Hippisley (1890–1973), painter, was born 23 December 1890 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, eldest child of Arthur J. C. Mitchell, manager director of the Anglo-American Cattle Co., originally from Devonshire, and his wife Margaret (m. March 1890; née Hippisley?). As a consequence of the Sioux rising the family came to Ireland in the early 1890s, where they had had links with the Jamesons of Dublin. Flora’s uncle Alfred Mitchell worked in the Jameson maltings in Drogheda. Arthur Mitchell took up a post at the Jameson distillery in Smithfield, Dublin, and in the summers before the first world war the family enjoyed holidays at the Jameson shooting lodge in Co. Wicklow. Flora was educated at Princess Helena College, Ealing, London (1906–8), where her artistic talent was soon evident and she won a number of prizes. In 1910 she enrolled as a student at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, and developed what was to become her familiar style: meticulous pencil drawings highlighted in india ink and finally painted with watercolour, a technique well suited to the topographical, architectural, and urban subjects on which she had already begun to concentrate. During the first world war she was involved in voluntary work in Dublin. A remarkably vivid description of the 1916 rising is to be found in a letter (NLI, MS 24553) written to her by her mother during Easter week from the family home in Herbert Park, Donnybrook, in which she recounts the family’s horror at the destruction in the city and their support for the British forces. In 1919 Mitchell went to Canada to take up a private teaching post, but by the later 1920s she had returned to Dublin. In 1929 she contributed illustrations to A book of Dublin.
It was in the 1950s that she began to devote herself to painting in earnest. The first exhibition of her work was held at the Dublin Painters’ Gallery, St Stephen’s Green, in 1955. In 1957 she exhibited for the first time at the RHA, and she continued to do so annually till 1970. An intrepid traveller, she based her work on initial pencil sketches made in situ which, with the aid of notes as to colour, were finished at her home. Though she painted in the west of Ireland and abroad, she is best known for her views of Dublin, a selection of which she published in Vanishing Dublin (1966). This book has now become a valuable collector’s item, the original plates having been destroyed after publication. It is an important visual document of the appearance of Dublin at a time of huge change. Indeed, the work was in part motivated by her desire to record buildings and streetscapes that were being irrevocably changed by new development, and to contribute to the emerging campaign to protect the city’s heritage. The entries that accompany each plate contain a wealth of historical and anecdotal information and comments on the often harsh contemporary social conditions. The well ordered images themselves, however, do not convey any strong sense of poverty or urban decay; rather, the artist was concerned with capturing architectural details and the aesthetic qualities of composition. In an historical context her views of Dublin may be seen in a tradition that goes back to the eighteenth century and the work of James Malton. Comparisons may also be made with the work of her contemporary Harry Kernoff. Such comparisons highlight the uncontrived intimacy of her approach as in ‘The Four Courts seen from Cook Street’, which is presented in just the way it would be seen by the pedestrian. While the quality of her work is at times uneven, she had a fine eye for composition. In ‘Custom House with the last of the Arklow schooners’, the prow of the ship in the foreground is cleverly used as a framing device, while in ‘St Audeon’s gate’ the deep shadow of the huge arch contrasts dramatically with the light on the steps and the colours of the figures’ clothing.
She married (1930) William George Jameson; 1851–1939), vice-commodore of Royal St George’s Yacht Club, Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire), Co. Dublin, and great-grandson of William Jameson, the distiller. They had no children, and lived at St Marnock’s, Co. Dublin. Her husband’s sister, Magdalen Anne (1841–1919), had been the wife of the painter Nathaniel Hone. Despite ever greater difficulties with her mobility, this indomitable and independent woman continued to make artistic forays to the end of her life. She died 13 April 1973 at her home, Alloa, in Killiney, Co. Dublin. The NGI holds a large collection of her work (including the original watercolours for Vanishing Dublin), which was presented by the Jameson family after her death. In 1999 the exhibition ‘Flora Mitchell, views of Dublin’ was held at the NGI.