The black gate

Norah McGuinness won a three year scholarship to study at the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, under the stained-glass artist Harry Clarke, in 1921. In 1924 she won the Royal Dublin Society medal and went onto produce costume designs for the Abbey Theatre during the 1920s. In 1929 she went to study in Paris under André Lhote. She settled in London during the 1930s but returned to Dublin in 1940. In 1950 she represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale, and her work was included in the Contemporary Irish Painting exhibition which toured North America in 1951. She was elected an honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Gallery in 1957 but resigned in 1969. A retrospective exhibition including over one hundred works was held at Trinity College, Dublin in 1968.
(see T. Snoddy, Dictionary of Irish Artists 20th Century, Dublin, 1996, p. 294-6).