KELLY, Sir Gerald Festus 1879-1972. Portrait painter. Gerald Kelly was the only son of Frederic Festus Kelly, an Irish priest who would become vicar of St Giles, Camberwell, where the young Kelly grew up. The family’s fortunes derived from his grandfather, also named Frederic Festus Kelly, who was the founder of Kelly’s Directories. During his childhood in Camberwell he went often to the Dulwich Picture Gallery and would visit throughout his life. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge and later studied art in Paris where he met many of the Impressionists including Monet, Cezanne and Renoir, with Rodin being a particular mentor. He became a portrait painter and kept a studio at the family home in Camberwell. Kelly travelled through Spain, America, South Africa, and Burma, the latter inspiring a series of paintings of Burmese dancers. In 1920 he married Lilian Ryan, who became his model for a series of portraits. Other sitters included TS Eliot, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Somerset Maugham and he became a favourite painter of the Royal Family, painting King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. He spent much of WW2 at Windsor Castle where he came into contact with Dr Johannes Hell, who was cleaning pictures int he Royal Collection, and who Kelly would later employ to clean pictures at Dulwich Picture Gallery. In 1944 Kelly was appointed by the Royal Academy as its representative on the Dulwich College Picture Gallery committee (as the Dulwich Picture Gallery was then known. Kelly was knighted in 1945 and in the same year was made Surveyor of the Dulwich Collection. In 1949 he was elected President of the Royal Academy. He died in 1972.
