// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Ralph Cusack's brush say? "You brush me off
Ralph Cusack | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ralph Desmond Athanasius Cusack 28 October 1912 Portmarnock, County Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 20 July 1965 (aged 52) Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes, France |
| Education | Pembroke College, BA, 1934 |
| Occupations | |
| Movement | The White Stag Group |
| Spouse(s) |
Kira Heiseler (divorced)Nancy Sinclair Cusack |
| Children | 5 |
| Relatives | Sir Ralph Smith Cusack (great-grandfather) Mainie Jellett (cousin) |
Ralph Desmond Athanasius Cusack (28 October 1912 – 20 July 1965) was an Irish painter, stage designer, horticulturist and writer active in Ireland and France.[1][2][3][4]
Early life and education
[edit]Cusack was born on 28 October 1912 at Drumnigh House in Portmarnock to James Robert Roland Cusack, a banker and later stockbroker, and Eileen Cusack (née Watson).[1][5][6] Cusack was the great-grandson of Sir Ralph Smith Cusack and was the younger cousin of the painter Mainie Jellett.[1][2]
Educated at Arnold House and Charterhouse School, Cusack grew up in a wealthy Anglo-Irish Unionist family.[1] From 1931 to 1934, Cusack studied economics at Pembroke College, Cambridge.[1][2]
Career
[edit]In the mid 1930s Cusack moved to Menton, Alpes-Maritimes with his wife Kira Heiseler to help improve his Tuberculosis.[1][2] Largely self-taught, Cusack began painting and developed a Cubist style.[1][2] In May 1939, Cusack and Heiseler returned to Ireland.[1][2]
In 1940, Cusack was elected a member of Society of Dublin Painters and joined The White Stag Group the following year.[2][7] During 1942 to 1943, Cusack worked as a set designer with Anne Yeats.[3][8] In May 1943, Cusack help found the Irish Exhibition of Living Art.[1] In the late 1940s and early 1950s Cusack lived at Uplands House, Annamoe where he operated a horticultural business with his wife Nancy Sinclair Cusack.[1][8][9]
By 1950, Cusack had ceased to paint.[1][2] Cusack returned to France in 1954, and settled in Grasse in order to grow flowers for perfume.[2][8] In 1958, Cusack published his only novel Cadenza, an Excursion in Ireland and London.[4][8][10] The novel was subsequently published in the United States the following year.[10]
Personal life
[edit]In the 1930s, Cusack married Kira Heiseler before later divorcing in the mid 1940s.[1] Cusack and Heiseler had two children.[1]
Cusack later married Nancy Sinclair Cusack (née Sinclair), with whom he had 3 children.[1][11]
On 20 July 1965 died in Grasse, aged 52.[1]
Legacy
[edit]Anthony Cronin, who boarded for a time with the Cusack family, based the character of Sir George Dermot on Cusack for his 1964 novel The Life of Riley.[8]
Bibliography
[edit]- Cusack, Ralph (1958). Cadenza, an Excursion. London, UK: Hamish Hamilton.[1][8]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Hourican, Bridget; Dempsey, Pauric J. (February 2024). "Cusack, Ralph Desmond Athanasius". The Dictionary of Irish Biography. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. doi:10.3318/dib.002349.v1. Retrieved 1 May 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kennedy, S.B. (2005). "Biographical Notes of Principal White Stag Artists and Those Associated With Them". The White Stag Group. Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art. pp. 149–154. ISBN 1903811503. Retrieved 1 May 2026.
- 1 2 "Ralph Cusack 1912–1965". IMMA. Dublin, Ireland: Irish Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 1 May 2026.
- 1 2 "from Cadenza". Dalkey Archive. Funks Grove, Illinois: Dalkey Archive Press. 20 September 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2026.
- ↑ Pearson, Adam (Summer 2019). "An avant-garde". Irish Arts Review. 36 (2). Dublin, Ireland. Retrieved 1 May 2026.
- ↑ "Ralph Desmond Athanasius Cusack". Ireland, Civil Registration Births Index, 1864–1958 [database on-line]. 2 (Q4). Lehi, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.: 331 1912.
- ↑ Kennedy, S.B. (2005). "The White Stag Group". The White Stag Group. Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art. pp. 12–49. ISBN 1903811503. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Stewart, Bruce. "Ralph Cusack". Ricorso.net. Retrieved 1 May 2026.
- ↑ "Uplands House, Annamoe, County Wicklow". Rathdown: Wicklow's ancient heartland. Greystones, County Wicklow: Greystones Tidy Towns. Retrieved 1 May 2026.
- 1 2 Cusack, Ralph (1959). Cadenza, an Excursion. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin.
- ↑ "Cusack, Nancy Sinclair". Index to Samuel Beckett Letters. Atlanta, Georgia: Emory University. Retrieved 1 May 2026.
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