Kathleen Marescaux

Kathleen Marescaux
Born	Kathleen Dennis (1868-04-14)14 April 1868 Kilkenny, County Kilkenny, Ireland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Died	14 April 1944(1944-04-14) (aged 75) Kilkenny, Ireland
Nationality	Irish citizenship
Spouse	Gerald Marescaux

Kathleen Marescaux (3 July 1868 – 14 April 1944), born Kathleen Louisa Rose Dennis, was an Irish artist, best known as a painter of botanical subjects and rural landscapes.

Early life

Kathleen Louisa Rose Dennis was born in Kilkenny, the daughter of James Benjamin Dennis and Emma Salmon Dennis.[1] Her father was a military officer, and her mother was born in India, into an English military family.[2]

Art

Marescaux was best known for painting botanical subjects and rural landscapes.[3] She first exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1893, and continued there until 1935. Her works were also seen at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne,[4] and in shows with the Dublin Sketching Club, the WCSI, the Fine Art Society (London) and the Ulster Academy of Arts.[5]

Personal life

Kathleen Dennis married London-born Royal Navy officer (later Vice-Admiral) Gerald Charles Adolphe Marescaux at St. Canice's Cathedral in 1894.[1][6] She had two sons, Geoffrey (1901-1986) and Laurence (born 1903).[2] Kathleen Marescaux was widowed in 1920,[7] and she died in 1944, in Kilkenny, aged 75 years. There is a collection of her papers, and another of her family's papers, in the National Library of Ireland.[8][9]

In 2009, to mark the 400th anniversary of Kilkenny as a city, the Butler Gallery held "Kilkenny: An Artists Celebration", an exhibition featuring Kilkenny artists, including Kathleen Marescaux.[10]

Bonnettstown House

Marescaux is associated with Bonnettstown House in Kilkenny, through her son, Commander Geoffrey Marescaux de Saubruit, and through her sister, Ethel Mary Dennis Knox. A book about Bonnettstown House was published in 1989 by American photographer Andrew Bush and author Mark Haworth-Booth.[11] The house was sold most recently in 2017.[12]

References

1. "Person Page: Kathleen Louisa Rose Dennis". The Peerage. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
2. Burke, Bernard; Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1 January 1912). A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Ireland. Dalcassian Publishing Company. pp. 177–178.
3. Butler, Patricia (2000). Irish botanical illustrators & flower painters. Antique Collectors' Club. p. 82. ISBN 9781851493579.
4. "Art at Eastbourne". The Observer. 20 August 1933. p. 17. Retrieved 29 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
5. Biography Archived 5 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
6. "Marescaux-Dennis". The Courier and Argus. 24 September 1894. p. 6. Retrieved 29 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
7. Morley, James. "Vice Admiral Gerald Charles Adolphe Marescaux Royal Navy. Died Friday 3 September 1920". A Street Near You. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
8. Marescaux, Kathleen. "Documents relating to Kathleen Marescaux and her artwork". Catalogue, National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
9. "Documents relating to the Dennis family of Fortgranite, Co. Wicklow, and Newton House, Kilkenny, and the related Marescaux family and Knox family of Bonnettstown Hall, Kilkenny and their descendants". Catalogue, National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
10. "Kilkenny 400: An Artist's Celebration". Butler Gallery. 17 October 2009. Archived from the original on 29 March 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
11. Bush, Andrew. (1989). Bonnettstown. New York: H.N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-0748-8. OCLC 17650625.
12. Tipton, Gemma. "Kilkenny manor with an attic fit for a princess". The Irish Times. Retrieved 29 March 2020.

External links

• "Dennis of Fort Granite, Co. Wicklow" Turtle Bunbury. A family history blogpost about the extended Dennis family, including a photograph of Kathleen Dennis Marescaux.
• Photographs of her husband, Gerard Charles Adolphe Marescaux, in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.