Sir Gerald Festus Kelly

Gerald Festus Kelly (1879-1972) was one of the leading London society portraitists of his day. This may be one of his earliest portraits of an artist’s model whom he married in 1920. Her name was Lilian Ryan but Kelly gave her the sobriquet ‘Jane’ and painted her more than fifty times, exhibiting a portrait titled Jane every year at the Royal Academy, of which he served as President from 1949 to 1954. When Queen Mary was introduced to her, she exclaimed "Jane, of the many Janes!" such was the fame and familiarity of the portraits.