Lot 244: Darius Joseph MacEgan (1856-1939) Kevin O'Higgins

Darius Joseph MacEgan (1856-1939) Kevin O'Higgins pencil
signed ""MacEgan"" and dated [1922] lower right, signed and inscribed with title on backing board
46 by 36cm., 18 by 14in.
Provenance:
A. Bassi, Wellington Quay framing label on reverse; Private collection
A scarce contemporaneous portrait of Kevin O'Higgins, Minister for Justice in the Irish Free State government, who was assassinated in 1926.
Darius Joseph MacEgan, also known as "The MacEgan" (he was the last of a line of direct descendents of the clan MacEgan), was born in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary. He studied at the School of Art in Dublin and later in London, and first exhibited at the RHA in 1881. The Gorry Gallery held a memorial exhibition of his work in 1940.