Gladys Hynes
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Though largely forgotten today, Gladys Hynes (1888–1958) was a pioneering artist whose life and work reflect the radical, turbulent and often contradictory currents of the first half of the twentieth century
Born in India to Irish and English ancestry, Gladys Hynes was not only a gifted painter, sculptor, illustrator and designer but also a radical—pacifist, feminist, suffragist and Irish Republican. Over five decades, she produced an exceptional body of work that engaged with the key movements of her time, ranging from the Newlyn School and Omega Workshops to Vorticism and Surrealism.
Hynes moved in an extraordinary circle of creative, intellectual and political figures. Among her closest friends were fellow artists and writers Mary Butts, Nina Hammett, Laura Knight, Gluck and Dod Procter; in Irish politics, Desmond and Mabel FitzGerald and Capt. Jack White. Her greatest and most influential friendship was with the controversial and avant-garde poet Ezra Pound, whose Cantos she illustrated. These intellectual and artistic exchanges significantly shaped Hynes’s life and development as an artist.
Hynes’s legacy has been almost entirely overlooked. By shedding light on her artistic achievements, activism and feminist vision, this biography seeks to restore Hynes to her rightful place within the modernist canon as a remarkable woman whose influence, long neglected, is now ripe for rediscovery.
Born in India to Irish and English ancestry, Gladys Hynes was not only a gifted painter, sculptor, illustrator and designer but also a radical—pacifist, feminist, suffragist and Irish Republican. Over five decades, she produced an exceptional body of work that engaged with the key movements of her time, ranging from the Newlyn School and Omega Workshops to Vorticism and Surrealism.
Hynes moved in an extraordinary circle of creative, intellectual and political figures. Among her closest friends were fellow artists and writers Mary Butts, Nina Hammett, Laura Knight, Gluck and Dod Procter; in Irish politics, Desmond and Mabel FitzGerald and Capt. Jack White. Her greatest and most influential friendship was with the controversial and avant-garde poet Ezra Pound, whose Cantos she illustrated. These intellectual and artistic exchanges significantly shaped Hynes’s life and development as an artist.
Hynes’s legacy has been almost entirely overlooked. By shedding light on her artistic achievements, activism and feminist vision, this biography seeks to restore Hynes to her rightful place within the modernist canon as a remarkable woman whose influence, long neglected, is now ripe for rediscovery.
Sacha Llewellyn is a Paris-based art historian, curator, writer, and journalist, known for her work in recovering and recontextualizing overlooked 20th-century women artists. Through pioneering exhibitions such as Winifred Knights (2016), Fifty Works by Fifty British Women Artists (2017), and Surrealism au Féminin (2023), she has played a role in reshaping the narratives surrounding modern art, challenging traditional historiographies. Jennifer FitzGerald was a Senior Lecturer in the School of English, Queen’s University Belfast, and currently has honorary status as Adjunct Faculty in Women’s Studies at San Diego State University. She has published two short biographical articles (2021, 2009) on her grandfather, Desmond FitzGerald (1888-1947), Irish revolutionary and politician, friend and correspondent of Gladys Hynes. In 2012 she published a joint biography of Irish medievalists, Helen Waddell and Maude Clarke: Irishwomen, Friends and Scholars. Sean Mark is Maître de conférence(Associate Professor) in English at the Université Catholique de Lille, where he teaches literature and translation. He has previously held positions at Sorbonne Université, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne, and Cergy Paris Université. He has edited and translated two books by contemporary Italian poets, and his translations have appeared in the Italian Poetry Review and InVerse.