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| Rosamond Praegar |
Rosamond Praeger was born in Holywood, County Down, and was educated at Sullivan School, Holywood, the School of Art, Belfast, and the Slade School, London. Before returning to Ireland to open a studio in Belfast and then in Holywood, she studied art in Paris. She wrote and illustrated children's books, but achieved fame with her sculpture 'The Philosopher' which was exhibited in the Royal Academy, bought by an American collector, and is now on display in the Colorado Springs Museum and Art Gallery. She mostly worked in plaster, but also used stone, marble, terracotta and bronze, and her work included relief panels, memorial plaques and stones. She exhibited in London and Paris, at the Royal Hibernian Academy, as well as at the Irish Decorative Art Association Exhibitions. She was a member of the Guild of Irish Art Workers. Among her other works are 'The Waif'; 'Johnny the Jig'; 'These Little Ones'; 'St Brigid of Kildare' and 'The Fairy Fountain'. For the Causeway School near Bushmills, County Antrim, she carved 'Fionnula the Daughter of Lir' in stone. She modelled a heraldic figure for the Northern Bank in Donegall Square West, Belfast, and bronze plaques for the front door of the Carnegie Library, Falls Road, Belfast, as well as the angels on Andrews Memorial Hall in Comber, County Down, and some work in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast. She illustrated three books fro her brother, Robert Praeger. She was President of the Royal Ulster Academy, and she received an honorary doctorate from Queen's University, Belfast. In 1939 she was awarded the MBE.
