Frances Beckett

Frances Beckett (1880-1951), Irish artist, was the paternal aunt of Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett. Her father was William Beckett and her brother William, one of four brothers, was Samuel Beckett's father.

Artistic life

Beckett studied art at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and in Paris at Colarossi's studio, where she went with Estella Solomons and Beatrice and Dorothy Elvery. In 1903 she exhibited with the Young Irish Artists group with the same group of friends. She exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy between 1897-1908. A portrait by her of Solomons, which had once belonged to Kathleen Goodfellow, is in the Model Niland collection in Sligo. Another work, a portrait of Israel Leventon is at the Irish Jewish Museum.

Personal life

Beckett, who was called Cissie, married an antique dealer called William 'the Boss' Sinclair. They lived in Howth and had several children one of whom, Ruth Margaret (1911–33), known as Peggy, was one of two women who are both identified as having been Samuel Beckett's 'first love', the other being poet and medical doctor Ethna McCarthy. In the early 1920s the Sinclairs went to live in Germany, where they were often visited by Samuel Beckett. Cissie is said to have fostered his artistic sensibilities. The Sinclairs' business interests suffered under the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Germany and they returned to Ireland.

Cissie Beckett found family life encroached on her artistic activities and she was further restricted in her work by arthritis towards the end of her life.