Brian Fallon recalls the eventful life and career of Dairine Vanston, a talented painter for whom commercial success remained sadly elusive
Dairine Vanston (1903–1988), in my own experience, was always called Doreen in conversation, though the more foreign-sounding version was generally the one which appeared in exhibition catalogues. A short, rather round-faced woman, she was of Dutch descent and looked it, though she also looked like what, in fact she was – an Anglo-Irish gentlewoman of the old school. Her manners were formal, her accent impeccably what used to be called ‘Protestant’. She was an acutely private person and even when I knew her first, which was several decades ago, appeared to have a very limited circle of friends. Her world had contracted inwards and, in the Dublin art circles of the time, she was a survivor rather than a contemporary
