If walls could talk: Artist’s life paints a picture of turbulent history

Dr Paul O'Brien explores the life of an extraordinary, internationally-recognised artist whose family fled Russia and settled in Limerick, drawing parallels with the plight of Ukrainians forced to flee their homeland at the hands of the Russians in the present day

The Steyn family arrived in Ireland after fleeing the notorious and brutal Russian pogroms of the 1870s and 1880s. William Steyn and Bertha (née Jaffe) came from Kurland (between Latvia and Lithuania).

In Limerick, they lived at 27 Colooney Street [Wolfe Tone Street] with their three children, Harry, Isaac, and Mabel, all of whom were born in the city. A fourth child, Stella was born in Dublin in 1907.

William Steyn worked as a dentist and anaesthetist. From the 1870s, Wolfe Tone Street was home to a large Jewish community who lived in relative harmony with their neighbours. Indeed, the community founded two synagogues at No. 18 from 1889-1903 and No. 63 from 1903-1930.

However, on 11 January 1904, Father Creagh, of the Redemptorist Order, delivered a sermon against the Jews, accusing them of ritual murder, of blaspheming Jesus, and of robbing the people of Limerick. This led to a general boycott. It would appear that the principal ground for complaint against the Jews related to the "weekly-instalment plan" by which they frequently sold their goods. The boycott caused hardship among the Jews of Limerick. The Steyn family left Limerick prior to 1907 and almost certainly as a result of the increasing anti-Semitic rhetoric in their adoptive city.

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It is, therefore, all the more poignant that the family were forced into a second exile, this time in their adoptive country. They moved to Dublin and settled at 94 Ranelagh Road.

William and Bertha’s youngest daughter, Stella (pictured below circa 1930), was an accomplished artist who led an extraordinary life. She attended school at Alexandra College and subsequently studied at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (1924-26). While in Paris (1926-1930), she met Samuel Beckett, as well as James Joyce who asked her to illustrate Finnegan’s Wake. Stella described her work as ‘really like a piece of music, made up of colour and form’. In 1929, she exhibited in Manhattan with other Irish artists including Paul Henry, Harry Clarke, and Limerickman, Seán Keating.

In the 1930s, she travelled to Germany and enrolled in the Bauhaus in Dessau. The Bauhaus was an influential art and design movement that began in 1919 in Weimar, Germany. The movement encouraged teachers and students to pursue their crafts together in design studios and workshops.

It had a profound influence on twentieth century design. Stella’s teachers included Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee – giants of avant-garde artistic movements. Stella’s time at the Bauhaus greatly influenced her artistic style and it is believed that she was the only Irish artist to have studied at the school.

During her time in Germany, she witnessed the rise of the Nazi regime and its laws restricting the rights of Jewish people and other so-called enemies of the state. The Bauhaus was also banned under these laws. In 1934, Stella’s work was featured in another exhibition in New York, alongside John Lavery and Jack B. Yeats.

In 1938, Stella married David John Athole Ross (1911-1991), Professor of French at Birkbeck College. They lived near the British Museum in London and did not have any children.

Stella’s output for the 1940s was negligible, however, she recommenced painting in the 1950s and was represented in several exhibitions in the UK, Paris and the USA. She also worked in advertising, producing notable graphic designs for many large companies and fashionable magazines.

Stella Steyn’s enduring legacy underlines the significant contribution of migrants and refugees to society, especially in the context of culture and the arts.

Stella Ross (née Steyn) died at 33 Tavistock Square, London on 21 July 1987.

Dr Paul O’Brien lectures in Mary Immaculate College