Down County Museum Receives Donation From Landscape Painter John Breakey

Down County Museum recently received a donation of an original piece from landscape artist John Breakey. Mr Breakey presented the original artwork entitled, An Angry Sea, A Day of Grey (2013) to Victoria Millar, Keeper of Collections at the Museum.

Born in Belfast in 1932, Mr Breakey studied painting and lithography at Belfast College of Art in the 1950s. The painter Tom Carr (1909-1999) was one of his lecturers who helped him to gain admission to the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Mr Breakey remained there until 1960, when he returned briefly to Northern Ireland to teach. However, he soon went back to London, where he taught and continued painting.

In 1973, after a decade in London, Mr Breakey returned to Northern Ireland and settled in Newcastle, County Down. Since moving to Newcastle, the Mourne Mountains and the sea have dominated his subject matter.

An exhibitor in many solo and group exhibitions since the late 1950’s, Mr Breakey was elected an academician of the Royal Ulster Academy. His work is now in many prestigious collections including the Ulster Museum, Monaghan Museum and universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, London, Dublin and Queens University Belfast. The Arts Council, the Department of Finance and Personnel Northern Ireland and many private collections throughout the world also hold examples of his work.

Speaking of the donation, Down District Council Chairman, Cllr Billy Walker said: “We are extremely grateful for Mr Breakey’s generous offer to the Museum. We have a number of prints bought for the collection by Mr Breakey, such as The Summer of 83 (1983) and Sea at Murlough (1995). However, this is the first original artwork that we have been given. The donation significantly enhances our collection of artworks by John Breakey as well as the fine art collection as a whole. ”