Sarah Purser

At thirteen, she attended the Moravian school, Institution Evangélique de Montmirail, Switzerland, where she learnt to speak fluent French and began painting. In 1873, her father's business failed, and she decided to become a full-time painter. She attended classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. She joined the Dublin Sketching Club, where she was later appointed an honorary member. In 1874, she distinguished herself in the National Competition. In 1878, she again contributed to the RHA, and for the next fifty years became a regular exhibitor, mainly of portraits, and showed an average of three works per show.

From 1878 to 1879, she studied at the Académie Julian in Paris where she met the German painter Louise Catherine Breslau, with whom she became a lifelong friend.

Sarah Purser became wealthy through astute investments, particularly in Guinness, for which several of her male relatives had worked over the years. She was very active in the art world in Dublin and was involved in the setting up of the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, persuading the Irish government to provide Charlemont House in Parnell Square to house the gallery.

She had a studio at 11 Harcourt Terrace where she lived from 1887 to 1909.

She was the second woman to sit on the Board of Governors and Guardians, National Gallery of Ireland, 1914–1943.

She was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1890; the first female Associate Member in 1923, and the first female Member in 1924. In 1924, she initiated the movement for the launching of the Friends of the National Collection of Ireland.