Fr Jack Hanlon was born in Dublin in 1913 and educated at Belvadere College, University College Dublin, Holy Cross College, Cloniffe and Maynooth College, where he was ordained in 1939. From his earliest years he was an enthusiastic gardener and painter, exhibiting for the first time in The Royal Hibernian Academy at the age of 21. He was exposed to artistic life in Dublin and abroad, working with Henrietta Healy in Dublin in the late 1920’s, in London for a period and had a spell in the studio of Andre Lhote in Paris, while he also was favoured with advice from Henri Matisse. In 1939 he was an exhibitor at the New York World Fair, had his first one man show in the Victor Waddington Gallery Dublin in 1941 and exhibited at the Watercolour Society of Ireland for nearly three decades. In 1946 this priest-painter, was a member of the first executive committee of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art and became a regular exhibitor. In 1948 he won a bronze medal at the Olympic Games art section in London. While in 1950, he created a mural for the Irish Pavilion in the Chicago World Fair. He produced many paintings for religious congregations in Ireland and vestments, made in 1957 from his designs, were presented by the Irish Government to Pope Pius XII. Solo shows at the Dawson Gallery followed and in 1962, he was awarded the President Hyde Gold Medal at the Oireachtas Exhibition. Outside of Ireland, he had one man exhibitions in Paris, Brussels and Venezuela and more than fifty of his sketchbooks are in the National Gallery of Ireland.