Roderic O'Connor

Roderic O’Connor, aka Roderic Montagu, was a French-born Irish-American noted as an impressionist painter and muralist, especially for his compositions of Roman architectural ruins, Venetian scenes, portraits, landscapes and still lifes. He was the son of the well-known American-Irish sculptor Andrew O’Connor, Jr. who had settled in Paris with his wife Jessie and their four sons Hector, Owen, Roderic and Patrick, who was also a noted artist and sculptor. Their grandfather was classical sculptor Andrew O’Connor, Sr. (1846-1924), who had taught his son the basic concepts of the art.

Roderic O’Connor first came to the US in 1914, then moved back to Europe and exhibited in London, Dublin, Paris, New York, and Florida, including the Societé des Artistes annual Salon exhibition in Paris in 1938, as well as other Paris Salons throughout his lifetime. He also had many portraits exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in Dublin, Ireland. Roderic typically would sign his paintings with only his first and middle names as “Roderic Montagu.” Throughout his career, Roderic maintained studios in Paris, Rome, and London, and in 1974 he and his wife Ruth Maxwell O’Connor settled in Palm Beach, Florida.