KENNEDY, Archbishop Dr. Thomas F. (1911)
Description:
Half-length wearing a ferriola, standing, leaning against a wall, facing towards a landscape on the right. Oil on canvas, 47.1/4″ x 33.1/2″ (120 cm x 85 cm). Signed and dated lower left ‘A. Muller-Ury 1911.’
Location:
North American College, Rome, Italy (Graduate House, Via dell’Umiltà)
Kennedy was born on March 23, 1858. He was appointed domestic prelate to Pope Leo XIII on December 16, 1901. He was professor of theology at Overbrook Seminary in Philadelphia before he was created Prothontary apostolic by Pope Pius X on March 15, 1904; in 1901 he became the Rector of the North American College in Rome, in which position he distinguished himself. He became titular bishop of Adrianopolis on November 30th, 1907, and was promoted to titular Archbishop of Seleucia in Isauria on June 17, 1915. He had a stroke and was ill for two years before he died on August 28, 1917, hoping always that he would get well enough to return to America which was impossible because of the First World War.
This portrait may have been painted when Muller-Ury was in Rome painting the portrait of Pope Pius X which is now the property of the Catholic University in Washington D. C.
The editor is grateful to the late Monsignor Charles Elmer (1923-2011) for assistance with this entry.
