Frances Kelly was one of the most accomplished Irish painters of her generation, a specialist in still life who also painted murals for significant Dublin institutions including a city hospital and the Russell Hotel.

She studied at Dublin’s Metropolitan School of Art and, having won a travel scholarship, continued her studies in Paris from 1932 to 1935. She competed in the painting section of the arts competition at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games, submitting a portrait of Hayes Dockrell – a water polo Olympian at the 1928 Amsterdam Games who later became a distinguished orthopaedic surgeon.

Her husband was Frederick Boland, the prominent Irish diplomat who served as Irish Ambassador to Britain and as the first Irish Ambassador to the United Nations. Their daughter was the poet and author Eavan Boland (1944-2020).