Born in Canada to Irish immigrant parents, John Kavanagh’s name is first mentioned in Cleveland’s historical record in 1875, listed as a phographic printer. Two years later he advertised himself as an artist. After studying briefly at the National Academy of Design in New York, he returned to Cleveland and established a reputation as a crayon portrait artist. From 1882 to 1884 he lived in Munich, studying with genre painters Nikolaus Gysys and Ludwig von Löffitz. Kavanagh returned to Cleveland for two years, where he held a week-long solo exhibition at the James F. Ryder Gallery before leaving for Paris, where he studied under Gustave-Rodolphe Boulanger and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre at the Académie Julian. Kavanagh showed in the annual Paris Salon exhibitions (1887–89) and made summer excursions to Fontainbleau to paint landscapes. Back in Cleveland in 1889, he became director of the Art Club, where he taught portraiture and figure painting. Despite the visibility of his work, a lack of patronage left him destitute. In 1898 he was forced to sell the entire contents of his studio by public drawing. Kavanagh died the following month.
"Transformations in Cleveland Art" (CMA, 1996), p. 232.