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O N L L IA IN R E MATE 7 Irish Art in the 19th and 20th Centuries

On his return to Ireland in the late 1840s, he made John Hogan (1800–58) most of his living doing portrait work. There are Hogan lived and worked in Rome from 1824 to three fine marble portraits by Foley in Dublin City 1848, where his Sleeping Shepherd and Drunken Hall. The 5.5m O’Connell memorial (1843), the Faun made his reputation as a marble carver Drummond memorial (1843) (Fig. 7.1) and the of distinction. He created three versions of The Davis memorial (1852) are all draped in classical Redeemer in Death or The Dead Christ in flawless togas, as is the bronze O’Connell in the Crescent in Carrara marble. The 1829 carving is in St Teresa’s Limerick. Carmelite Church in Dublin. In 1833 he carved a version for St Finbarr’s (South) Church in Cork and in 1854 he produced one for the Basilica of St The Dead Christ John the Baptist in Newfoundland. Subject This is a life-size stone carving of the figure of

Fig. 7.1 Christ in a horizontal pose after his body was The marble taken down from the cross. This is a deliberately portrait sculpture emotional portrayal of the scene (Fig. 7.2). of John Drummond in Composition Dublin City Hall by John Hogan The body is laid out horizontally except for the head and shoulders, which have been raised to draw attention to the face.

Style Hogan worked in the Neo-Classical style. His sculptures featured emotional and dramatic poses in classical proportions, using draperies to add formality and movement.

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 1 Fig. 7.2 The Dead Christ, 1833, by John Hogan, marble sculpture, St Finbarr’s (South) Church, Cork

Technique and materials O’Connor worked hard as an artist all his life, exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London and the The work is in white Carrara marble, which has Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin. A Landscape: been used for sculpture since Roman times. It Homeward Bound (Fig. 7.3) is typical of the is a fully three-dimensional stone carving, finely scenes and genre pieces he painted for exhibition, finished in a realistic style. but he met with only moderate financial success and died in humble circumstances in Kensington. Influences Hogan had his early training in the newly opened School of Art in Cork. When he travelled to Rome he was greatly influenced by the Neo-Classical style, then popular in Europe. Most of his sculptures have classical drapery and are formally posed.

James Arthur O’Connor (1792–1841)

O’Connor was the son of an engraver and printseller in Dublin. His father’s collection of Dutch landscape prints may have influenced him in Fig. 7.3 A Landscape: Homeward Bound by his choice of subjects. He used dramatic light and James Arthur O’Connor, National Gallery of shadow in his work, which usually showed man as Ireland, Dublin insignificant in the face of nature.

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Fig. 7.4 Thunderstorm: The Frightened Wagoner, 1832, by James Arthur O’Connor, oil on canvas, 65cm x 76cm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Thunderstorm: The Style Frightened Wagoner O’Connor painted in the Romantic style, which emphasised emotion and drama. Subject Techniques The painting depicts a dark, dramatic landscape where a bolt of lightning lights up a horse and Smooth brushwork and careful detail, combined carriage in the middle ground (Fig. 7.4). The with dramatic contrasts in light and dark, are power of nature (God) is emphasised against the characteristics of O’Connor’s work. weakness of man. Influences Composition O’Connor was self-taught, but he was influenced This composition is based on the proportions of by Dutch landscape painting and the Romantic the rule of thirds. A large tree takes up the left- movement. hand third of the composition. The shying white horse makes the focal point where the lower third and the right-hand third meet. The lightning Frederick William breaking through the cloud and the raging river flowing under the bridge on the right-hand side Burton (1816–1900) are secondary elements to increase the drama Born in Corofin, Co. Clare, Burton trained in the of the unfolding story. Dublin Society Schools and exhibited with the

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 3 Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs

Subject This painting illustrates a scene from an old Danish ballad where forbidden lovers meet on the stairs of a castle, snatching an intimate moment (Fig. 7.6).

Fig. 7.5 The Aran Fisherman’s Drowned Child by Fredrick William Burton, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Royal Hibernian Academy from the age of 16. He worked for a few years as a miniaturist and travelled around Ireland with his friend George Petrie, drawing and painting watercolours of landscapes and scenes from the lives of the ordinary people. The Aran Fisherman’s Drowned Child (Fig. 7.5) was painted following a trip to the Aran Islands. He was among the first artists to visit the islands. Burton spent five years in Bavaria from 1851 working on the painting collection of Maximilian II. When he returned to London he became interested in the ideas of Ruskin and the Pre- Raphaelite movement. His most famous painting, Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs, is from this time.

In 1874 Burton was appointed Director of the Fig. 7.6 Helellil and Hilderbrand, the Meeting on National Gallery in London. He was so involved in the Turret Stairs, 1864, by Fredrick William Burton, watercolour on paper, 95.5cm x 60.8cm, National the development of the gallery that he had little Gallery of Ireland, Dublin time for painting in his later life.

4 APPRECIATING ART: section 1 – online material ONLINE MATERIAL ONLINE R A D LAN E R I N I ART Composition A diagonal movement from the top left-hand corner connects the faces and arms, drawing attention to the tender embrace. This is balanced by the angle of the sword. The two boldly coloured figures against the dark background dominate the space, but it is the movement that catches the eye.

Colour The rich ultramarine blue of Hellelil’s dress and the bold orange/red of Hildebrand’s patterned tunic have a wonderful impact against the muted browns and greys of the stone.

Style This painting is in the style of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: a detailed, realistic treatment of a romantic historical subject. Fig. 7.7 Feeding Pigeons, 1860, by Nathaniel Hone, National Technique and materials Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

This painting is a finely detailed watercolour, which After a few years working as an engineer, he Burton developed from a series of preparatory went to Paris in 1853 to study art in the ateliers sketches. It is painted in brilliant colours built up of Adolphe Yvon and, more importantly, Thomas in tiny brushstrokes, a technique he learned when Couture, who was a Romantic figure painter painting miniature portraits in his early career. He influenced by the new trends in Realism, led by used an opaque gouache paint in the highlights the artist Gustave Courbet. He had a conventional and to add texture on the armour and helmet. training, copying in the Louvre and drawing from the human figure. Couture emphasised drawing Influences and painting skills so that an artist could put down first impressions quickly and with confidence. Burton’s early work followed the then current interest in Irish tradition and culture. His later work In 1857 he moved to Barbizon near the Forest of was in the style of the Pre-Raphaelites. Fontainbleau, where he worked among the plein air painters, including Corot, Millet, Harpignies and Manet. Feeding Pigeons, 1860 (Fig. 7.7), is a Nathaniel Hone painting from this time, where the human figure (1831–1917) is still a feature. Hone’s later work rarely includes human figures. Born in Co. Dublin on the family estate, St Following his marriage in 1872, he spent most Dolough’s Park, Hone was well off and did not of his time in Ireland, though he still frequently need to make a living from his work, which travelled abroad. He exhibited at the Royal allowed him to follow his interests more freely.

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 5 Hibernian Academy and became a member of the from the nearest cow to the left of the horizon and academy in 1880. back up through the cloud shadow to the right of the format, emphasising the sense of space in the Hone lived on the family estate in Malahide in his painting. later life, where he found the subject matter for most of his work: landscapes, seascapes, boats and farming activities. He also taught at the Royal Colour Hibernian Academy, where he was an influence on Hone used subtle natural colours, often featuring a generation of Irish painters. the light and shade typical of the Irish climate. The dark green of the pasture in shadow contrasts with the bright light on the clouds. The eye is drawn to Pastures at Malahide the bright yellow ochre distance through the pale highlights of the cows. Subject Style A group of cows is lying in a summer pasture with a dramatic cloudscape in the background (Fig. 7.8). His mature work is in the plein air style that he had learned in France: simple landscapes freely Composition painted with attention paid to changing light and weather. A simple series of horizontals separate the land and sky. A series of low diagonals lead the eye

Fig 7.8 Pastures at Malahide, c. 1907, by Nathaniel Hone, oil on canvas, 82cm x 124cm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

6 APPRECIATING ART: section 1 – online material ONLINE MATERIAL ONLINE R A D LAN E R I N I ART Technique and materials the Taylor Scholarship in 1881 and 1882, which allowed him to study in Antwerp and spend a Hone made a lot of watercolour sketches directly year painting in Brittany. His Apple Gathering, from nature, but his exhibition pieces were Quimperlé (Fig. 7.9) is from this time, a scene in completed in the studio in oil paint on canvas. the plein air style, in gentle autumn light, of girls His brushwork was quick and vigorous, using the gathering apples. thickness of the paint for textures and description of form and volume. As his work developed, Osborne’s style became looser and was moving towards Impressionism.

Influences Osborne was a popular and successful portrait Hone’s early training with Couture gave him the painter – it was an important part of his living. His skills and confidence to work quickly. He used these final unfinished work, Tea in the Garden, in the Hugh skills to capture the effects of light and nature he Lane Municipal Gallery, shows that his style was learned with the Barbizon artists he met in France. becoming more Impressionistic before his sudden death from pneumonia at the age of 44.

Walter Osborne In a Dublin Park, Light and (1859–1903) Shade Educated at the Royal Hibernian Academy schools, Osborne won many prizes as a student, including Subject This group of figures is an allegory for life, from babyhood to old age (Fig. 7.10). It is unsentimental. The mother figure looks tired and unwell and no one looks well off or jolly. It is an observation of the lives of ordinary people in Dublin in the 1890s.

Composition The line of faces is about one-third down from the top of the format, and the figures of the man and woman are each about one-third in from the sides, but it is the use of light that mainly draws our focus to the faces of the characters.

Style There is a mixture of styles in this painting. It is a genre piece because of its subject. It is in the plein air style through the observation of light and nature and it is approaching the Impressionist style in the Fig. 7.9 Apple Gathering, Quimperlé by Walter Osborne, free brushwork and the observation of light. National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 7 Fig. 7.10 In a Dublin Park, Light and Shade, 1890s, by Walter Osborne, oil on canvas, 71cm x 91cm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Technique and materials the plein air style he discovered in France. His friendship with English artists and visits to France From his early work in Brittany, Osborne was broadened his experience and gave him a taste for interested in the effects of light. In this oil painting a more modern style. on canvas, he contrasts deep shadow with white highlights, literally spotlighting points of interest. Large brush marks quickly applied are William John Leech characteristic of Osborne’s later work, while none of the accuracy is lost. (1881–1968)

Leech studied at the Metropolitan School and the Colour Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin under Walter The colours are natural. He used warm earth colours Osborne before going to Paris, where he was and bright greens in the sunlit areas, contrasting influenced by the Post-Impressionists. He moved to these with browns, dark greens and black in the Brittany in 1903 and lived at Concarneau for a few shadows. These are the colours of the plein air years. He continued to visit France throughout style, rather than the spectrum colours of the his life. Impressionists. The skin tones are in earth colours, Leech exhibited in Dublin and Paris throughout his sienna and ochre, mixed with white. Touches of red career. He made a series of close-up studies of are used in lips and cheeks. Subtle tones are used in aloe vera plants while in France. Un matin (Waving the shadow areas on faces and hands. Things, Concarneau) (found here) is one of these. It is almost abstract in its sense of pattern Influences and shape and is painted in a limited palette of blues and greens. The influence of the Post- His early education at the Royal Dublin Society Impressionists can be seen in the brushwork in and in Antwerp gave him the skills to take on

8 APPRECIATING ART: section 1 – online material ONLINE MATERIAL ONLINE R A D LAN E R I N I ART the style of Van Gogh, the flat decorative pattern, Influences like Paul Gauguin, the exotic plants, like Henri Rousseau, and other influences. Aspects of Van Gogh’s brushwork can be seen in the foreground. The asymmetrical composition, Leech did not have much effect on the with the central figure about to leave the picture, development of Irish art, as he lived outside Ireland is a feature in Impressionist paintings. The more for most of his life. carefully drawn and detailed figures are in the English tradition. A Convent Garden, Brittany Subject Paul Henry (1876–1958) This is a figure scene of a young nun in a sunlit Henry was born in Belfast, where he had his early garden (found here). art education. He went to Paris in 1898, first to the Académie Julian and then to Whistler’s studio. Composition He moved to England, where he worked as an The off-centre placement of the main figure, who art teacher and illustrator. In 1910 he went on a looks as if she is about to leave the scene, is holiday to Achill Island with his wife, Grace, also an modern for the time. The row of figures at the top artist. They lived there for the next nine years. of the composition seems suspended in space. Critics say that Henry did his best work at this The foreground flowers create a diagonal taking time. He made small paintings of local people up almost half the picture space, though their going about their daily tasks, farming and fishing. lightness only adds to the sense of space. The Potato Diggers (Fig. 7.11), painted in 1912, Colour Leech was a colourist – he used spectrum colours in the Impressionist way. Note the delicate shades in the areas of white clothes and flowers. Little spots of orange and red enliven the green areas. It is a masterful rendering of light and shade.

Style This painting has a mix of styles. The loosely painted foreground is made of large dashed-off brush strokes, while the face of the young woman is carefully painted from accurate drawings. This large studio painting is different from his looser small paintings, which were made en plein air.

Technique and materials

The thickly oil-painted grass and flowers contrast Fig. 7.11 The Potato Diggers, 1912, by Paul Henry, National with the more delicate brushwork on the figures. Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 9 Fig. 7.12 Lakeside Cottages, 1929, by Paul Henry, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

shows an influence of Jean-François Millet and Dawn, Killary Harbour the more modern Van Gogh and Daumier. He was developing an individual style of impasto painting, Subject giving thought to composition and colour. As time went on, he painted pure landscape, with figures This scene was painted from a high vantage appearing less often. point looking down on Killary Harbour at sunrise (Fig. 7.13). Henry moved to Dublin in 1920 and was involved with the more modern painters in the Society of Composition Dublin Painters, who exhibited together because of their dissatisfaction with the Royal Hibernian The high point of view creates an unusual Academy. composition. A small foreground area of heathery

Two of his paintings of cottages were used as railway posters, which made his work popular with the public. Critics feel that Henry became a victim of his own success, forced to repeat the scene with cottages, mountains and a huge sky to meet public demand. Lakeside Cottages (Fig. 7.12), painted in 1929, is skilfully painted. The forms of the turf stacks, cottages and clouds are almost sculpted from different-angled brushstrokes.

For a number of years Henry’s work was so familiar through reproductions that it became devalued, but it is now taken more seriously.

Fig. 7.13 Dawn, Killary Harbour, 1921, by Paul Henry, oil on canvas, 69.1cm x 83.3cm, Ulster Museum, Belfast

10 APPRECIATING ART: section 1 – online material ONLINE MATERIAL ONLINE R A D LAN E R I N I ART hillside and rocks creates a contrast to the can see these influences of delicate colour and a increasingly pale distance stretching out below. flatter surface in this painting.

Colour Seán Keating The delicate shades of blues used in the receding hills create an atmosphere of misty light. (1889–1977) Born in Limerick, Keating got a scholarship to Style the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art in 1911. Like many of his contemporaries, he was strongly This painting shows the flat surface and delicate influenced by his teacher, William Orpen. He won tones that Henry was exposed to in Paris under the Taylor Scholarship in 1914 and went to visit the influence of Whistler and the Art Nouveau the Aran Islands, where he was impressed by style. He made a number of these paintings of the lives and culture of the people. The islanders moody light, which contrast with his more boldly became a symbol of the real Ireland for him, and painted work. he continued to use figures in traditional Aran dress in paintings throughout his life. Technique and materials Keating wanted to record the development of the The oil paint is applied thinly and is more brushed new Republic from its foundation and painted out than in much of his other work. a series of allegories, which were not always successful, to highlight the changes in society and Influences the development of the state. Night’s Candles are Burnt Out (1928–9) and An Allegory (1952) are Henry worked in Whistler’s studio in Paris under examples of this style. the instruction of the artist Alphonse Mucha. We

Fig. 7.14 Upstream of Powerhouse with Drilling Gang and Wagon Train, c. 1926–7, by Seán Keating, ESB Collection cat. no. 117

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 11 Some critics consider the 26 paintings and numerous drawings that Keating made of the construction of the Shannon Hydro Electric Scheme from 1926 to 1929 to be his best work. Painted on site, they are bold and direct. The huge machinery used in the construction of the dam and canal dwarfs the small human figures. Upstream of Powerhouse with Drilling Gang and Wagon Train (Fig. 7.14) is one of the paintings in this series. Painted in a limited colour scheme of earth tones and greys, quick brush marks describe the form of the landscape. In contrast, the huge machine in the top left is executed in sharp outline. Fig. 7.15 Men of the West, 1917, by Seán Keating, oil on Keating tried to record the progress of the Irish canvas, 97cm x 125cm, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane state from the poverty and backwardness of the newly independent state to the proud new republic the diagonals of the canvas. See if you can trace he hoped it would become. He exhibited regularly some of the elements of the layout. in Ireland, England and the US. He believed the artist to be a craftsman and a worker and he took on all kinds of projects, from posters to portraits to Colour floats for pageants. More than anything, Keating The colours are quite traditional. Earth colours was an academic painter who was proud to trace form the basis of the underdrawing and flesh his art links back to Jean-Auguste-Dominique tones. Reds are used for emphasis here and there. Ingres through a succession of student–teacher Blues and greys are used to contrast with the relationships. warmer colours.

Men of the West Technique and materials Subject This studio painting uses traditional painting techniques built on drawing. Brushwork is used A group of three figures is dressed in the to describe surfaces and forms, and is not traditional clothes of Aran Islanders. They are emphasised for its own sake. armed with rifles and a tricolour hangs in the left background. They represent the people of the Style West, ready to take up arms for Ireland. Keating used himself as the model for the man on the left Keating’s style owes a lot to his teacher, Orpen. who glares so boldly at the viewer. His brother He was little influenced by the European art and a friend modelled for the other figures movements and was quite hostile to Modernism. (Fig. 7.15). Influences Composition Keating always spoke of Orpen as his greatest This formally arranged figure group stands influence. In turn he was a strong presence in the out sharply from the simple background. It is National College of Art, where he taught from 1919 constructed around a series of triangles based on and was made Professor of Painting in 1934.

12 APPRECIATING ART: section 1 – online material ONLINE MATERIAL ONLINE R A D LAN E R I N I ART Evie Hone (1894–1955)

Born in Dublin, Evie Hone was descended from Nathaniel Hone the elder and the younger. She went to London to study art under Walter Sickert, where she met her lifelong friend, Mainie Jellett. Together they went to Paris, where they studied Cubism, first with André Lhote and then with Albert Gleizes.

They exhibited some Cubist work with the Dublin Society of Painters in 1923, but it was not understood or appreciated by critics or the public (see ‘Cubism’ on page 380 of the textbook.).

Evie Hone was a deeply religious person. She entered an Anglican convent in 1925 but returned The Crucifixion, Sacrifice of Isaac and to painting. In 1937 she converted to Catholicism Fig. 7.16 Last Supper window by Evie Hone, Eaton College, and changed her focus to stained glass work, chapel in England where she could express her faith.

She trained in the studios of An Túr Gloine, With her friend Mainie Jellett, she tried to bring particularly with A. E. Child and Wilhelmina modernism to Ireland. She was a founder member of Geddes. She set up her own studio in Rathfarnham the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1958, which tried in Dublin later on. to bring international modern art to the attention of the public. She designed The Four Green Fields, with symbols of the four provinces, for the Irish pavilion at Though she was a revolutionary artist who was the 1939 New York World’s Fair. It is now in always in touch with the latest movements in art, Government Buildings in Dublin. she is best remembered for her stained glass work. Her largest and most ambitious work was the East Window at College Chapel, Eaton (Fig. 7.16), in Windsor, England. She was commissioned Abstract to replace the glass that had been destroyed in a bombing raid during the Second World War. Subject The huge composition includes images of the crucifixion and the Last Supper, with other scenes This abstract composition is based on repeated in the margins. The rich reds and blues that are colours and rhythms (Fig. 7.17). characteristic of her work give way to greens and browns that frame the composition. Composition

Hone was influenced by the medieval stained glass Groups of arcs in yellow and green form a focal she had seen in Europe on a trip with members of point above the centre. Areas of white with pale An Túr Gloine. She also saw a connection between blues and turquoise create a kind of foreground modern abstract art and Celtic art. figure set against receding layers of blues and

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 13 Technique and materials Hone used gouaches (opaque water-based colours) for a lot of her smaller work. Gouache produces strong, flat, matt colours, which created the effect she wanted. There is some brush marking, but most of the surface is solid colour areas.

Influences The influence of Gleizes is strong in this work.

Mainie Jellett (1897–1944)

Born in Dublin, Jellett had her first art education in the Metropolitan School of Art. From 1917 to 1919 she studied in the Westminster Technical Institute in London under Walter Sickert. She met Evie Hone at Westminster and together they went to Paris in 1920 to study Cubism. They worked in Paris for 10 years, on and off, in collaboration with Fig. 7.17 Abstract, c. 1930, by Evie Hone, gouache paper, Gleizes, who credited them with being important 26cm x 37cm, the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork contributors to his theories on Cubism.

browns. Angles and straight lines make an outer Jellett exhibited an abstract cubist painting called frame with areas of extreme dark, creating an Decoration in the 1923 exhibition of the Society of ultimate depth. Dublin Painters and was ridiculed and criticised by critics and the public.

Colour By the 1930s, Jellett had developed a more The pale foreground area is edged with brightly personal, less theoretical, Cubist style. She coloured arcs above and below. These areas exhibited with the Art Non-Figuratif group in Paris create the main sense of interest and action. from 1932 and kept in touch with the cutting edge Harmonies of muted colours are repeated of European art throughout her career. throughout the background layers. She did not reject nature or representation in her work. She took the forms she wanted and built her Style compositions around them.

This painting is in the abstract Cubist style that The Ninth Hour (Fig. 7.18) is one of Jellett’s later Hone developed when working with Jellett and works where the images have become clearly Gleizes in Paris. more figurative, though the repeated geometric forms are still an important part of the composition.

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Jellett contributed a lot through her teaching at a figure group of angles and curves is emphasised D LAN E R I N I ART the Metropolitan College of Art, her writing and by warmer colours. publicity for modern art. She was a founding member of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in Colour 1943, which exhibited the work of artists who had been rejected for their Modernism by the Royal Harmonies rather than contrasts form the basis for Hibernian Academy. her colour palette. Blues, purples and violets move to reds, oranges and yellows. The tones provide a sense of depth. Highlights provide a foreground, The Ninth Hour while darks offer depth.

Subject Style This is a semi-abstract composition based on the Jellett had a personal style based on abstract Holy Family (Fig. 7.18). Jellett was a religious Cubism. She took elements from her naturalistic person and often based her paintings on the work sketches and repeated them to create harmonies of Old Masters, particularly Fra Angelico. that became the abstract work of art.

Composition Technique and materials The large central figure of the crucified Christ, in The surface is smoothly finished. Hard colour blue, overlaps the thieves at each side. At his feet edges meet without brush marks or blending.

Norah McGuinness (1901–80)

Born in Derry, McGuinness studied at the Dublin Metropolitan College. In 1929, on the advice of Mainie Jellett, she went to Paris to study with André Lhote. During the 1930s she spent time working in London and New York, but was back in Dublin in 1939. She was a working artist all her life, designing costumes and sets for the Abbey and Peacock theatres. She did book illustrations and was the window dresser in Brown Thomas for 30 years. A founding member of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, she was chairperson for almost 20 years. In A Quiet Place (found here), one of McGuinness’s landscapes, we can see that it is based on direct observation. However, she uses geometry and multiple viewpoints to create a Fig. 7.18 The Ninth Hour, 1941, by Mainie Jellett, oil on Cubist style. canvas, 86.3cm x 64.2cm, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 15 McGuinness’s reputation grew over the years. She represented Ireland along with Nano Reid in the 1950 Venice Biennale. She was awarded an honorary membership of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1957 and an honorary doctorate at Trinity College in 1973.

Garden Green

Subject This is a still life in front of an open window (found here).

Composition A selection of household objects is arranged on a table seen from above. The objects are viewed from a number of angles, mainly in front. The white objects, bottle and cloth, cup and saucer, lead the eye out to the little girl in the white dress in the garden.

Colour Fig. 7.19 Large Solar Device, 1964, by Patrick Scott, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. Liquid The harmonies of greens connect all the areas of tempera paint was applied to untreated canvas and the composition. It takes a moment to separate the allowed to run. table from the grass, plants and windows.

Style An abstract painter This is a personal style based on Cubism. The work is still representational, but we are offered alternative viewpoints and harmonies in colour and Patrick Scott (1921–2014) shape that take the work beyond realism. Born in Kilbrittain, Co. Cork, Scott came from a Technique and materials farming background but he grew up in Dublin and studied architecture. He exhibited in the 1940s Colour blending and brushwork are an element but continued in architecture until 1960, when he in this oil painting on canvas. It is a more painterly represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale and approach than many of the other Cubists. also won a Guggenheim award.

In the 1960s he painted a series of Large Solar Device (Fig. 7.19) compositions, which were in protest at continued testing of nuclear weapons.

16 APPRECIATING ART: section 1 – online material ONLINE MATERIAL ONLINE R A D LAN E R I N I ART There is one of these from 1964 in the Dublin Throughout his life he was a designer as well as City Gallery The Hugh Lane. It is a large painting, an artist, producing tapestries and prints. measuring 234cm x 155cm. The upper part has a large circle painted in liquid red tempera paint Meditation Painting 28 that has been allowed to drip down the untreated canvas. Subject This completely abstract composition is based on Scott often used circles or parts of circles as the simple geometry (Fig. 7.20). focus in his compositions. He was one of the first Irish artists to produce completely abstract work. From the mid-1960s he began to use gold leaf in Composition his compositions. A circle of gold leaf dominates the upper portion of the work. The top edge of the circle is close to the Scott felt that simplicity was an essential part of top of the canvas and the lower edge is close to his work. He was interested in Zen and meditation the black rectangle. There is some space to the left and this comes across in his paintings, which are and right of the circle. The lower part of the canvas is often very calming to look at. divided into an area of black and an area of untreated canvas. All the divisions are unequal. The black band is larger than the space below and the upper portion, with the circle in it, is bigger than the lower area.

Style This is a pure geometric abstraction.

Technique and materials The materials are reduced to the basics: unprimed canvas, an area of black acrylic paint and a circle of gold leaf.

A figurative painter Gerard Dillon (1916–71)

Born in Belfast, Dillon left school early and trained as a painter and decorator. He took some art lessons at the College of Art in Belfast, though he was largely self-taught. He worked for a number of years in London and developed an interest in art, cinema and theatre.

He returned to Ireland during the Second World Fig. 7.20 Meditation Painting 28, 2006, by Patrick Scott, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin War. He had a solo exhibition in Dublin in 1942, encouraged by Mainie Jellett. He returned to

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 17 Fig. 7.21 Island People, c. 1950, by Gerard Dillon, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

London after the war and worked on demolition Composition and building sites to make some money. The artist in the top left is on a diagonal from top During the late 1940s and into the 1950s he left to bottom right, which connects him with the painted in Connemara and exhibited successfully feet of the onlookers. If we follow up their bodies, in Dublin. their gaze brings us back to the artist. All the other elements are built around this relationship. In 1958 he represented Ireland at the Guggenheim Animals, fields, boats and sea fit into the International and Great Britain at the Pittsburgh surrounding spaces. International Exhibition. He travelled in Europe and taught for short periods in London art schools. Colour In 1967 Dillon had a stroke, which he took time Dillon exaggerates the colours of nature. to recover from. Three of his brothers had died prematurely, so he became conscious of the Style closeness of death and used a masked Pierrot figure Dillon’s style has been called naive and it has that in his paintings to represent himself and death. untrained characteristic, but it is deliberate. He said that he was ‘always trying to see with a child’s Island People innocence and sincerity’. There are influences from Subject Gauguin, Chagall and Seán Keating in his work. In this painting the artist is leaving the island, watched by local people (Fig. 7.21).

18 APPRECIATING ART: section 1 – online material ONLINE MATERIAL ONLINE R A D LAN E R I N I ART Following the ROSC exhibition of international modern art held in Dublin in 1972, Ballagh made a series of paintings of people looking at paintings from the exhibition. Two Men and a Roy Lichtenstein (1973) (Fig. 7.22) is part of the series. It was painted in acrylics on 16 small canvases joined together, measuring 244cm x 244cm.

Later in the 1970s his style moved towards hyperrealism, when he painted scenes from his own life and surroundings.

He was commissioned to paint several portraits over the years, beginning a series of paintings of people he admired from the worlds of culture and politics.

Fig. 7.22 Two Men and a Roy Lichtenstein, 1973, by Robert Ballagh’s work hangs in many important Ballagh, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane collections around the world. His design work includes 70 Irish postage stamps and our last set of banknotes before the euro. He also designed Technique and materials stage sets, including one for Riverdance. Dillon painted with bold brush marks, highlighting textures and sometimes using strong outlines. This Portrait of Noel Browne painting was made with oil paints on board. Subject This is a portrait of the politician Dr Noel Browne Pop art into photo (Fig. 7.23). realism Composition Robert Ballagh (1943–) This is an unusual arrangement of six canvases in a cruciform shape. Dr Browne takes up the full Painter and designer Robert Ballagh was born in height of the four centre panels, while the panels Dublin. He qualified as an architect and worked as on each side show views of his Connemara home. a show band musician before taking up a full-time Sea stones and books are placed on the floor at career in art and design in 1967. He had some the foot of the canvas. A reason for the cruciform early success and represented Ireland at the Paris shape might be that Dr Browne was forced out Biennale in 1969. of office through the influence of the Catholic Church, which was against the reforms he was His early style was influenced by pop art. He trying to bring in to the Department of Health. made a number of paintings based on old masters simplified to outlined shapes and flat colour. The Colour Third of May After Goya (1970) is in the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. The colours are true to nature.

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 19 culture was very conservative. In 1960 he went to Ealing Art College in London and supported himself by working in metalwork shops.

He was back in Dublin in 1961 and was a founding member of New Artists, who were a group of artists that exhibited together in the early 1960s. He was mainly painting at this time and designing theatre sets. By 1966 he was working with the sculptor Edward Delaney casting small bronzes in his workshop.

In 1970 he started the Dublin Art Foundry and they developed their casting skills in the lost wax technique. The Beast (1972) (Fig. 7.24) in the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, is typical of the small animals and figures he was producing at the time.

As technology improved, so did the quality of the work and the ability to work on a larger scale. Fig. 7.23 Portrait of Noel Browne, 1985, by Robert Ballagh, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin The ship in Behan’s National Famine Monument (Fig. 7.25) is matched by a companion piece Style outside the UN building in New York called Arrival: The painting is in the hyperrealism or photorealism New Dawn, which represents the survivors of the style. coffin ships arriving in America with hope of a new life. Behan considers the Famine to be the most important event in Irish history. Technique and materials The painting is in oils on canvas, with the addition He has exhibited and travelled widely around the of stones and books. The painted surface is world and his work is in many important collections. smooth.

John Behan (1938–)

The son of a grocer in inner-city Dublin, Behan made frequent visits to his grandfather’s farm in Leitrim, where he developed a love of animals that continued all his life.

When he left school he trained as a metalworker, which gave him an understanding of materials and techniques.

He attended the National College of Art in Dublin Fig. 7.24 The Beast, 1972, by John Behan, Crawford Art and found the life classes very useful, but the Gallery, Cork

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Fig. 7.25 The National Famine Monument, 1997, by John Behan, Murrisk, Co. Mayo

The National Famine Monument Dorothy Cross (1956–)

Subject Cross, a Cork-born artist, works in sculpture, This is a memorial to the victims of the Great photography, video and installation. She began her Famine in Ireland (Fig. 7.25). art education at the Crawford Municipal School of Art, then went to Leicester Polytechnic in England Composition and the San Francisco Art Institute in the US. The large bronze is located on the shores of Clew She has been a regular exhibitor since the 1980s. Bay in the shadow of Croagh Patrick, Ireland’s Her first solo installation was Ebb in the Douglas holy mountain. It takes the form of a three-masted Hyde Gallery in Dublin. Her 1991 installation, sailing ship. For some viewers the three masts are Powerhouse, was exhibited in Dublin, London and a reminder of the crucifixion. Emerging from the hull of the boat, skeletal figures seem to fly among the masts, representing the departing souls of the victims.

Style Like most of Behan’s work, it is figurative but not realistic.

Technique and materials This is the largest bronze cast in Ireland. The figures attached to the mast are made of assembled bronze bars welded together. Fig. 7.26 Ghost Ship, an installation, 1998, by Dorothy Cross, Dorothy Cross website

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 21 Philadelphia. These installations usually combine Basking Shark Currach ‘found’ objects from different environments into ‘poetic amalgamations’ of unlikely combinations of Subject materials and ideas. This is an assembly of found objects, a sharkskin and the frame of a currach (Fig. 7.27). Ghost Ship (1998) (Fig. 7.26) is one of her best- known pieces. It got a lot of attention when it was first revealed. An old light ship was anchored in Composition Scotsman’s Bay off Dún Laoghaire. It was coated The sharkskin and currach frame are combined in luminous paint and lit up so that it glowed and either suspended from the ceiling or a ghostly florescent yellow-white at night. The supported on legs, creating an unexpected mixture light glowed and faded over a three-hour period. of objects and viewpoint. The currach becomes the It was a commemoration of the lightships that skeleton of the shark and the sharkskin covers the marked dangerous rocks off the Irish coast and structure of the boat. the crews that manned them. They had all been decommissioned and replaced by automatic Style buoys. This style is an assembly, a way of making Her exhibition View, held in the Kerlin Gallery, sculpture that is traceable back to Picasso (see Dublin, in 2014 included some of her assembled page 383 of the textbook). sculptures.

The type of assembly shown in Basking Shark Technique and materials Currach, where objects are combined in an A combination of sharkskin and a currach frame. unexpected way, has been part of Cross’s practice from early in her career. It challenges our perceptions and poses questions about Eilis O’Connell (1953–) relationships and meaning. Born in Derry, O’Connell grew up in the Donegal countryside with the freedom to explore her

Fig. 7.27 Basking Shark Currach, 2013, assembly by Dorothy Cross, Dorothy Cross website

22 APPRECIATING ART: section 1 – online material ONLINE MATERIAL ONLINE R A D LAN E R I N I ART Reedpod (2005) on Lapp’s Quay in Cork are just some of the more recent ones.

On a smaller scale, O’Connell’s work often relates to natural forms and everyday objects like tools and clothes that people are in frequent contact with.

Each Day (2003) (Fig. 7.28), in the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, is a simple bronze form that could be a hooded cloak or even the bow of a boat. O’Connell has said that some of her work can be ‘an extension of the body, an extra shell or layer to protect the human spirit’.

O’Connell was a founding member of the Sculpture Factory in Cork. She is also a member of Aosdána and the Royal Hibernian Academy.

Secret Station Subject The title comes from a Seamus Heaney poem, Fig. 7.28 Each Day, 2003, by Eilis O’Connell, bronze ‘The Diviner’. The conical shapes are 11m tall and sculpture, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork produce plumes of steam, which are a reminder of the coal-exporting trade from Cardiff during the surroundings that formed the basis for her steam age (Fig. 7.29). creativity.

Her family moved to Cork when she was 10 and Composition her first art education was in the Crawford School The main structural parts are two towering cones of Art. She went to Massachusetts College of Art of steel with curved steel beams fixed horizontally in 1974–5, returning to Cork, where she received on top. Steam generators inside create plumes of a distinction in sculpture in 1977. steam that come out high up. Fibre optics light up the sculpture at night. It is set in open ground near In the following years she won awards and the harbour and can be seen from roads nearby. travelling scholarships, which allowed her to further her studies in Europe and America. In the Style 1980s she was based in London, also spending time in Cork. This is a large abstract steel sculpture.

O’Connell is best known for her large public Technique and materials sculptures in Ireland, England and Europe. O’Connell’s sculptures are in many public spaces The construction of large sculptures like this has in Ireland. Chroma (2014) at the new science to be carefully engineered and planned to meet building at University College Dublin, Atoms and regulations. The artist’s contribution is in the Apples (2013) at Trinity College Dublin, and design rather than the construction.

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 23 Fig. 7.29 Secret Station, 1992–3, by Eilis O’Connell, steel sculpture, The Gateway, Cardiff, Wales. These huge structures are made of steel, bronze and fibre optics.

Michael Quane (1962–)

Born in Cork, Quane studied science at University College Cork before going to the Crawford College of Art. He continues to live and work in Co. Cork.

Quane is mainly a stone carver working with Kilkenny limestone and marble. He produces small and large works. He has sculptures in private and public collections in Ireland, England, Europe and the US, including the Botanic Gardens in Dublin, University College Cork, the Blasket Island Centre in Co. Kerry, Castleblaney College in Co. Monaghan and an unusual figure outside the Mayorstone garda station in Limerick. Persona (2000) (Fig. 7.30) is based on the idea that everyone is an actor on the stage of life and we all wear masks to carry out our roles as criminals, police, judges or just ordinary citizens.

Equality is a theme that runs through Quane’s work. His figures are often naked to remove any hints of class or social position.

Horses and Riders Subject Horses and riders are arranged in a tight circle Fig. 7.30 Persona, 2000, by Michael Quane, Mayorstone (Fig. 7.31). The artist says it represents ‘a sense garda station, Limerick

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Fig. 7.31 Horses and Riders, 1995, by Michael Quane, stone sculpture, Cork County Council, on the Annabella roundabout at Mallow, Co. Cork

of the connectedness of individuals through their Style culture, history, evolution, dependency and need The style is a kind of modified realism, where amid their own personal isolation and indivisibility’. human and animal forms are distorted to fit into the shape of the design. Composition The horses and riders are arranged so that they Technique and materials come gradually into focus as you approach the This sculpture began as a 23-tonne block of stone roundabout. When you arrive, your eye is led on to and was carved down to 11 tonnes, which is the the next horse and rider as you move around the finished weight. Like a lot of Quane’s other work, roundabout. Quane says he designed it this way there are areas of roughly finished surface where to follow the flow of traffic as it moves to the right tool marks are used to describe form and texture. around the traffic island. You would need to make This contrasts with areas of smooth finish. a full circuit of the roundabout to see the complete composition – and it seems that people do.

CHAPTER 7 online material: IRISH ART in THE 19th and 20th centuries 25 Picture Credits

For permission to reproduce photographs, the authors and publisher gratefully acknowledge the following:

© Alamy: 1B, 13, 21TR, 21TL; © Bridgeman Images: 15; © Bridgeman Images / © Estate of Patrick Scott, IVARO Dublin, 2017: 16; © Bridgeman Images / © Estate of Paul Henry, IVARO Dublin, 2017: 10T; © Bridgeman Images / © Estate of Seán Keating, IVARO Dublin, 2017: 12; © Crawford Art Gallery, Cork: 2T, 14, 18, 20, 23T; © Dorothy Cross / Basking Shark Currach 2013 / Basking shark skin, wooden currach frame / 138 x 265 x 92 cm / 54.3 x 104.3 x 36.2 in / Installation view at Turner Contemporary, Kent: 22; © Dorothy Cross / Ghost Ship, 1999 / Two light ship models, phosphorescent paint, ultraviolet lights, video / Dimensions variable; Duration: 10 min loop / Collection Irish Museum of Modern Art / purchase, Purchase, 2003 / IMMA.1607: 21B; © Eilis O’Connell / photo © John Davies, UK: 23B; IMMA / Heritage Gift, P.J. Carroll & Co. Ltd. Art Collection / © Robert Ballagh, IVARO Dublin, 2017: 19TL; © Michael Quane, Horses and Riders, 1995: 25; © Michael Quane, Persona, 2002: 24; © National Gallery of Ireland: 1T, 2B, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; © National Gallery of Ireland / © Estate of Paul Henry, IVARO Dublin, 2017: 9; © National Museums Northern Ireland, BELUM.U301, Collection Ulster Museum/© Estate of Paul Henry, IVARO Dublin, 2017: 10B; Patrick Scott / Meditation Painting 28, 2007 / Gold leaf and acrylic on unprimed canvas / Unframed: 120.2 x 81 cm / Collection Irish Museum of Modern Art / Donation, Donation, the artist, 2013 / IMMA.3813 / © Estate of Patrick Scott, IVARO Dublin, 2017 / Clare Lymer photography: 17; © Robert Ballagh: 19BR; Upstream of Powerhouse with Drilling Gang and Wagon Train. C 1926-27, ESB Collection cat no 117 / © Estate of Seán Keating, IVARO Dublin, 2017: 11.

The authors and publisher have made every effort to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked we would be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.

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