31
William Conor OBE RHA RUA ROI (1881-1968)
Estimate:
€18,000 - €22,000
Sold
€18,000
Live Auction
Irish & International Art
Size
20 by 16in. (50.8 by 40.6cm)
Description
Title: DIGGING SEAWEED
Note: Presented in Dawson Gallery frame. Worked in his inimitable style, this richly coloured canvas by William Conor captures the changing light of the rural Irish landscape. Against a dramatic backdrop of large mountains, two labourers collect seaweed (a natural resource used in Irish agriculture since at least the twelfth century), aided by a donkey and cart. The artist's depiction of the sky, mountains and water is particularly sensitive: mixing greens, blues, ochre and off-white to draw the viewers' eye to the background of the painting. The son of a Belfast metal worker, Conor attended the Belfast School of Art and spent a brief period in Paris prior to the outbreak of World War One. During the conflict, he worked as an official war artist recording munition works, army camps and the training exercises of the Ulster Division. Through the late 1910s and early 1920s, Conor became more of an established name in Irish and British artistic circles, showing regularly in group exhibitions in London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow, as well as numerous solo exhibitions in Dublin and New York. In 1930, Conor was elected as one of nine initial academicians of the Royal Ulster Academy, and was later made both an associate (1936) and full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy (1946). Although Conor is best known for his depictions of everyday and working-class life in Belfast, rural life and the Irish landscape also attracted the artist's attention. The present work bears strong resemblances to other canvases by the artist, such as Seaweed Gathering, County Donegal (1935, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum) and By Winding Roads (1950, used as the dust jacket illustration for John Irvine's collection of the same name). It can also be considered as part of a wider thematic strand in the artists oeuvre, which include depictions of turf gatherers, potato pickers, and flax harvesters. On the opening of a large William Conor retrospective exhibition at the Ulster Museum in 1957, Irvine published a poem dedicated to the artist in the Belfast Telegraph, recognising the importance of rural subjects to the artist. The poem notes Conor's sympathetic portrayal of 'those who live subservient on the soil', and the 'lazy donkeys, walking at their ease / On country roads, and landscapes fresh and green': lines which resonate strongly with Digging Seaweed. (footnote 1) Dr Kathryn Milligan August 2018 1 John Irvine, 'The Artist', originally published in the Belfast Telegraph, reprinted in William Conor 1881 - 1968, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 1968
Note: Presented in Dawson Gallery frame. Worked in his inimitable style, this richly coloured canvas by William Conor captures the changing light of the rural Irish landscape. Against a dramatic backdrop of large mountains, two labourers collect seaweed (a natural resource used in Irish agriculture since at least the twelfth century), aided by a donkey and cart. The artist's depiction of the sky, mountains and water is particularly sensitive: mixing greens, blues, ochre and off-white to draw the viewers' eye to the background of the painting. The son of a Belfast metal worker, Conor attended the Belfast School of Art and spent a brief period in Paris prior to the outbreak of World War One. During the conflict, he worked as an official war artist recording munition works, army camps and the training exercises of the Ulster Division. Through the late 1910s and early 1920s, Conor became more of an established name in Irish and British artistic circles, showing regularly in group exhibitions in London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow, as well as numerous solo exhibitions in Dublin and New York. In 1930, Conor was elected as one of nine initial academicians of the Royal Ulster Academy, and was later made both an associate (1936) and full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy (1946). Although Conor is best known for his depictions of everyday and working-class life in Belfast, rural life and the Irish landscape also attracted the artist's attention. The present work bears strong resemblances to other canvases by the artist, such as Seaweed Gathering, County Donegal (1935, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum) and By Winding Roads (1950, used as the dust jacket illustration for John Irvine's collection of the same name). It can also be considered as part of a wider thematic strand in the artists oeuvre, which include depictions of turf gatherers, potato pickers, and flax harvesters. On the opening of a large William Conor retrospective exhibition at the Ulster Museum in 1957, Irvine published a poem dedicated to the artist in the Belfast Telegraph, recognising the importance of rural subjects to the artist. The poem notes Conor's sympathetic portrayal of 'those who live subservient on the soil', and the 'lazy donkeys, walking at their ease / On country roads, and landscapes fresh and green': lines which resonate strongly with Digging Seaweed. (footnote 1) Dr Kathryn Milligan August 2018 1 John Irvine, 'The Artist', originally published in the Belfast Telegraph, reprinted in William Conor 1881 - 1968, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 1968
Medium
oil on canvas board
Signature
signed lower right; titled on original label on reverse; also with Dawson Gallery framing label on reverse
