61
Camille Souter HRHA (b.1929)
Estimate:
€5,000 - €7,000
Sold
€10,500
Live Auction
Irish & International Art
ARTIST
Camille Souter HRHA (b.1929)
Size
19.25 by 29.75in. (48.9 by 75.6cm)
Description
Title: UNTITLED, 1958
Note: In 1958, Camille Souter was awarded an Italian Government travel scholarship of 240.000 lire. It was not a fantastically large sum but she also sold a large number of works through the office of Dr. Michael Scott of Scott Tallon Walker Architects that helped to finance a trip to Italy. Souter would spend most of her time in the Veneto region, arriving in the fishing port of Chioggia on 25 September. After a couple of weeks living on the Calle Olivotti, she moved to a family owned farm in nearby Sottomarina. Even with the benefit of a scholarship, times were tough. It is telling that the owners of the farm referred to her as “povera Camille” or “poor Camille”. This work was almost certainly painted during, or shortly after, Souter’s Italian sojourn. Like many of her early works, it makes use of relatively cheap non-traditional materials. It has been painted on brown Kraft paper and employs relatively simplified pared down graphic elements - black lines over a lightly textured ochre background. As is often the case with Souter’s early paintings, the subject matter is not immediately obvious. This does not mean that it is a non-representational “abstract” painting as artists such as Wassily Kandinsky understood the term. All of Souter’s paintings are representational. Some, such as this work, use more symbolic forms. They operate in a manner similar to signs and are intended to signify something experienced personally. It is difficult to be certain what is signified in this instance; however, there is a deliberate structure to the lines in the painting that is suggestive of a boat in a channel of water. The diagonal and vertical lines almost appear to mimic the movement of a pole propelling a gondola. It is pushed vertically downward. The point of contact on the canal bed moves away from the back of gondola as the vessel is driven forward. The pole is then lifted upward out of the water before the process repeated. It moves from close to vertical to diagonal with each stroke. The two horizontals, to my mind, may delineate the edge of a canal. This is a very modern approach to painting. The geometry or perspective is psychological and non-Euclidean. We are not being presented with a single instant isolated in space and time but a sequence of movements. Souter would adopt a similar approach in several of her paintings during the fifties. One need only look to The Chess Game, Cycling to Chioggia and Buon Divertimento for examples. The latter two paintings were also produced in 1958 during Souter’s stay in Italy.Garrett CormicanAuthor, Camille Souter The Mirror In The Sea, 2006.An exhibition of Camille Souter's work to celebrate her 90th year, will be held at Customhouse Gallery, Westport, Co. Mayo, 19 October to 30 November.
Note: In 1958, Camille Souter was awarded an Italian Government travel scholarship of 240.000 lire. It was not a fantastically large sum but she also sold a large number of works through the office of Dr. Michael Scott of Scott Tallon Walker Architects that helped to finance a trip to Italy. Souter would spend most of her time in the Veneto region, arriving in the fishing port of Chioggia on 25 September. After a couple of weeks living on the Calle Olivotti, she moved to a family owned farm in nearby Sottomarina. Even with the benefit of a scholarship, times were tough. It is telling that the owners of the farm referred to her as “povera Camille” or “poor Camille”. This work was almost certainly painted during, or shortly after, Souter’s Italian sojourn. Like many of her early works, it makes use of relatively cheap non-traditional materials. It has been painted on brown Kraft paper and employs relatively simplified pared down graphic elements - black lines over a lightly textured ochre background. As is often the case with Souter’s early paintings, the subject matter is not immediately obvious. This does not mean that it is a non-representational “abstract” painting as artists such as Wassily Kandinsky understood the term. All of Souter’s paintings are representational. Some, such as this work, use more symbolic forms. They operate in a manner similar to signs and are intended to signify something experienced personally. It is difficult to be certain what is signified in this instance; however, there is a deliberate structure to the lines in the painting that is suggestive of a boat in a channel of water. The diagonal and vertical lines almost appear to mimic the movement of a pole propelling a gondola. It is pushed vertically downward. The point of contact on the canal bed moves away from the back of gondola as the vessel is driven forward. The pole is then lifted upward out of the water before the process repeated. It moves from close to vertical to diagonal with each stroke. The two horizontals, to my mind, may delineate the edge of a canal. This is a very modern approach to painting. The geometry or perspective is psychological and non-Euclidean. We are not being presented with a single instant isolated in space and time but a sequence of movements. Souter would adopt a similar approach in several of her paintings during the fifties. One need only look to The Chess Game, Cycling to Chioggia and Buon Divertimento for examples. The latter two paintings were also produced in 1958 during Souter’s stay in Italy.Garrett CormicanAuthor, Camille Souter The Mirror In The Sea, 2006.An exhibition of Camille Souter's work to celebrate her 90th year, will be held at Customhouse Gallery, Westport, Co. Mayo, 19 October to 30 November.
Medium
oil on brown Kraft paper
Signature
signed and dated upper right
