49
Kenneth Hall (1913-1946)
Estimate:
€2,000 - €3,000
Sold
€2,000
Live Auction
Irish & International Art
ARTIST
Kenneth Hall (1913-1946)
Size
10.25 by 14.25in. (26 by 36.2cm)
Description
Title: COTTAGES AND GRAVEYARD, COUNTY DONEGAL
Note: Hall had studied furniture design in London during the early 1930s, but as a painter was largely self-taught. Around the time of his first exhibition - given by Lucy Wertheim in 1934, Hall met Basil Rákóczi, a fellow interior designer and founder of the Society for Creative Psychology. Together they read works on psychoanalysis and painted works they described as 'subjective art'. They exhibited these in a shared studio in Fitzroy Street under the collective name of the White Stag Group. During the years 1936-38 they travelled through France, Spain, Italy and Greece. Hall's second show at the Wertheim Gallery consisted chiefly of paintings of Cap D'Ail, on the French Riviera. In July 1939 he and Rákóczi came to Ireland, partly to avoid conscription, and partly perhaps owing to the fact that both of their mothers hailed from Co. Cork. In an attempt to live frugally they took a cottage at Delphi, Co. Mayo, but returned to Dublin in March 1940. There they re-established the White Stag Group, creating a nucleus for likeminded experimental artists such as Patrick Scott, Mainie Jellett, and Nick Nicholls. After the war Hall returned to London and showed briefly with the Redfern Gallery. However, he suffered acute depression and in July 1946 took his own life. The following year, in the preface to her memoirs, Adventure in Art, Lucy Wertheim paid tribute to Hall, whose untimely death, she wrote 'robbed [us] of a very great artist'.
Frame dimensions: 16 by 20in. (40.6 by 50.8cm)
Note: Hall had studied furniture design in London during the early 1930s, but as a painter was largely self-taught. Around the time of his first exhibition - given by Lucy Wertheim in 1934, Hall met Basil Rákóczi, a fellow interior designer and founder of the Society for Creative Psychology. Together they read works on psychoanalysis and painted works they described as 'subjective art'. They exhibited these in a shared studio in Fitzroy Street under the collective name of the White Stag Group. During the years 1936-38 they travelled through France, Spain, Italy and Greece. Hall's second show at the Wertheim Gallery consisted chiefly of paintings of Cap D'Ail, on the French Riviera. In July 1939 he and Rákóczi came to Ireland, partly to avoid conscription, and partly perhaps owing to the fact that both of their mothers hailed from Co. Cork. In an attempt to live frugally they took a cottage at Delphi, Co. Mayo, but returned to Dublin in March 1940. There they re-established the White Stag Group, creating a nucleus for likeminded experimental artists such as Patrick Scott, Mainie Jellett, and Nick Nicholls. After the war Hall returned to London and showed briefly with the Redfern Gallery. However, he suffered acute depression and in July 1946 took his own life. The following year, in the preface to her memoirs, Adventure in Art, Lucy Wertheim paid tribute to Hall, whose untimely death, she wrote 'robbed [us] of a very great artist'.
Frame dimensions: 16 by 20in. (40.6 by 50.8cm)
Condition
Some minor rippling visible on close inspection. Otherwise very good condition.
Medium
oil on canvas
Signature
signed lower right
Provenance
Christie's, London, 22 May 1998, lot 153;Private collection;Whyte's, 26 November 2018, lot 41;Private collection
