19
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977)
Estimate:
€60,000 - €80,000
Sold
€58,000
Live Auction
Irish & International Art
Size
21 by 26in. (53.3 by 66cm)
Description
Title: STILL WATERS, 1947
Note: Introduced to the Aran Islands by his friend, Harry Clarke, in 1912, Seán Keating found himself as an artist there, so much so that he became synonymous with the location during his lifetime. Keating had been using photography as a compositional aid on the islands since the early 1920s, along with handwritten notes on sketches which recalled the time of day, the direction of the sun, the cloud formations, the multifarious moods of the sea. Keating's approach to his paintings of Aran changed in the mid-1930s after he met the documentary film maker, Robert Flaherty, who was on the islands to film Man of Aran (1934). Flaherty inspired Keating's interest in the cinecamera as a means of speedy documentation, a method that appealed to the artist who maintained a life-long fascination with the ever-moving tones of the weather and the conjoined reaction of the sea. Film for the camera was expensive and harder to obtain during the Second World War, so from the mid-1930s onwards Keating recycled scenes or parts of filmed scenes, to assist him to produce his intended composition and atmosphere. Still Waters (1947) is one of a series of images representing the island people painted after the artist acquired his cinecamera. The painting illustrates a sequence of scenes that Keating observed using his cinecamera while on the islands, and then put together to compose the work. As the sun sets in the west, it is the end of a busy day on the islands and on the sea. In the foreground, two women in west of Ireland shawls are huddled in conversation while a gathering of island men listen intently. Whatever the news was, it must have been fascinating, as nobody on land takes notice of the fishermen arranging their nets, perhaps for an evening trip on the quiet sea. The entire scene is swathed in an atmosphere of calm, formed by Keating's well observed sundown sky with the attendant gentle lapping of the water below. Exhibited in the RHA in 1947, Still Waters, was purchased from the exhibition by a long-standing friend who had known Seán Keating from the days of the War of Independence. A frequent purchaser of the artist's work in the late 1940s, it is tempting to consider that the image presented something of a stark contrast to the era of tumult during which the two had first become friends. Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA, HRUAAuthor, Seán Keating: Art, Politics, and Building the Irish Nation (Kildare: Irish Academic Press, 2013).
Frame size: 24 by 29in. (61 by 73.7cm)
Note: Introduced to the Aran Islands by his friend, Harry Clarke, in 1912, Seán Keating found himself as an artist there, so much so that he became synonymous with the location during his lifetime. Keating had been using photography as a compositional aid on the islands since the early 1920s, along with handwritten notes on sketches which recalled the time of day, the direction of the sun, the cloud formations, the multifarious moods of the sea. Keating's approach to his paintings of Aran changed in the mid-1930s after he met the documentary film maker, Robert Flaherty, who was on the islands to film Man of Aran (1934). Flaherty inspired Keating's interest in the cinecamera as a means of speedy documentation, a method that appealed to the artist who maintained a life-long fascination with the ever-moving tones of the weather and the conjoined reaction of the sea. Film for the camera was expensive and harder to obtain during the Second World War, so from the mid-1930s onwards Keating recycled scenes or parts of filmed scenes, to assist him to produce his intended composition and atmosphere. Still Waters (1947) is one of a series of images representing the island people painted after the artist acquired his cinecamera. The painting illustrates a sequence of scenes that Keating observed using his cinecamera while on the islands, and then put together to compose the work. As the sun sets in the west, it is the end of a busy day on the islands and on the sea. In the foreground, two women in west of Ireland shawls are huddled in conversation while a gathering of island men listen intently. Whatever the news was, it must have been fascinating, as nobody on land takes notice of the fishermen arranging their nets, perhaps for an evening trip on the quiet sea. The entire scene is swathed in an atmosphere of calm, formed by Keating's well observed sundown sky with the attendant gentle lapping of the water below. Exhibited in the RHA in 1947, Still Waters, was purchased from the exhibition by a long-standing friend who had known Seán Keating from the days of the War of Independence. A frequent purchaser of the artist's work in the late 1940s, it is tempting to consider that the image presented something of a stark contrast to the era of tumult during which the two had first become friends. Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA, HRUAAuthor, Seán Keating: Art, Politics, and Building the Irish Nation (Kildare: Irish Academic Press, 2013).
Frame size: 24 by 29in. (61 by 73.7cm)
Condition
Some surface dirt visible on close inspection. Otherwise good condition.
Medium
oil on canvas
Signature
signed lower right
Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by the grandfather of the present owner
