30
Gerard Dillon (1916-1971)
Estimate:
€60,000 - €80,000
Sold
€50,000
Live Auction
Irish & International Art
Size
20 by 30in. (50.8 by 76.2cm)
Description
Title: THE CURRACH, KILRONAN
Note: Gerard Dillon was originally from Belfast, a painter and decorator by trade, he became an artist largely by way of self education , as did fellow extant northern artists Dan O'Neill, George Campbell and Colin Middleton: all of whom exhibited at the Waddington Gallery in Dublin. They shared thematic interests and It may be noted that while they developed their distinctive styles there were pictorial exchanges between them.Before the Second World War modernist developments in Europe filtered through to Ireland and during the Emergency period, as Brian O'Doherty has recognised, isolation and the displacement of war, allowed them to be examined and related to local needs and temperament: 'An artificial situation - deprivation - was, by accident, turned into one of natural and leisurely assimilation.' It may be noted that Dillon lived and worked for periods in London with all the gallery viewing opportunities the city offered.Dillon worked in a variety of styles. At times, the artist favoured a 'storey- board' presentation of serial mages influenced by high crosses, such as those at Monasterboice, Co. Louth; collages of mixed materials; his 'Pierrot, more symbolist series and an extensive body of more naturalistic 'figure and landscape' paintings. The figurative paintings of Dillon, Dan O'Neill and Middleton often carry tensions that now, in retrospect, seem somewhat ominous and foreboding. With Middleton, a woman can frantically attempt to measure the sky, with Dillon a Pierrot figure carries the duality of the comic/tragic. During the 1940s Dillon spent time with George Campbell in Connemara. On a holiday visit to Aran Mór, Dillon made a number of paintings celebrating the life and dislocated culture of the Island. In a letter to Madge Connolly it is clear he relishes the desolate, primitive nature of the landscape and crashing seascapes. He declares to her: 'My God, It was the most glorious holiday I've ever had'. The letter included eleven drawings, with one of Kilronan village, originally a fishing village. A currach has traditionally been used in the West and South West of Ireland to transport goods and animals between islands, as well as fishing. It takes its form when animal skins are stretched over a wooden frame. As such its design has a natural, sensual, primitive and somewhat atavistic presence. The artist painted a number of works which included currachs, such as 'Harbour Wall, Kilronan, Inishmór, Aran Islands' (1944) with upturned currach. In 'The Cottage Window' we also glimpse through the window two men carrying a currach over their heads like an extended communal hat. The location of the painting under review is again the village of Kilronan in the 1940s. Unlike the earlier painting which is bright, there is here something of a foreboding atmosphere. There is a contrast between the quotidian activity among the background figures, in more native dress, and the three figures in the foreground. We witness the gangly elongated youth in bare feet with eyes lowered but also the apprehension in the two female figures in the boat, Summer visitors judging by their short-sleeved blouses. The colours are sombre; the mainland in the distance dark and the sea lapping the shore becoming choppy - perhaps indicating an imminent storm and calling for a decision whether or not to push off shore. The oval composition, delineated by the sweep of the shoreline, contributes to the introspective atmosphere; the somewhat cubistic ascending village houses with their 'window' eyes, looking on.As demonstrated by this painting, the West of Ireland sparked his imagination, allowing him to purposefully re-frame the original visual impulse into a more intriguing scenario. Dillon's paintings are represented in numerous public collections, including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Ulster Museum, Belfast, the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, The Crawford Gallery Cork and the Arts Council of Ireland.Prof. Liam KellySeptember 2023
Frame size: 25.75 by 36in. (65.4 by 91.4cm)
Note: Gerard Dillon was originally from Belfast, a painter and decorator by trade, he became an artist largely by way of self education , as did fellow extant northern artists Dan O'Neill, George Campbell and Colin Middleton: all of whom exhibited at the Waddington Gallery in Dublin. They shared thematic interests and It may be noted that while they developed their distinctive styles there were pictorial exchanges between them.Before the Second World War modernist developments in Europe filtered through to Ireland and during the Emergency period, as Brian O'Doherty has recognised, isolation and the displacement of war, allowed them to be examined and related to local needs and temperament: 'An artificial situation - deprivation - was, by accident, turned into one of natural and leisurely assimilation.' It may be noted that Dillon lived and worked for periods in London with all the gallery viewing opportunities the city offered.Dillon worked in a variety of styles. At times, the artist favoured a 'storey- board' presentation of serial mages influenced by high crosses, such as those at Monasterboice, Co. Louth; collages of mixed materials; his 'Pierrot, more symbolist series and an extensive body of more naturalistic 'figure and landscape' paintings. The figurative paintings of Dillon, Dan O'Neill and Middleton often carry tensions that now, in retrospect, seem somewhat ominous and foreboding. With Middleton, a woman can frantically attempt to measure the sky, with Dillon a Pierrot figure carries the duality of the comic/tragic. During the 1940s Dillon spent time with George Campbell in Connemara. On a holiday visit to Aran Mór, Dillon made a number of paintings celebrating the life and dislocated culture of the Island. In a letter to Madge Connolly it is clear he relishes the desolate, primitive nature of the landscape and crashing seascapes. He declares to her: 'My God, It was the most glorious holiday I've ever had'. The letter included eleven drawings, with one of Kilronan village, originally a fishing village. A currach has traditionally been used in the West and South West of Ireland to transport goods and animals between islands, as well as fishing. It takes its form when animal skins are stretched over a wooden frame. As such its design has a natural, sensual, primitive and somewhat atavistic presence. The artist painted a number of works which included currachs, such as 'Harbour Wall, Kilronan, Inishmór, Aran Islands' (1944) with upturned currach. In 'The Cottage Window' we also glimpse through the window two men carrying a currach over their heads like an extended communal hat. The location of the painting under review is again the village of Kilronan in the 1940s. Unlike the earlier painting which is bright, there is here something of a foreboding atmosphere. There is a contrast between the quotidian activity among the background figures, in more native dress, and the three figures in the foreground. We witness the gangly elongated youth in bare feet with eyes lowered but also the apprehension in the two female figures in the boat, Summer visitors judging by their short-sleeved blouses. The colours are sombre; the mainland in the distance dark and the sea lapping the shore becoming choppy - perhaps indicating an imminent storm and calling for a decision whether or not to push off shore. The oval composition, delineated by the sweep of the shoreline, contributes to the introspective atmosphere; the somewhat cubistic ascending village houses with their 'window' eyes, looking on.As demonstrated by this painting, the West of Ireland sparked his imagination, allowing him to purposefully re-frame the original visual impulse into a more intriguing scenario. Dillon's paintings are represented in numerous public collections, including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Ulster Museum, Belfast, the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, The Crawford Gallery Cork and the Arts Council of Ireland.Prof. Liam KellySeptember 2023
Frame size: 25.75 by 36in. (65.4 by 91.4cm)
Condition
Excellent condition.
Medium
oil on canvas
Signature
signed lower right; inscribed on artist's label on reverse; also with Waddington Galleries label on reverse
Provenance
Purchased from the Waddington Galleries, Montreal, February 1962;Private collection
