20 by 24in. (50.8 by 61cm)

Title: THE WHITE BIRD, 1941-2
Note: Much of Mary Swanzy's work of the 1940s can be described as dark in nature. It is a period within her oeuvre which includes both the "grotesque" and the "fantastical" - drawing comparisons with Goya - as well as depictions of deep despair in response to war. The White Bird, however, which is dated 1941-1942, hovers above the gloom and offers the viewer some light and relief. After her home in London was bombed in 1942 Mary Swanzy returned to Dublin to live with her younger sister Muriel in St Brendan's in Coolock for three years and it was around this time she painted a contemporary to the present painting, Clown by Candlelight (Collection of National Gallery of Ireland, NGI 1415) which has been described as "her visual response to the troubled mid-war period, and to her own hopes and uncertainty about the future."(1) The White Bird might be read in much the same way.Colour is used to dramatic effect in this painting, which is broken into three parts. The ominous landscape in the foreground recalls the jagged red hills from another work of the period, Hindu Ascetic, 1942 (sold Whyte's 4 October 2010, lot 101, Private collection). Here the clashing red and blue/green tones reinforce the threatening nature of this terrain while the fluid movement of line and colour simultaneously draws the eye into the composition, while also appearing to spew out beyond the picture plane. The golden glow of the opening to the center is the enigmatic focal point. The flattened vertical brush strokes here serve to draw the eye upwards where stratus clouds stretch the width of the canvas punctuated only by a single white bird in mid flight. The 'peace dove' - as it might be interpreted - and the apocalyptic nature of landscape lends a biblical quality to the scene, a modern, and more optimistic perhaps, take on Francis Danby's The Opening of the Sixth Seal, 1828 (Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, NGI no. 162, purchased in 1871). However, unlike the horror of Danby's painting, here there is no human suffering visible. Whether an eruption has taken place or is yet to come is unclear. Given the dread and uncertainty that gripped the world at the time of its composition, Swanzy's typically non prescriptive title seems even more appropriate.Adelle Hughes,September 2024Footnote:1 http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/objects/2804/clown-by-candlelight
Frame dimensions: 28 by 32in. (71.1 by 81.3cm)

Excellent condition.

oil on canvas

signed and dated [41] lower left; titled, dated [42] and numbered [13] on label on reverse