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Aloysius O’Kelly (1850-1929) THE MARKET PLACE, TANGIER signed lower left; also inscribed "Tangier...

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Aloysius O’Kelly (1850-1929) THE MARKET PLACE, TANGIER signed lower left; also inscribed  Tangier...
Aloysius O’Kelly (1850-1929)
THE MARKET PLACE, TANGIER
signed lower left; also inscribed "Tangier" lower left (obscured beneath frame);
remains of label on reverse
oil on canvas
32 by 37cm., 12.5 by 14.5in.
Provenance:
William Doyle, New York, 16 November 1988, lot no. 25;
Phillips, London, 13 June 1989, lot no. 92;
Pym’s Gallery, London, circa 1990;
Private collection, Surrey
Exhibited:
Museum of Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (details untraced);
’Aloysius O’Kelly – Re-Orientations: Paintings, Politics and Popular Culture’,
Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 25 November 1999 – 30 January 2000,
catalogue no. 35
Aloysius O’Kelly studied with the quintessential orientalist, Jean-Léon Gérôme,
in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in the mid 1870s. Although O’Kelly’s
ethnographic realism bears a close resemblance to that of his master, the
concept of an Irish orientalist, especially one so militantly republican as
O’Kelly, makes very interesting viewing. By representing oriental societies as
backward or ‘other’, many orientalist painters became the spin-doctors of the
imperial project. The connections between orientalist scholarship and European
imperialism is undeniable; as the former was used to justify the latter,
stereotypical characteristics were abstracted as evidence of the inability of
whole countries to rule themselves. The authenticating realism of the
orientalist style of painting is read as evidence of this complicity. Both
orientalism and the picturesque are bound up with the antithetical imperatives
of destroying and preserving endangered species, habitats and customs – to be
destroyed because they were unworthy of preservation and to be preserved because
the preserver was superior enough to do so. But no such patronisation is evident
in the work of O’Kelly. This painting is concerned with the daily lives of the
citizens of Tangier. The informality of poses and the style of painting is
looser and more expressionistic than that normally associated with orientalist
art. France, recognising its strategic importance and economic potential,
penetrated Morocco in 1844. Although ultimately obliged to accept the
territorial integrity of the country, and agree to equal trade for all, France
continued to press her own advantage. One of the areas where it encountered most
resistance was from the tribesmen of the Riff Mountains in the north. In so far
as Market Place Tangier is stylistically close to O’Kelly’s critically
well-received painting, The Musician, set in the Riff Mountains, it is clear
from these, and other titles, that he spent a considerable period of time in
Morocco in the late nineteenth century.
Dr Niamh O’Sullivan
Dublin, March 2004.
€12,000-€15,000 (£8,000-£10,100 sterling approx.)