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George Russell ‘Æ’ (1867-1935) PORTRAIT OF DUDLEY DIGGES, ACTOR signed with initials lower right ...

Currency:EUR Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 EUR
George Russell ‘Æ’ (1867-1935) PORTRAIT OF DUDLEY DIGGES, ACTOR signed with initials lower right ...
George Russell ‘Æ’ (1867-1935)
PORTRAIT OF DUDLEY DIGGES, ACTOR
signed with initials lower right
pastel on brown paper
46 by 37cm., 18 by 14.5in.
Dudley Digges (1879-1947), Irish actor, producer and film star, met George Russell (Æ) through their mutual involvement in Irish theatre. Digges was one of the eleven original members of the small drama company which was to become the National Theatrical Society and later the Abbey Theatre. In 1902, the company produced Æ’s Deirdre, in which Digges and his future wife Marie Quinn both took leading parts. In a letter to a friend of Æ’s, Digges remembered how the actors waited eagerly for Æ to write the third and fourth acts of the play, and that Æ both designed and painted the costumes and scenery.
Digges left for America in 1904, together with a number of actors from the company, never to return to the Irish stage. Æ said of Digges that he was always held to be the best actor they had and a great loss to the Society. Digges became well known on the American stage and later a movie star noted for his performances in the 1930s films, The Maltese Falcon and Mutiny on the Bounty.
Æ’s portraits provide an interesting contrast to his often enigmatic and whimsical sea and landscapes. They are strong and unequivocal. His portraits are few and far between though he is said to have regularly sketched likenesses in his notebooks for light relaxation.
Diana Beale, October 2002
(who is currently preparing a book on Æ as a painter)
€1,500-€2,000 (IR £1,200-£1,600 approx.)
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