17

Nano Reid (1900-1981) OLD TOWN WALLS signed lower right; original exhibition labels (3) on revers...

Currency:EUR Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA
Nano Reid (1900-1981) OLD TOWN WALLS signed lower right; original exhibition labels (3) on revers...
Nano Reid (1900-1981)
OLD TOWN WALLS
signed lower right; original exhibition labels (3) on reverse
oil on masonite board
51 by 61cm., 20 by 24in.
Provenance:
Mollie Reid (the artist’s sister), Drogheda;
Private collection, Drogheda
Exhibited:
Irish Exhibition of Living Art, Dublin, 1957, catalogue no. 61 (£45-0-0);
‘Nano Reid Retrospective’, Municipal Gallery, Dublin, and Ulster Museum,
Belfast, November 1974 - February 1975, catalogue no. 52;
‘Nano Reid 1905-1981’, Taylor Galleries, Dublin, May 1984, catalogue no. 2
Literature:
Declan Mallon, Nano Reid, Sunnyside Publications, Drogheda, 1994, illustrated on
p.82
Nano Reid believed passionately in the preservation of Ireland’s - and
particularly the Boyne Valley’s – cultural and historical monuments. Old Town
Walls depicts at its centre the 13th century St. Lawrence’s Gate (incorrectly
identified as St. John’s Gate on reverse), with Millmount, a twelth century
Norman motte at top left, overlooking the town of Drogheda. At the time it was
painted, only two of the original four gates in the town’s medieval south wall
remained: St Lawrence’s Gate and the Butter Gate. This latter was shortly
afterwards dismantled by the town’s authorities, who believed it to be in such a
state of disrepair as to represent a public danger. However, the building was
not destroyed without provoking a storm of protest from Reid, who on the 26th
July 1958 wrote to the editor of the Drogheda Independent, railing against the
proposed demolition and suggesting a subsription be raised for its repair.
Ending on a grimly pessimistic note, she questioned whether the townspeople
appreciated their local antiquities, quoting a “remark overheard a few days ago:
‘What was it only a heap of rubble’. Let’s hope not”. Declan Mallon cites this
letter and records: “The incident caused Nano to continually rail against the
authorities so much so that Gerard Dillon in inimical style, christened her
‘Butter Gate Reid’” (op. cit., p.83). With a copy of the Taylor Gallery
catalogue on reverse.
€8,000-€10,000 (£5,600-£7,000 sterling approx.)