Auction Date:2012 Oct 01 @ 18:00 (UTC+1)
Location:Clyde Hall, Royal Dublin Society (RDS), Ballsbridge, Dublin, Dublin, ., Ireland
Roderic O'Conor (1860-1940) - COASTAL SCENE, EVENING or TURBULENT SEA , BRITTANY, c.1898-1899
oil on board
with Atelier stamp lower right; with inscribed Mervyn and Pat Solomon Collection label on reverse; also with Browse & Darby Ltd [London] label on reverse
10 by 13.25in., 25 by 34cm.
Artist's Studio Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente O'Conor, 7 February, 1956;
Browse and Darby Gallery, London;
Collection Mervyn and Pat Solomon, Belfast;
Private collection
'Roderic O'Conor - Shades of a Master', The Hunt Museum, Limerick, 26 June to 31 August 2003, catalogue no. 11
Benington, J., Roderic O'Conor 1860-1940, Dublin 1992, catalogue no. 78 as Coastal Scene, Evening
Roderic O'Conor's early love of the sea as subject matter for his paintings was already in evidence before he left Ireland for France in 1886 to further his artistic career in Paris. On a visit to Aberystwyth in Wales circa 1883-85 he produced several paintings in the realist tradition with one in particular, On the Shore, Aberystwyth, featuring waves breaking against foreground rocks. These early Aberystwyth paintings provide us with a valuable reference to his then conservative approach that contrasts with the more subjective, expressionistic, and interpretive seascapes which he painted in Brittany before the end of the 19th Century. Coastal Scene, Evening is a good example of the extent to which his own painting developed in response to the lively exhibition scene and stylistic changes which defined painting in 'fin de siècle' Paris, and which identified the city as the art centre of the world.
Within the first year of his arrival in France, O'Conor visited the popular artists' colony in the small town of Pont-Aven in southern Brittany and after several subsequent annual summer visits he took up residence there in 1891. His friendship with Paul Gauguin in Pont-Aven in 1894-95 and his affiliation with Gauguin's circle of artists acted as a catalyst to his artistic development, and he gained the respect of his closest friends who admired the breadth of his knowledge and his considerable skill as a colourist.
Coastal Scene, Evening belongs to a period in O'Conor's career when, after Gauguin's final departure from France for the South Seas in1895 and the gradual break-up of his group, he sought a quieter existence and moved to Rochefort-en-Terre in Morbihan. From there he made a visit to the Brittany coast in 1898, favouring that stretch of coastline between le Pouldu and Doëlan to the south of Pont-Aven. From the coastal path he made numerous paintings looking westwards over the rocky foreshore to the surging Atlantic, and in this case a turbulent sea, which stretched before him. These paintings range from the boldly expressive to the refined and detailed, and his marine works include a significant number of small paintings, of which Coastal Scene, Evening is typical. The high horizon line implies an elevated viewing position but the absence of foreground rocks, other than the one which juts into the composition from the left, confirms that the painter was close to the breaking waves, probably standing directly on the rocks rather than on the cliff path. The view is towards the sun but the colour range, with its absence of warm hues, would suggest an early afternoon rather than an evening light. This small and lively painting is spontaneously and boldly executed through O'Conor's typical painting method in similar works in which he used the brush as a drawing tool, leaving some of the ground to show through as he does here in the foreground. Few larger and more finished paintings have been identified which relate directly to O'Conor's numerous small seascapes of this type, leading to the reasonable conclusion that such works were painted primarily as studies or sketches.
Roy Johnston
August, 2012
Auction Location:
Clyde Hall, Royal Dublin Society (RDS), Ballsbridge, Dublin, Dublin, ., Ireland
Previewing Details:
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