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Roderic O’Conor RHA (1860-1940) A BRETON FISHERMAN stamped "atelier O’CONOR" on reverse oil on ca...

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Roderic O’Conor RHA (1860-1940) A BRETON FISHERMAN stamped atelier O’CONOR on reverse oil on ca...
Roderic O’Conor RHA (1860-1940)
A BRETON FISHERMAN
stamped "atelier O’CONOR" on reverse
oil on canvas
81 by 60cm., 32 by 23.5in.
Provenance:
Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Vente O’Conor, 7 February 1956;
Gerolano Moghini, Lugano, Switzerland;
Sotheby’s, London, 3 November 1982, Lot 92;
Sotheby’s, London, 21 September 1983, Lot 142;
Larry Powell, Dublin;
James Adam, Dublin, March 1990;
Milmo Penny Fine Art, Dublin;
Private Collection, Dublin
Literature:
Jonathan Benington, Roderic O’Conor, a Biography with a Catalogue of his Work,
Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1992, page 190, catalogue no.14
This powerful and affecting character study was painted circa 1891, at the
beginning of O’Conor’s thirteen-year association with the province of Brittany.
It portrays an old Breton fisherman, no doubt from the famous fishing port of
Concarneau, which O’Conor is known to have visited from his base in the nearby
town of Pont-Aven. In fact, so struck was the Irishman with the craggy features
and stoic expression of this model that he painted him no less than five times.
The largest of these hung for many years in the Grand Salon of the Hôtel Julia
in Pont-Aven. Another, titled The Cider Drinker, is in the collection of the
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, while a head-and-shoulders version hangs in
the Musée de Pont-Aven. [The final work in the series, Head of an old Man, oil
on panel, 18 by 14.5 inches, sold recently in these rooms – Whyte’s, 19 November
2002, Lot 68, €36,000].
Portraits of male models are rare in O’Conor’s oeuvre and for him to paint the
same model, whether male or female, so many times is quite exceptional (with the
sole exclusion of self-portraits). It would appear that the well educated
O’Conor, living on an allowance from his father, acquired a genuine affinity for
this humble French peasant whose life of hardship almost seems etched into his
face. The many sittings that must have been necessary for the series of
pictures, when translated into modelling fees, would have been a welcome source
of additional income to the old fisherman during the harsh winter months, when
few boats were able to go out.
Oilskins aside, the features and demeanour of O’Conor’s sitter have a timeless
quality, conjuring up allusions to Baroque portraits of the saints and apostles
by artists such as Ribera and Guercino. The strong light-dark contrasts in the
present picture further evoke the work of the old masters. O’Conor would have
come across such paintings in the museum collections of London, Paris and
Antwerp, which he knew intimately. Aged just 30 or 31, it is worth remembering
that he was a classically trained artist still at an early stage in his career,
who knew full well that the Paris Salon would only accept paintings for
exhibition which demonstrated an awareness of the great artists of the past.
O’Conor’s respect for traditional values in art remained evident well into the
twentieth century, as can be seen in a letter he penned to Clive Bell on 30
December 1909:
"I am tired of the modern critics and their new fangled jargon - their ‘learned
brushwork’ their ‘sustained values’ their ‘scholarly realisations’ - I'd as soon
listen to the old blokes with their mouths full of chiaroscuro, morbidezza,
corregiosity and gusto. They distracted you from their ignorance with the roll
of their vocabulary and lulled you to sleep to the sound of muffled drums."
Jonathan Benington
October 2003
€60,000-€80,000 (£42,000-£56,000 sterling approx.)
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