Irish Arts Review

AUCTION PREVIEW: Whyte's 14 MarchSource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 28, No. 1 (SPRING (MARCH - MAY 2011)), p. 48Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41206267 .

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AUCTIONS

UNDER THE HAMMER

6JAMESBRENANRHA ( 1 837- 1 907) THE FINISHING TOUCH 1876 oil on canvas 63.5x76.2cm

confusingly, there were two near-

contemporary artists called James Brenan who

exhibited at the RHA during the 19th century. But

whereas James Butler Brenan (1825-1889) was a

competent but unimaginative portraitist, the similarly- named James Brenan (1837-1907) showed himself to

be one of the principal Irish genre painters of the

period. Originally from Cork, where he served as

headmaster of the city's School of Art from 1860-1889

(when he became head of the Metropolitan School of

Art in Dublin), he was a child prodigy who, in 1851, worked as an assistant in the Pompeian Room of the

Crystal Palace for that year's Great Exhibition. A

number of his pictures are in the collection of his native

city's Crawford Gallery, not least 1875's Letter from

America which depicts a barefoot young girl reading the

aforementioned letter to the illiterate occupants of a

humble Irish cottage. What might almost be deemed

the work's companion piece comes up for sale at

Whyte's in mid-March. Called The Finishing Touch, it

dates from the following year, 1876, when it was

exhibited at the RHA to which he was then elected an

Associate Member. The picture shows a modest,

exposed stone interior in which a man with his back to

the viewer is painting letters on a travelling box that

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^_ bears the words 'New

^^^^^^^^^^^H York', making the point

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H that then - as once more

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H now - emigration was a

^^^^^^^J^^H feature of Irish life. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H Ironically, the painting

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H seems to have spent the

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B past half-century or so

^^^^^^^^^^^H in the United States until

^^^^^^^^^^^™ brought back to this

country by a private collector. Unlike many other genre

painters, Brenan was not a sentimentalist and while his

pictures are intended to evoke an emotional response,

they avoid engaging in cheap tricks. The scene

represented in The Finishing Touch was no doubt based

on observation of the circumstances Brenan witnessed

around him and, as is regularly found in his work, there

is an abundance of little details - such as a page of

engravings torn from a magazine and tacked onto the

back wall - that make the result ring true. When shown

in the RHA 135 years ago, it was priced at £35. Whyte's estimates the picture will sell for somewhat more in

March: €10,000-€1 5,000.

CONTINUED POPULARITY OF JACK B YEATS The career of Ernie O'Malley during the War

of Independence and the Civil War is well-

known but his history over the subsequent

thirty-odd years (he died in 1957) is less

familiar. In 1928, after abandoning the med-

ical studies he had resumed following his

release from prison and recuperation, he

travelled to the United States, initially at the

behest of Éamon de Vaierà in order to raise

funds for the creation of a new Irish

Republican newspaper, the Irish Press, but

he stayed on, spending time in both New

Mexico and Mexico where he moved in artis-

tic circles. In 1933, while in New York, he

met Helen Hooker, a sculptor who came

from an affluent Connecticut family; the

couple were married in 1935 and settled in

Ireland, at first in Dublin but within a few

years they were spending more of their time

in O'Malley s native Co Mayo. In the Irish Arts

Review, Autumn 2003 their son Cormac

described how during the early years of the

O'Malley 's marriage, 'my parents made sev-

eral trips to Paris and London and while

there, they visited art galleries and muse-

ums... My parents visited galleries together, but they bought separately.' Part of his

mother's collection is now on display in the

University of Limerick. Ernie O'Malley's own interest in visual art was just as great

as that of his wife, and in the 1940s he

interviewed many contemporary Irish

artists with the intention of writing a book

on their work. Unfortunately this never

came about, but his notes have been pre- served. He was especially friendly with Jack

B Yeats and in early December Adam's of

Dublin auctioned the contents of a 1900

sketchbook, measuring 9x1 2.5cm, which

Yeats gave to O'Malley at some date. The

contents of this book were divided into

sketches made at the Galway Races in

August 1900 and other images of Lady

Gregory's home, Coole Park and of the fish-

ing village of Kinvara. In pencil and water-

colour wash, these were not finished works

but instead very much preliminary sketches, intended only for Yeats' own use.

What they lack in polish is recompensed by their spontaneity and in addition they have

the merit of offering an insight into what

engaged Yeats' attention. Because they were no more than sketches, at the Adam's

sale each page carried an estimate in the

region of €600-1 ,200 - some of the Coole

views were expected to sell for as little as

€300. In fact, all made much more than had

been anticipated with one Galway Race

study going for €5,500 and most making more than €1,000. It may have been the

O'Malley connection, it may have been the

fact that the pictures offered a way to

acquire a reasonably inexpensive work by Yeats, but either way they were a better

result than anyone might have thought pos- sible in the present circumstances.

5 JACK B YEATS RHA (1871- 1957) COW GRAZING NEAR COOLE LAKE & UNLOADING TURF AT THE PIER. KINVARA both watercolour 9x1 2.5cm

WHAT THEY LACK IN POLISH IS RECOMPENSED BY THEIR SPONTANEITY AND IN ADDITION THEY HAVE THE MERIT OF OFFERING AN INSIGHT INTO WHAT ENGAGED YEATS' ATTENTION

48 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I SPRING 2011

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