46
62
Paul Henry
KEEL VILLAGE,
oil on canvas
signed lower le
18 by 20in. (45.
Provenance:
Private collecti
Adam’s, 28 May
Whence purcha
Exhibited:
‘Paintings by M
Russell (AE), Lei
Literature:
Kennedy, S.B.,
P
London, 2007, c
In original Waddi
The form of the si
signify that this c
August 1911.The
seen from the hig
the middle distan
moderate impast
painting at this ti
blues and greys t
influence that wo
foreground, is ch
composition of t
is larger, althoug
excitement at his
Dr SB Kennedy
February 2013
!
50,000-
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70,0
WHYTES
SINCE 1783
,
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Roderic OʼConor (1860-1940)
NUDE IN THE STUDIO oil on canvas with OʼConor Atelier stamp on reverse; with typed Crane
Kalman Gallery [London] label on reverse 21.75 by 18.25in. (55.25 by 46.36cm)
Provenance: with the Crane Kalman Gallery, London; Where purchased by Barnett Shine; Private
collection
This quietly contemplative nude model was painted by Roderic OʼConor in his rue du Cherche-Midi
studio in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, where he lived and painted for thirty years after his
return to Paris in 1904 following a thirteen year period of residence in Brittany at Pont-Aven and at
Rochefort-en-Terre in Morbihan.
The change in OʼConorʼs environment from rural France to the busy and artistically competitive
arena of the Paris art world early in the 20th century marked the beginning of a period of detachment
from landscape themes, and a greater engagement with traditional studio subjects, including still-
lifes, portraits, figure studies and paintings of unclothed female models.
In OʼConorʼs first-floor studio there was one entire wall comprised of small panes of glass admitting
natural light into an interior described by Clive Bell in his memoir, Old Friends (1956), as being
“spacious but gloomy.” For this painting OʼConor chose to pose his model deep in the studio interior
taking up a viewing position with his back to the wall of windows. As a result the quality of light which
illuminated his subject is soft and quite diffuse, unlike his more frequently used rich contrasts of
colour which appear in other figure paintings and still-lifes where the subject was placed much closer
to the light source. Behind the seated figure we see the solid mass of the large cast iron stove, which
was the only source of heating in his studio and which appears in many of his studio paintings.
OʼConor typically preferred to take a direct approach to his studio paintings, working initially in broad
generalised tonal masses with little preliminary drawing as he had done in his landscape paintings
from Brittany, and from Cassis in the Midi where he painted in 1913. For this portrait however,
OʼConor began by making a series of preliminary sketches and drawings of his model, both clothed
and unclothed (more than ten such drawings have been identified), with slight variations to the pose
and the positioning of her right arm, which in the painting is bent at the elbow and rests on the arm of
the chair to provide a support for her slightly inclined head.
He also worked on a heavier grade of canvas than usual having a pronounced texture to which he
applied a thin stain, deliberately leaving background areas untouched as the painting progressed.
Selected passages in the modelʼs upper body and head were similarly treated. Thicker paint was
then applied to her upper body as he modelled the forms while keeping to the generally restrained
technique and the mood of the painting. It is only in the green drapery on the armchair and in the
white sheet or towel covering her left leg that we see OʼConorʼs typically vigorous and direct brush
strokes and his mixing and blending of the oil paint directly on the canvas.
This model is also the subject of a particularly strong and highly finished portrait known by the title
Rouge et Vert which he exhibited at the Salon dʼAutomne of 1919, in which she wears a red dress
and is seated against a background of patterned red and tan fabric which is generously draped in
front of a green wall.
