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-
!
70,0
WHYTES
SINCE 1783
,
37
Aloysius C. OʼKelly (1853-1936
)
BRETON WOMEN IN A KITCHEN, 1905 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right; with Ludwig
Katzenstein Fine Arts label [Baltimore] on reverse 39 by 32.25in. (99.06 by 81.92cm)
Provenance: with Ludwig Katzenstein Fine Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland; Private collection
In the Pension Gloanec, where OʼKelly lived while in Pont-Aven, fellow artist, Corwin K. Linson noted
the two great Breton beds ʻflanking the firesideʼ where slept ʻthe mistress and her maidsʼ. A number
of OʼKelly paintings in the first decade of the twentieth century are set in the famous pension: Breton
Woman Cleaning Pans (1909), Breton Women by the Fireside (probably exhibited as Devant le Feu
at the Salon in 1908), By the Fireside (exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in the same year) and,
it would seem, this earlier 1905 painting may also have been painted there.
During the long summer breaks from the École, artists from all nationalities made their way to
Brittany, in keeping with the cult of peasant Realism that swept through the salons of France. But the
aesthetic of modernity engaged few Irish artists who tended to identify with the more naturalistic
modes of representing rural experience. It was in Brittany that OʼKelly learned to reconcile a range of
styles derived from both traditional and avant-garde art, in effect blending academic, Realist and
plein-air elements into an innovative mode of rural Naturalism.
These paintings demonstrate a marked stylistic cohesion and show OʼKellyʼs ability to handle figures
in increasingly complex interior spaces. In these, OʼKellyʼs academic draughtsmanship and painti g
skills are evidence of his training with the illustrious Jean-Léon Gérôme, acquired while a student in
the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the 1870s.
OʼKellyʼs connections to Brittany lasted for over fifty years, from his first sojourn in the mid 1870s,
while a student in Paris, to his final visits in the 1920s. Indeed OʼKelly was the first Irish artist to
discover Brittany. Pont-Aven and Concarneau were his main haunts, but he travelled extensively
around the various painting spots of the peninsula over five decades.
Some late nineteenth-century painters, like OʼKelly, responded to the pressures of modernism by
employing Impressionist techniques for outdoor subjects while retaining more academic methods for
indoor genre scenes. This painting holds traditional high finish and modern informality in the balance.
The strong architectonic qualities are countered by a looseness of handling. The tonation is achieved
by the addition of vibrant touches of green, blue and red, enlivening what is otherwise a
predominantly muted palette.
The upright figure is strong, the two girls sitting on the floor utterly delightful. The still-life elements -
furniture, pottery, brass and copper - are rugged and rustic but, paradoxically, subtle and charming.
Prof. Emeritus Niamh OʼSullivan October, 2013
For another Breton scene by the artist see lot 39.
€25,000-€35,000 (£21,010-£29,410 approx.)
