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IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART · 29 FEBRUARY 2016
14
Frank McKelvey RHA RUA (1895-1974)
NEAR TRAMORE, COUNTY DONEGAL
oil on canvas
titled on reverse; also with Del (deliver) to 58 Howard St./ 1st Floor” [McKelvey’s studio address from c.1936] in pencil on
stretcher on reverse”
20¼ x 24½in. (51.44 x 62.23cm)
Provenance:
Whyte’s, 26 November 2012, lot 80;Private collection
Exhibited:
possibly exhibited as Tramore Bay, Co. Donegal, RHA, Dublin, 1949, catalogue no. 139
The setting for this work must be Tramore Strand, near Dunfanaghy, County Donegal, where McKelvey often worked
from the mid-1920s onwards. Judged stylistically, however, this painting must date from the mid-to-late 1940s and it
may be the Tramore Bay, Co. Donegal composition that was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1949. Prior
to the late 1920s and early 1930s McKelvey’s style was much more representational, as his Children in a Park, 1922, or
Evening, Ballycastle, c. 1924 (Ulster Museum), for example show (see S. B. Kennedy, Frank McKelvey, RHA, RUA: A Painter
in his Time, 1993, plates 2 and 5 respectively); but thereafter his loose, Impressionist-derived manner took over (Kennedy,
1993, plate 36, illustrates the point) as can be seen here too. The free brushwork employed in the rendering of the sea,
especially where it breaks upon the shore, and in the foreground, well exemplify these developments. The gentle hills
and overall calm, fresh mood of the scene are also typical of McKelvey’s way of recording the Irish landscape. The title of
the picture is inscribed in pencil on the reverse of the canvas along with his studio address [on stretcher].
Dr S.B. Kennedy
€5000-€7000 (£3800-£5040 approx.)
Large Image & Place Bid Lot 14