Page 19 - Whyte'slowres

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WHYTESS I N C E 1 7 8 3
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Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980)
BARLEY MOON
oil on canvas
signed lower right; with original label on reverse
30 by 50in. (76.20 by 127cm)
Provenance:
Dawson Gallery, Dublin;
Whence purchased by the first owner;
Adam’s & Bonhams, Dublin, 30 May 2007;
Private collection
Exhibited:
‘Norah McGuinness Exhibition’, Dawson Gallery, Dublin, 1964, catalogue no. 14
In the original frame of the Dawson Gallery, Dublin.
This dark impressive landscape was exhibited at the Dawson Gallery, Dublin in 1964 during which time McGuinness had returned to live
in Ireland. Having been formally trained at the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, the Chelsea Polytechnic, London, and on Mainie
Jellett’s advice, under André l’Hôte in Paris, McGuinness, who was originally from Derry, proved to be a rounded, well travelled and
informed artist at this point in her career. The present work, which is likely to have been executed from her cottage studio in the Dublin
Mountains where she was living from 1957, shows the artist at her most confdent. Her brushwork, while loose and fuid, retains control
of technique with its precise application. The tone of Barley Moon is romantic both in title and subject matter. A full September moon
dominates the sky and flters into the body of the work before resting in a pool of creamy luminosity in the foreground of the canvas.
There is a sense of theatricality to this autumnal moonlight - an element to the work that perhaps resonates her time spent in the
theatre world, in The Abbey, Dublin in the mid-twenties and later in the Westminster Theatre in London in the mid-thirties. The spotlight
however in this case is focused on Barley Moon’s poetic lunar activity; the overall efect is sensual, mysterious and distinctly feminine.
€10,000-€15,000 (£8,400-£12,600 approx)