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WHYTESS I N C E 1 7 8 3
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William Conor OBE RHA RUA ROI (1881-1968)
PORTRAIT OF A RED HAIRED GIRL WEARING A GREEN BLOUSE
oil on canvas
23.50 by 19.25in. (59.69 by 48.90cm)
Provenance:
Collection of the artist, by whom bequeathed to the Linen Hall Library,
Belfast;
Sold on their behalf by the Bell Gallery, Belfast, to Mr. Courtenay
Thompson, Belfast, prior to May 1978 (Certificate of Provenance from the
Bell Gallery, dated 30 June 1989);
Whyte’s, 21 September 2004, lot 56;
Whence purchased by the present owner
Accompanied by a signed manuscript letter from the artist’s biographer, Judith C.
Wilson, who researched the history of the painting on behalf of Mr. Courtenay
Thompson, in January 1991. Also with numerous photocopied newspaper clippings
and photographs.
The sitter in this portrait has been variously identifed as ‘Red-Haired Kitty’, ‘Lily’, ‘Miss Y’,
and ‘Mrs T. Walker’. It seems likely that she is actually all of the above. A photograph
exists in Conor’s papers (now in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum), that would
appear to be the basis of the present portrait. It is squared up in preparation for transfer
to a larger composition, and on the reverse is written: “To Billy with best love from Lily”.
The same woman appears in a crayon drawing, in exact mirror image to the present
work (see Young Woman in Yellow Dress, catalogue no. 78 in the Conor exhibition,
‘Children of Ulster’, held at the McClelland Galleries, Belfast, in 1969, illustrated on p.9 of
the catalogue). Judith Wilson traced two further portraits of the same sitter. The frst
known, simply titled Kitty, was exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in
London, 1930, and was illustrated on the front cover of Colour magazine (Vol. III, No. 2,
December 1930). This work is now in the collection of the Ulster Folk and Transport
Museum. A second portrait of the same woman, this time leaning against a table, was
painted circa 1930, and reproduced in The Daily Express, 10 December 1930, where it
titled as Mrs T. Walker. It was used to illustrate an article by R. Stephen Williams, for part
of a series by him on “Beauty in Ulster”. Conor was asked to select the representative
beauties and paint their portraits, after which Williams interviewed them. The portrait
was later exhibited as Red-Haired Kitty at the Royal Academy in London, 1931, and was
illustrated in the accompanying catalogue. The following year it appeared on the front
of G.F.S. Magazine , along with a short ‘puf’ by journalist May Cunningham, eulogising
the sitter’s “charming and racy” looks. Conor evidently liked the work too, for he
showed it again, this time in Dublin at the 1936 RHA, where it was enigmatically titled
“Miss Y” and illustrated in a review of the exhibition. The present work was presumably
a favourite of the artist’s, as gallery owner Nelson Bell recollects that it formerly hung
over the freplace in Conor’s dining room in his home on Salisbury Avenue, Belfast.
€4,000-€5,000 (£3,360-£4,200 approx)
38
William Conor OBE RHA RUA ROI (1881-1968)
MOLLY, c.1925
pencil and conté on paper
signed lower right; with inscribed John Magee label on reverse; also with
contemporary newspaper clipping affixed on reverse
11.25 by 9in. (28.58 by 22.86cm)
Provenance:
John Magee, Belfast;
Private collection
€800-€1,200 (£670-£1,010 approx)
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Hans Iten RHA (1874-1930)
STILL LIFE WITH CHRYSANTHEMUMS IN SILVER JUG
oil on canvas board
signed lower left; with small hand-written label on reverse detailing artist’s
name and dates
20 by 16in. (50.80 by 40.64cm)
€1,500-€2,000 (£1,260-£1,680 approx)