48
WHYTES
SINCE 1783
,
51
Seán Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977)
LOADING AND UNLOADING TURF BOATS, CONNEMARA, c.1940s
oil on board
signed lower right; with Victor Waddington Galleries label on reverse
19
by 20.25in. (48.26 by 51.44cm)
Provenance:
Private collection since early 1940s
This example of Seán Keating’s work, which is known as
Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara
(
c.1939-46)
is one
of a series of studies and paintings of the western seaboard of Ireland and the Aran Islands that the artist began in c.1939
and concluded in the late 1940s.There was no indigenous turf on the Aran Islands, so it was necessary to have the fuel
brought over from the mainland on boats that looked like currachs, but were larger versions called bád iomartha. Keating’s
image shows the boats being loaded with turf in Connemara.There are three bád iomartha in the little harbour; two masts
are visible and one is anchored in view in the shallow waters. In the background, another bád iomartha is at full sail and
headed west across the North Atlantic sea towards one of the Aran Islands.Two older men sit and watch as the others work
hard to load the rest of the turf onto the boats before night falls, or the brooding storm, evident in the dark clouds beyond,
intensifies enough to put a halt to the day’s work. In the background, the sun has parted the skies to illuminate the tiny
whitewashed and thatched cottages that dotted the coastline between Spiddal and Carraroe.
The arrangement of the pictorial elements in this study is demonstrative of the artist’s concern with the use of photography
and cine-film footage as a means to construct his compositions. Indeed, as a result of his interest in such technology
Loading
and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara
has a lot in common in terms of composition with another example by the artist,
Loading the Turf Cart,The Quay, Kilmurvey
(
c. 1940)
,
which was sold in Dublin in 2006.The two men in the red cart drawn by a
white horse in the background, and the bád iomartha anchored in the shallow harbour, make an appearance in both images.
Such repetition was not unusual for Keating at that time. His paintings of the western seaboard and the Aran Islands were
enduringly popular.The re-use of certain vignettes and compositional elements helped to create a readily recognisable body
of work on the topic, while at the same time, his artistic familiarity with the material allowed the artist time to complete
several studies and commissioned paintings featuring the traditional ways of life which were then still evident. Furthermore,
Keating’s use of a camera and cine-camera to capture the habitual routines of the west of Ireland people, which he then
transferred to canvas or paper, gave a sense of validity and authenticity to his work. As a result, images such as
Loading and
Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara
,
although composed from individual vignettes, are studies of contemporary history, and
as such, they are important visual documentary evidence of a traditional way of life now lost to modernity.
Keating exhibited with the Victor Waddington Gallery in Dublin, and he also had his work framed there throughout the 1940s.
It is of significance to note that
Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara
is still in its original Victor Waddington
frame. An uncommon find, the original frame and Waddington label are important and integral components of the work.
Significantly, the frame is a little more decorative than the artist could have afforded to use. Hence, it seems reasonable to
assume that the artist either sold or, as seems more likely, gifted the work to the owner, who then brought it, on Keating’s
advice, to Waddington to be suitably framed.The painting has remained in the same private collection since, a fact that
explains the survival of the frame.The subject of
Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara
seems to be related to a
painting by the artist titled
Turf Boats, Connemara
(1946)
which entered a private collection at that time and has not been
seen in public since.
Dr Éimear O’Connor HRHA
Author and Research Associate-TRIARC Irish Art Research Centre,TCD
October 2012
€
20,000-
€
30,000 (
£16,000-£24,000 approx