Page 64 - Whyte's Irish & British Art 4th March 2013 (Use full screen from menu for best Viewing)

64
WHYTESSINCE 1783
,
Provenance:
Christie’s, London, 23 January 2003, lot 226;
Private collection;
with The Frederick Gallery, Dublin, April 2004;
Private collection
Exhibited:
‘Spring Exhibition of Irish Art’, The Frederick Gallery,
Dublin, 3-23 April 2004, catalogue no. 3 (illustrated)
McCormick was born in Coleraine and studied at the
Government School of Design, Belfast. He later travelled to
London working with the Illustrated London Newsamong
other publications. In 1889, from Trafalgar Studios,
McCormick exhibited for the first time with the Royal
Academy, London.This would be the beginning of a 30
year relationship with the institution. Snoddy records the
artist’s address from 1895 as 58 Queen’s Road, St. John’s
Wood [as per the reverse of the present work]; the artist
resided at this address for over 40 years.The theme of
pirates began to appear in the oeuvre at the turn of the
century and the RA index of exhibitors lists two such works
shown with them in 1903 and 1904. Among the artist’s
best known commissions was the iconic sailor’s head and
shoulders on the cigarette packets for tobacco
manufacturers, John Player & Son in 1927. His works can be
found in the Victoria & Albert Museum, Imperial War
Museum and the Borough Council, Coleraine among
others. For further reading see Snoddy p.370-372.
€1,500-€2,000 (£1,300-£1,700 approx.)
85
Thomas Hovenden (1840-1895)
STUDY OF A YOUNG WOMAN SEEN IN THREE
QUARTER PROFILE FROM BEHIND
oil on canvas
signed lower left
22 by 18in. (55.88 by 45.72cm)
Provenance:
Whyte’s, 18 February 2003, lot 75;
Whence purchased by the present owner
Born in Dunmanway, Co. Cork, Hovenden was orphaned at
the age of six and thus reared in a local orphanage. At 14
years of age he was apprenticed to a Cork frame-maker by
the name of Tolerton, for whom, according to Strickland, “he
served seven years and afterwards served worked as a
journeyman.” His artistic training began at the School of Art
in Cork, where he was an acclaimed early student of James
Brenan, and was furthered from 1863 to c.1875 at the
prestigious National Academy of Design in New York. By
1875 he had left America in preference for France, settling in
the flourishing artist’s community at Pon Avon, Brittany.
Whilst his work was omitted from the seminal Irish
Impressionism exhibition of 1984, Anne Crookshank and the
Knight of Glin have surmised that he probably spent time in
contact with Aloysius O’Kelly and Augustus Nicholas Burke
( Ireland’s Painters 1600-1940, p.260). His work may be found
in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan
Museum, New York. See Strickland, Vol. I, p.528.
For further reading see: A. G.Terhune, P. Smith Scanlan,
Thomas Hovenden; His Life and Art(2006)
€1,000-€1,500 (£900-£1,300 approx.)
84
Arthur David McCormick RBA RI ROI (1860-1943)
THE PIRATE’S TRIBUNE, 1900
oil on canvas
signed and dated lower right; with the artist’s address [St. John’s
Wood] inscribed on stretcher on reverse
18 by 24in. (45.72 by 60.96cm)