40
WHYTES
SINCE 1783
,
52
Mainie Jellett (1897-1944)
PAINTING, 1930
oil on canvas
signed and dated lower right; with small hand-written label on
reverse; with Irish Art Exhibition [Brussels] label inscribed with
artist’s name, address [36 Fitzwilliam Sq., Dublin] and title; with
Corporation of Dublin exhibition label on reverse; also with
James Bourlet & Son’s label on reverse
30 by 36in. (76 by 91cm)
Provenance:
Mr & Mrs James Creed Meredith K.C., LL.D. (1875-1942);
Thence by descent to the present owner
Exhibited:
Irish Art Exhibition, Brussels, May 1930;
‘Mainie Jellett Retrospective Exhibition’, Hugh Lane Gallery
Dublin, July - October 1962, catalogue no. 3;
Handwritten label verso reads: 34. / oil / 30 by 36 / A054 / Painting
Brussels / Ref Abstract.
In 1921 the young Irish artists Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone arrived in
Paris to study with the Cubist master André Lhote. Jellett and Hone
had studied in London under Walter Sickert where they absorbed
important lessons in anatomy and classical portraiture, but this wasn’t
enough, they wanted to be ‘modern’ and in the early 1920s the terms
‘Modern’ and ‘Cubist’ were synonymous. Lhote was one of the first
generation of Cubists, having shown in the second public exhibition of
Cubism at the Salon des Indépendents of 1912. Following the
Armistice in late 1918, cultural activity was renewed in Paris and Lhote
opened an academy where a significant number of Irish artists were
taught to paint along cubist principles. From work produced by Jellett
at this time, we know that working from the nude model, seated
portraits, and still-lifes were central to the curriculum. For Jellett and
Hone this was too similar to the training they had received in London,
so in 1922 they famously asked to be taken on as students by the
painter Albert Gleizes, who had neither an academy nor an open
studio. Gleizes had been developing a form of Cubist abstraction more
in tune with Mondrian than Picasso and in 1920 published ‘Du
Cubisme et les moyens de le comprendre’
1
, arguing that “Cubism had
been a search for a precise scientific method to replace the old
scientific method of single point perspective, and that the essential
elements of this new method are now known”
2
.
Working together, the artists developed a system of ‘translation and
rotation’ the early result of which, Jellett’s
Painting, 1923
(National
Gallery of Ireland) was shown at the Dublin Painters Gallery that year
to critical derision. Although on first glance
Painting ,1923
is abstract,
closer inspection of the format, composition, medium, and patterning
relate it directly to early Renaissance religions icons like Cimabue’s
Maestà
(c.1280).This was not co-incidental. Although much of the
modern movement was fiercely secular, Gleizes, Jellett and Hone
maintained a deeply Christian faith and sought to integrate Christian
imagery into their modern vision.Through the mid-20s they worked
on a series of ‘Elements’ paintings – largely abstract exercises in colour
and form. In 1927-28 Jellett produced her major work
Homage to Fra
Angelico
, a cubist interpretation of Angelico’s
Coronation of the Virgin
(c.1435, Louvre, Paris).This is a mature work in Jellett’s oeuvre
demonstrating the successful cubist reduction of a form with
traditional religious content, something we also see in the present
work,
Painting, 1930
.
An unusual feature of
Homage to Fra Angelico
and
Painting
is the
colour palette. In the case of
Homage
the colours range from mustard-
green through to taupe and similarly
Painting, 1930,
utilises ochres
and umbers reminiscent of brick burned by the sun. It is likely that the
‘L’Exposition des Arts Décoratifs’ in Paris in 1925 may have influenced
this.This major exhibition of Art Deco included pavilions from around
the Francophone world such as the colonies Tunisia, Morocco and
Algeria and so the colours and light of North Africa would have
permeated the visual plane.The source of the vertical, tripartite
composition of
Painting, 1930,
can be compared to a typical
quattrocento
painting like Perugino’s
Madonna and Child with St John
the Baptist and St Sebastian
(1493) which could be considered an
evolution from the earlier work by Cimabue. Certainly the composition
of
Painting, 1930
reflects the architectural setting within a vaulted
space, with the Virgin and Child seated on a dais. Jellett would go on
to further simplify this composition in one of her most important
works
The Madonna of Éire
(1943, NGI) in which Saints Patrick and
Brigid are seen either side of the Virgin. In these late works, Jellett
combines influences from Celtic art and familiar images of the Virgin
but produces a resolutely ‘modern’ image thereby making cubism and
abstraction more palatable to a conservative audience.
Seán Kissane, Curator, IMMA
April 2014
Author & Curator: ‘Analysing Cubism’, Irish Museum of Modern Art,
Dublin and Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, 2013
1
On Cubism and the means to understand it.
2
Peter Brooke, Albert Gleizes, Chronology of his life, 1881-1953.
€
20,000-
€
30,000 (£16,530-£24,790 approx.)
