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WHYTES
SINCE 1783
,
I
19
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 20¼in. (48 by 51cm)
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.
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.
For complete catalogue essay visit
www.whytes.ieDr Éimear O’Connor HRHA
Author and Research Associate-TRIARC Irish Art Research
Centre,TCD
October 2012
€
8,000-
€
10,000 (£6,400-£8,000 approx.)
20
William Conor OBE RHA RUA ROI (1881-1968)
TEN MINUTES CRAIC
ink and crayon on paper
signed lower right; titled and dated [1957] in another hand on reverse
9 by 6½in. (23 by 15cm)
Provenance:
Taylor de Vere, 5 December 1990, lot 48;
Where purchased by the present owner
€
2,000-
€
3,000 (£1,600-£2,400 approx.)