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Seán Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977)
IRISH FREE STATE BACON, 1928
gouache, pencil and coloured chalk
signed lower right
39 x 59in. (99.06 x 149.86cm)
Provenance:
Paul Conran;
From whom purchased by the previous owner in October 1982; Christie’s, The Irish Sale, London, 10 May 2007, lot 74
(part); Whyte’s, 24 November 2008, lot 81;
Private collection
The Empire Marketing Board (EMB) was established in London in 1926 for the purpose of promoting the sale of produce
from countries associated with the British Empire. The methods of advertising included posters for shop windows and
outdoor billboards. Continued access to the British market was of vital economic necessity to the newly established
Irish Free State, a point that was given recognition when in 1927 the EMB commissioned Seán Keating to undertake
the design of three posters, Irish Free State Dairying, Irish Free State Bacon and Irish Free State Chicken, to advertise Irish
produce to the English market. The three posters were used around England between June and July 1929 on specially
designed outdoor billboards. Keating was familiar with the skills necessary for large-scale poster design owing to his
training at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. His brief was firmly controlled by the EMB, and at the same time,
the artist knew that the designs had to be visually specific and immediately legible. The drawing illustrated is Keating’s
innovative design for Irish Free State Bacon, which is replete with the visual iconography that was expected of Ireland
in the 1920s. However, this is a design by Keating, and therefore there is more to the image than immediately apparent.
Keating’s work for the EMB appears at first glance, to reflect an imagined view of Ireland as a rural ideal and idyll, as
dictated by the advertising concerns of the EMB. But arguably, there is degree of artistic subterfuge in the image. There
are no green rolling hills, shamrocks, shillelaghs or white thatched cottages. Instead, Keating posited an image of a
peaceful and prosperous peasantry within a well maintained farmyard, which refutes the age-old vision of misery and
deprivation in Ireland of the 1920s. The close range view and the stage-like setting combined with clear architectural
and figurative detail serves to further engage the viewer with the atmosphere of a real and flourishing farm. The appeal
in the work is therefore premised on Keating’s ability to suitably advertise Irish Free State Bacon within the limits of the
constraints set by the EMB, but without reducing the images to mere pastiche. The survival of Keating’s original design
for Irish Free State Bacon, which was intentionally ephemeral, is noteworthy, and an exceptionally rare surviving example
of Keating’s extensive career as an artist of ephemeral work.
Dr Éimear O’Connor HRHA
Research Associate
TRIARC-Irish Art Research Centre Trinity College Dublin
€ 15,000.00- € 20,000.00 (£11,190-£14,930 approx.)
Large Image & Place Bid Lot 23IMPORTANT IRISH ART ·
25 MAY 2015 AT 6PM