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Thomas Ryan PPRHA (b.1929)
1916 RISING LEADERS (SET OF 7)
conté on paper; (7)
each signed and titled lower right
15¾ x 12in. (40.01 x 30.48cm)
History paintings form part of a lesser known area of Ryan’s practice. The subjects are often of important Irish interest,
folklore or mythology. Of these paintings the artist notes, The impulse to do [them] is of a different kind to that of
wanting to paint, say, a landscape. That particular urge is almost always motivated by a reaction to a new view... Painting
history is a slower process. It derives from a shared awareness of a historical event or a remembered story from an
ancient saga that triggers the impulse. A potent legend and one of consequence to the country, North and South is the
still strongly felt effect of ‘The Flight of the Earls’ and the more recent ‘Easter Rising, G.P.O., 1916’ shown at ‘Cuimhneachán
1916’, Taispeántas Ealaíne i gComóradh Éirí Amach na Cásca, 1916’, Municipal Gallery of Art, Dublin, 12 Aibreán - 24
Bealtaine 1966, no. 50. The artist’s poignant scene on canvas showing the rebels defending the G.P.O. is illustrated in
Thomas Ryan Oil Paintings, Nicholson & Bass, 2009, p.82-83.
For an example of another work shown at ‘Cuimhneachán 1916’, the 1966 Golden Jubilee exhibition see lot 126 by Brett
McEntagart.”
€8000-€12000 (£6080-£8640 approx.)