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Gerard Dillon (1916-1971)
THE FISH EATERS, 1946
oil on board
signed lower right; Arts Council of Ireland label on reverse
17.25 by 21in. (43.82 by 53.34cm)
Provenance:
C.E.M.A. Collection, Tyrone House;
Arts Council of Northern Ireland;
Sotheby’s, 24 November 1993, lot 29;
Private collection;
Sotheby’s, 13 May 2005, lot 97;
Private collection
Exhibited:
‘Gerard Dillon Retrospective’, Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 5 January to 4 February 1973, cata-
logue no. 24
Literature:
S. B. Kennedy, ‘Irish Art & Modernism 1880-1950, Belfast, 1991, p.141 (illustrated)
In The Fish Eaters Gerard Dillon draws inspiration from Celtic manuscripts and the relief carving on the
High Crosses that he studied while staying with his friend, the artist Nano Reid, in Drogheda. Dillon and
Reid went out sketching to Monasterboice and Mellifont Abbey in the Boyne Valley where they studied the
architecture and the relief carving on the monumental High Crosses which date from the tenth century.
While staying with Reid in 1950, Dillon wrote to the Australian art historian Bernard Smith, ‘I’ve done a lot
of watercolours from early Christian carvings on an old Celtic Cross near here, they are wonderful - all the
male figures have got big walrus moustaches like Douglas Hyde, the last President.’ (1)
The ‘big walrus moustaches’ that Dillon admired, one of which can be seen in The Fish Eaters, originate on
Muiredach’s Cross at Monasterboice. Like the Tall Cross at the same site, Muiredach’s Cross is a ‘scripture
cross’ carved with scenes from the Bible. In later paintings such as Holy Island, Dillon included balding
figures with long curling moustaches that are comic self-portraits. The resemblance between the moustached
figure in The Fish Eaters and the artist is not as obvious as it is in later works but this may still be an instance
of the artist putting himself into the painting.
As Niamh NicGhabhann has pointed out in her essay in the catalogue for the exhibition Nano Reid and
Gerard Dillon, the images that Dillon borrowed from the high crosses were often changed or rearranged to
suit his needs. (3) In this work, he has utilised the stylised figurative style and flattened perspective from high
crosses to create a scene of four figures eating a meal of fish and potatoes. The bottle of Chianti in its tradi-
tional fiasco bottle, brings a contemporary note to what could otherwise be a timeless scene. From the win-
dow a west of Ireland landscape is visible and the statue of the Madonna and Child also helps to contextualise
the scene.
Unlike the similar work, Fast Day, which is now in the Drogheda Municipal Collection at Highlanes Gallery,
The Fish Eaters does not feature the stylised patterning taken directly from Celtic manuscripts such as The
Book of Kells. And yet, the simple dress and bare feet of the four figures, which appear to be two men and
two women, are more austere than other paintings of this period. The unadorned interior, simple clothes and
dominance of the statue of the Madonna and Child may suggest that this is an image of a religious communi-
ty eating the traditional Friday meal of fish, or simply a very poor and pious household. Nano Reid’s painting
Friday Fare, painted in 1945, a year before The Fish Eaters, also depicts a table laden with fresh fish, wine,
fruit and vegetables, ready to be made into Friday’s dinner.