WHYTES IMPORTANT IRISH ART 30 MAY 2016

Tony O’Malley HRHA (1913-2003)

POND REVERIE I, 1994

oil on board

signed, titled and dated on reverse; with typed Taylor Galleries exhibition label also on reverse

48 x 48in. (121.92 x 121.92cm)

Provenance:

Taylor Galleries, Dublin;

Collection of the late Jim O’Driscoll SC

Exhibited:

‘Tony O’Malley’, Taylor Galleries, Dublin, April - May, 1996, catalogue no. 9

Literature:

Ed. Lynch, Brian, Tony O’Malley, Scolar Press in Association with the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, 1996, p. 290

(full page illustration)

This work is part of a series of pond paintings made by O’Malley over the later years of his life. In 1977 he and

his wife Jane had bought a cottage at Physicanstown in Co. Kilkenny which became their permanent home in

1990. The garden was carefully cultivated and its pond provided the inspiration for an ongoing cycle of works

that signal the stability of O’Malley’s domestic surroundings and its impact on his artwork. Thinly painted on

board Pond Reverie I explores the changing effects of sunlight on water. Reflections of light on the surface

and on the fish and plant life below are picked out in bright oranges and blues. Flecks of impasto across the

composition along with dots of flickering colourful forms suggest the vigorous organic life of the pond and

create a rich and absorbing work of art.

Dr. Róisín Kennedy

€20,000-€30,000 (£15,750-£23,620 approx.)