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Seán Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977)
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERNWORLD - ‘HELEN AND THE HOLY PROPHETS’
oil on panel
signed lower right; numbered [5] on reverse
36 x 29½in. (91.44 x 74.93cm)
Provenance:
Acquired at the Dawson Gallery, Dublin, early 1950s;
Thence by family descent to the previous owner;
Whyte’s, 30 April 2007, lot 90;
Private collection;
Whyte’s, 30 May 2011, lot 37;
Private collection
Exhibited:
Aonach Tailteann, Dublin, 1928 as Helen and the Holy Prophets
Literature
Synge, J.M., The Playboy of the Western World, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1927
Seán Keating has become synonymous with the west of Ireland in general, and with the Aran Islands in
particular. His association with the western seaboard began as early as 1913 and was further emphasised
through a series of self-portraits for which the artist dressed in Aran clothing. There is no evidence that
Keating ever met John Millington Synge, but in 1917 the artist exhibited a painting in the RHA titled
The Outlandish Lovers, which was inspired by The Playboy of the Western World. Synge’s nephew,
known as ‘Hutchie’, approached Keating in 1922 with a commission to paint twelve illustrations for a
proposed deluxe volume of The Playboy of the Western World. In the event, ten of the twelve images
were published. Sir John Lavery was called upon to inspect the first four illustrations. Lavery was
greatly impressed by the realism, colour and artistic invention in the work, and he considered them of
great importance to the craft of book illustration in Ireland at that time. The full set of paintings was to
have been ready in 1926, but a delay on Keating’s part meant that the book was finally published as a
numbered series of one thousand copies in 1927. The publication has since become a collectors’ item.
It was an important and prestigious commission, and Keating took his role as an illustrator of Synge’s
work very seriously. As if to expand on Synge’s story, Keating chose scenes from the play that, for the
most part, are not seen on stage. Perhaps most interesting of all is that Keating himself makes an
appearance in the images as Christy Mahon’s father. Proving his commitment to the commission, the
artist even posed entirely nude for the scene in which Christy’s father apparently awakes from the ‘dead’
(lot 93). It is the only instance of a nude portrait of the artist in his entire career. In order to plan the
compositions in great detail Keating undertook a series of photographs using models from the school of
art. He may also have taken sketches at the theatre because many of the actors of the day appear in the
illustrations. Sara Allgood, sister of Molly for whom the role was originally written, appeared as Pegeen
Mike in a production of The Playboy of the Western World staged in 1924. The features of the female
model wrapping bandages around Christie’s head are very similar to Sara’s, but in this instance she is now
the Widow Quin. Barry Fitzgerald and F. J. McCormack, who took part in that same production in 1924,
also make an appearance in Keating’s illustrations as ‘the hairy gallant fellows’. From 1926 until circa 1936
the role of Pegeen Mike was played by Eileen Crowe, who makes an appearance in Keating’s work in the
guise of ‘Helen of Troy’, while a cast of likely-looking prophets, or Abbey actors, appear behind ‘the bars of
paradise’ in order to get a look at her.