WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 2 December 2019

82 65 Colin Middleton MBE RHA RUA (1910-1983) EARLY MORNING IN DUNDRUM, 1964 oil on board signed with monogram lower right; signed, titled and dated on reverse 23 by 23in. (58.4 by 58.4cm) Provenance: Tom Caldwell Gallery; Estate of the purchaser Exhibited: ‘Colin Middleton’, Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, December 1965, catalogie no. 18 Early Morning: Dundrum is likely to have been the painting of the same title included in Colin Middle- ton’s 1965 exhibition at the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery in Dublin. It was one of three paintings included that were inspired by this picturesque village near the Mournes, completed at a time when the Middleton family kept their caravan in that area for holidays. The 1965 exhibition charts a move in Middleton’s landscape painting, a topographical change from north Antrim to County Down which also marked a shift in his interests as a painter. The austerity and abstrac- tion inspired in his work at the beginning of this decade by the specific geological nature of County Antrim, slowly gives way to a treatment of the landscape where pictorial structure and technique is also driven by more transitory effects of light and weather. These would become even more central in Middle- ton’s paintings around Lough Erne later in the decade. Early Morning: Dundrum demonstrates the manner in which Middleton was exploring this changing lan- guage. A diverse range of repeated marks leading the eye towards the horizon expresses the scale and texture of the landscape around the Mournes, while the lighter palette almost recalls Middleton’s paint- ings of the 1950s, as does the impasto in the sky. Dickon Hall, November 2019. €10,000-€15,000 (£8,620-£12,930 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid Lot 65