WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART Monday 19 October 2020

56 34 Tom Carr HRHA HRUA ARWS (1909-1999) ORMOND QUAY, DUBLIN oil on canvas signed lower right; titled on reverse 25 by 30 by 30.50in. (63.5 by 76.2 by 77.5cm) Frame size: 30.5 by 35.5in. (77 by 90cm.) Provenance: Collection of John Bryson DL (1930-2020); with Eakin Gallery, Belfast, 1998; Private collection Exhibited: ’Tom Carr HRHA, Retrospective’, RHA, Dublin, 15 November to 6 December 1989, catalogue no. 12 Literature: Mallie Eamonn, Tom Carr: An Appreciation, Express Litho Ulster Bank, 1989, p.31 (plate no. 13) A landscape and figure painter, Carr was born in Belfast and his interest in art was encouraged from an early age. In 1927 he enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art in London where he studied for two years under Henry Tonks and then travelled to Italy where he spent some of his time studying at the British School in Rome. The Queen Mother acquired one of his paintings in 1939 from an exhibition of contemporary English art in the Wildenstein Gallery, the same gallery that Carr was to have his first solo show in London a year later. In 1940 he first contributed to the Royal Hibernian Academy continuing to do so until 1957, then returning to it after an absence of thirteen years in 1971. In 1957 he included two works at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, around this time he was also teaching part-time at the Belfast College of Art and gained full membership to the RWS in 1959. In 1970 he had an exhibition of watercolours at the David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin which was well received with the Irish Times critic writing that he was: “quite definitely, the outstanding watercolourist in this country” (See Snoddy, p.80) He was a highly respected artist with one of his paintings, Deer’s Meadow being reproduced as a special postage stamp to celebrate the Ulster ’71 Festival. In 1973 he was elected an associate to the RUA winning the Gold Medal in the same year. In 1974 he was awarded an MBE which was followed in 1994 by an OBE. A major retrospective exhibition was held in 1983, firstly at the Ulster Museum and then at the Douglas Hyde Gallery. The catalogue appreciation was written by T.P. Flanagan and the exhibition consisted of 162 works covering more than fifty years of Carr’s artistic career. In 1991 he received a Doctorate of Literature at Queen’s University, two years later he was made an honorary member of the RHA and his works were exhibited at the European Parliament, Strasbourg. In 1996, a BBC film on the artist entitled ‘Sunshine in a Room’ was transmitted. In London two of his works can be found at the Tate Gallery and in the Arts Council of Great Britain collection. €10,000-€15,000 (£8,890-£13,330 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot34