WHYTE'S EXCEPTIONAL IRISH ART MONDAY 7 DECEMBER 2020

90 55 Harry Kernoff RHA (1900-1974) THE ABBEY THEATRE, MARLBOROUGH STREET, DUBLIN watercolour signed lower right 9.25 by 13in. (23.5 by 33cm) Frame Size: 20 by 23.5in. (50.8 by 59.7cm) Condition: Staining visible to sides. Otherwise paper is clean and colours remain strong. It would be prudent for the future owner to replace the present mount board with conservation grade materials to protect the condition of the work going forward. Framed, window mounted and glazed. Provenance: The Collection of actress Siobhán McKenna (1923-1986); Thence by family descent Also with this lot, reproduction photograph showing a scene from ‘Spreading the News, a Comedy in One Act’ by Lady Gregory. Label verso details the characters and actors from both 1904 and 1954 productions. (9.25 by 16.25; framed: 14.75 by 21.5in) The Abbey Theatre opened on 27 December 1904 with three performances including premieres of On Baile’s Strand by W.B. Yeats and Spreading the News by Lady Gregory. In 1926, during the first run of Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars a riot broke out. Some of the audience objected to his representation of the 1916 Rising. Yeats took to the stage: “You have disgraced yourselves again. Is this to be an ever-recurring celebration of the arrival of Irish genius?” In 1951 the original buildings of the Abbey Theatre were damaged by fire during the run of The Plough and the Stars (shown in the present watercolour by Harry Kernoff). Ironically, the play closes to the strains of Keep the Home Fires Burning. The Abbey re-located to the Queen’s Theatre on Pearse Street. 15 years to the day later, on 18 July 1966, the Abbey moved back to its current home, designed by Michael Scott & Associates, opened by President Éamon de Valera who once graced the Abbey Stage as an amateur actor. For a portrait of Éamon de Valera by Harry Kernoff from the same collection see lot 57. Other works from the collection of actress Siobhán McKenna include lots 37 & 63. €1,500-€2,000 (£1,330-£1,780 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot55