WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART MONDAY 31 MAY 2021 AT 6PM

142 111 Gabriel Hayes (1909-1978) AN TÓSTAL COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE bronze signed lower right 19.75 by 19.75 by 2in. (50.2 by 50.2 by 5.1cm) Frame Dimensions: Excellent condition. Lesser known Irish female artists were celebrated in the publication Irish Women Artists 1800-2009 Familiar But Unknown (ed. Éimear O’Connor) in 2010 and among those highlighted was Kildare sculptor Gabriel Hayes. Although she exhibited almost annually with the RHA from 1932 to 1947, was the recipient of the coveted Taylor Art Prize (1934), received numerous public and ecclesiastical commissions and, when Irish currency went decimal in 1971, designed several of the coins, little recognition has been awarded her since her death in 1978. Among her major commissions are the panels for the then Department of Industry and Commerce, Kildare Street (1941) and the more than life size 14 Stations of the Cross for Galway Cathedral. In 1977 she won gold medal for sculpture at the Oireachtas Exhibition with The Gráinne Mhaol carved from American walnut. This sizeable bronze is likely to have been a presentation plaque for An Tóstal (inaugurated in 1953). Irish life is celebrated in this piece around a central figure holding a torch to symbols of the provinces. It is typical of her style with its flat stylised rendering of figures and animals. Hayes’ husband was Professor Seán P. Ó Ríordáin who became a household name in the 1950s for his appearances on the BBC television program‘Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?’ €3,000-€4,000 (£2,610-£3,480 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot111