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

70 51 Patrick Leonard HRHA (1918-2005) LOUGHSHINNY HARBOUR, COUNTY DUBLIN, 1943 oil on canvas signed lower left; signed and dated on reverse 35 by 40in. (88.9 by 101.6cm) Frame Dimensions: 40 by 45in. (101.6 by 114.3cm) The work was re-stretched, cleaned and retouched in an area lower right prior to auction. It now appears in excellent condition. In March 1944, Seán Keating opened Patrick Leonard’s first solo exhibition at the Waddington Gallery, Dublin, using the occasion to rail against ‘subjectivity’ in art, the modernist style then popular with the city’s White Stag Group. As Keating noted, Leonard’s art bent in another direction, which although not avant-garde in style or technique, certainly captured the fashions and activities of modern Dublin. Throughout his career, Leonard focused his eye on the life of north county Dublin, particularly the coastal life around Rush and Skerries, as well as forays into the city centre to show the its theatres and nightlife. Characteristically bright and colourful, Leonard’s paintings still evoke the sunshine and glamour to be found in everyday life. Reporting on the Waddington exhibition opening in the Irish Press, critic ‘M. J. L’ praised the artist’s work, singling out his seascapes in particular, noting how ‘ships and sail worked into an imaginative pattern upon a background of still grandeur in Loughshinney [sic] Harbour effectively suggest the romance and drama ever latent in the seascape.’(1) The harbour was a subject to which Leonard frequently returned, showing several canvases of that title at the RHA, the Oireachtas Art Exhibition, and other venues. The present Loughshinny Harbour, County Dublin is a lively and engaging depiction of the busy fishing port. Framed by the mass of the harbour wall and the curve of the coastline beyond, Leonard shows the fishermen busy at their work: preparing and unloading their catch, and perhaps offering it for sale directly from the boat. The arrangement of dock lines, masts, nets and buoys add a sense of industry and bustle, matched by the lapping water, conveyed in a flurry of short brushstrokes. The bright red skirt worn by a young woman on the harbour wall anticipates Leonard’s later focus on colourful clothing. Born in Rush, Co. Dublin, Leonard studied with Keating and Maurice MacGonigal at the National College of Art from the late 1930s onwards. Awarded several Taylor Art prizes, Leonard first exhibited at the RHA in 1941 and was elected an associate member in 1942. With Ciaran Clear, Fergus O’Ryan, Tom Nisbett and Bea Orpen (amongst others) Leonard was a founder member of the Fingal Arts Group in 1963, working to promote the arts throughout Leinster. Prolific in his output and exhibition activities, Leonard also taught at Sandford Park, Ranelagh, the Technical School, Killester, and Mercy Convent, Coolock. Dr Kathryn Milligan, May 2021 (1) ‘Patrick Leonard’, Irish Press, 10 March 1944, p. 3. €12,000-€18,000 (£10,430-£15,650 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot51