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

74 53 Maurice MacGonigal PPRHA HRA HRSA (1900-1979) OLD DUBLIN PUB (DAVY BYRNE’S) oil on board signed lower left; titled on Dawson Gallery label on reverse 12 by 32in. (30.5 by 81.3cm) Frame Dimensions: 21 by 40.5in. (53.3 by 102.9cm) This work appears to be in excellent condition. The artist liked the interiors of pubs where the many surfaces of bottles and glassware created the capacity for an artistic ‘ tour de force’ of painting reflecting images using ‘ chiaroscuro’ to gain its illuminating effect within the subject matter. The figures left and right frame the composition of the reflecting surfaces. The hatted figure on the viewer’s left was a Hackney Driver (also known as a Hansom Cab driver) who had his carriage stand at the junction of Adelaide Road and Harcourt Street, for the Harcourt Street Railway Station, from where trains went to the suburbs of Dartry, Ranelagh, Dundrum and Foxrock, similar to the Luas trams today. He had moved back to Ireland after the assasination, in June 1922, of his employer, Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson. He had been recruited by Wilson from Longford - The Wilson-Slator Estate of Knockbaun/Whitehill - adjacent to the Wilson Estate of Currygrane, Ballinalee, County Longford. The latter house was destroyed in August 1922 by the Longford IRA, two months after Wilson’s funeral, and on the day the two IRA assassins were hanged. On returning to Dublin the driver brought the Hansom Cab which he drove for Wilson in London. This bowler hatted man was painted and drawn several times by the artist. He also features in works by Harry Kernoff. The figure to the right worked the switching gear for the trams at the Triangle in Ranelagh Village Dublin. He impeded the movement of troops and traffic during the 1916 Rising as well as later during the War of Independence. He was a cousin of Seán Dowling the OC of ‘C’ company of the IRA in the area and both lived in Dunville Avenue, Ranelagh, where the artist also resided. My father was known to frequent Davy Byrne’s in his younger days, and being of a gregarious disposition he and his friends, Harry Kernoff RHA and Leo Whelan RHA were well known in the area. They all painted many compositions based around those streets and the activities from public house to flower sellers, street musicians and hawkers. Ciarán MacGonigal, May 2021 €8,000-€12,000 (£6,960-£10,430 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot53