WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 27th September 2021 at 6pm

108 87 Hughie O’Donoghue RA (b.1953) SOUVENIR OF ST. VALERY, A HUNDRED YEARS, 2005/6 oil and mixed media on wooden construction; (unframed) signed lower right; signed, dated, titled on reverse; also with inscribed label on reverse 21 by 29in. (53.3 by 73.7cm) Excellent condition. Hughie O’Donoghue arrived in St Valery-en-Caux on 7 July 2005. The purpose of this journey was to visit the place where the 51st Highland Division surrendered in 1940. During this trip the artist came across a photograph album recording a holiday in St Valery-en-Caux made one hundred years earlier. It was discovered by chance by O’Donoghue in an antiques shop in the town of Valery-sur-Somme, approximately forty miles to the north east. The artist notes in the text, Souvenir of St Valery, “The 51st Highland Division was captured at St Valery-en-Caux on 12 June 1940; eight days after the last troops had left the Dunkirk beaches. It is highly probable that the division could have been evacuated successfully. However, political decisions made away from the battlefield sealed their fate. A reformed 51st Highland Division re-entered St Valery-en-Caux on 3 September 1944. A memorial to the soldiers of 1940 is located on the cliffs above the town. €8,000-€12,000 (£6,840-£10,260 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot87