WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART Monday 7 March 2022 from 6PM

42 28 John Butler Yeats RHA (1839-1922) PORTRAIT OF ROBERT GREGORY oil on canvas 33 by 28.50in. (83.8 by 72.4cm) Frame size: 34.75 by 30.75in. (88.3 by 78.1cm) Provenance: Collection of Lady Augusta Gregory, Coole Park; Private collection Exhibited: Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, ‘Conflicting Visions in a Turbulent Age 1900-1916’, June 2016. Literature: A monochrome illustration of this portrait appeared in Robert Gregory 1881-1918, A Centenary Tribute, edited and published by Colin Smythe, 1981 Robert Gregory was the only child of the godmother of the Irish Literary Revival and Director of the Abbey Theatre, Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory (1852-1932). Robert, a true Renaissance man of his age, excelled not only in the arts, but was an outstanding athlete and distinguished military man, joining the war effort as a member of the 4th Connaught Rangers and transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916. He was awarded the Military Cross for “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty.” It has recently been discovered that Gregory was involved in the forced crashlanding of the famous German pilot, Baron von Richthofen, the ‘Red Baron’. In his desire to become an artist Robert studied at the prominent Slade School of Art and later in Paris, under Jacques Émile Blanche (1861-1942), who openly praised his skill and intellect. His work was exhibited in 1912 and 1914 at the Baillie Gallery and the Chenil Gallery, in London. Robert’s premature death in a plane crash in 1918, aged 37, had a lasting effect on W. B. Yeats, and he became the subject of four poems by him; including; In Memory of Major Robert Gregory and An Irish Airman Foresees his Death. ‘THIS LOT HAS BEEN SOLD PRIOR TO AUCTION’

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