WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART MONDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2022

30 19 Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940) SEATED BRETON GIRL WITH LONG HAIR, 1900 oil on canvas signed with initials and dated lower right; with artist’s studio stamp on reverse 25.50 by 21.50in. (64.8 by 54.6cm) Frame Dimensions: 33 by 29in. (83.8 by 73.7cm) Provenance: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente O’Conor, 7 February 1956; Roland, Browse & Delbanco; Christie’s, Belfast, 30 May 1990, lot 489; Private collection; Thierry-Lannon & Associés, Brest, 4 May 2019, lot 160; Private collection Literature: Jonathan Benington, Roderic O’Conor: A Biography, with a Catalogue of his Work, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1992, catalogue no. 93, p. 201 In this sizeable preparatory oil Roderic O’Conor demonstrates the power that can be generated from an artist’s initial reaction to his subject. Such works are usually meant as tools; for recording the sitter’s features, the pose, their shape and proportions. The present work however goes beyond mere observation and delivers a taste of that spontaneous urgency an artist feels to capture the essence of his subject in a precise moment in time. The palette is limited, the background is complementary but not distracting and gestural marks compose the chaise on which the model sits. O’Conor’s focus is on her and her utterly hypnotic gaze depicted through two dashes of dark paint. This colour is picked up to the back of her head and in the fabric of her dress which outlines her figure and serves to ‘push’ her forward within the composition. The application of the paint is lively and fluid and there is a ‘watery’ quality to the oil paint which is thinly applied to stain rather than fully cover, allowing the texture of the canvas to play its role in the rhythm of the painting. The sitter’s body language, with her arms at either side tucked under the ruffles of her dress and legs set apart suggest perhaps a nervousness in her role as model. Adelle Hughes, September 2022 €30,000-€40,000 (£25,860-£34,480 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot19