WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART MONDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2022

46 27 Colin Middleton MBE RHA RUA (1910-1983) FISH BUYERS: ARDGLASS, 1951 oil on canvas signed lower centre; signed, titled and dated [Feb/Mar] on reverse 20 by 24in. (50.8 by 61cm) Frame Dimensions: 25.25 by 29.25in. (64.1 by 74.3cm) Exhibited: ‘Recent Paintings by Colin Middleton’, Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin, April 1953, catalogue no. 8 Although Colin Middleton lived near Ardglass for less than four years it was a time of immense importance for him as an artist, and the period and the location retained a symbolic significance for many years after he left. In December 1948, Middleton became a contracted gallery artist with Victor Waddington, and the regular payments he received enabled him to move with his family to Ardglass the following year to paint full- time; they remained there until December 1952. Despite the financial and health problems Middleton experienced during these years, it was also a period when the exhibitions Waddington organised in Dublin, London, Europe and the USA brought his work to a new and receptive audience and he gained widespread critical recognition. Ardglass itself also inspired Middleton, both the fishing village and the landscape surrounding it. The history and legends of the community based around the fishing fleet, as well as the courage and drama that Middleton found there and the daily way of life, all contributed to his work. The intensity of these subjects were conveyed powerfully through the expressionist technique that Middleton had been moving towards since the mid-1940s, with its intense use of colour, energetic paint surface and dynamic impasto. Fish Buyers: Ardglass is one of a small number of canvases based on activities around the port and fishing boats. There is an almost hallucinatory quality to the scene, illuminated by the early morning light with splashes of highlighted colour set against the grey morning sky streaked with light, as highly-abstracted, tightly-packed figures move across the picture space. The moment is specific, yet also suggests a traditional activity in Ardglass in which these figures take on a powerfully mythic identity. The painting was included in Middleton’s solo exhibition at the Victor Waddington Gallery in Dublin in April 1953 (catalogue number 8, £65), and then subsequently shown at the gallery’s summer exhibition that same year. By the time it was exhibited Middleton was living in Bangor, but for another couple of years he continued to work from ideas inspired by Ardglass. Dickon Hall August 2022 €20,000-€30,000 (£17,240-£25,860 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot27