WHYTE'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART 28 November 2022 at 6pm

60 33 Mary Swanzy HRHA (1882-1978) BY THE POOL, 1962 oil on canvas signed lower left; titled and dated on label on reverse 21 by 18in. (53.3 by 45.7cm) Frame Size: 28 by 25in. (71.1 by 63.5cm) Provenance: Adam’s, June 1975, lot 29; Private collection Although By The Pool dates to 1962 - a period in Mary Swanzy’s oeuvre characterised by satire and the fantastical - the present work in terms of its style and subject matter does not neatly fall into this category but rather appears to draw on elements of different phases from earlier in her career. Very few details are known of Swanzy’s life during the period 1951 to 1968 (when her Dublin retrospective took place). She did however continue to travel visiting Switzerland, Germany and Italy and was in Pisa in 1962 the year this work was executed. The present work shows the influence of Italy on many levels. Here the viewer is presented with an outdoor scene comprising a large, muscular Madonna and child in the foreground while behind her is a pool enclosed by Classical architectural elements which recall her red roofs of the 1910s. The figures of three women (three Graces perhaps) and a long-eared dog are positioned to the left of the water, while opposite them is a large-leafed tree reminiscent of those luscious fronds of her Samoan paintings. The transparent layering of the paint and swift brushstrokes call to mind the Futurism movement which impacted her work from the 1920s onwards and in the present work this adds a dynamism which it might otherwise be lacking. By The Pool is a testament to Mary Swanzy’s unique absorption of Modernism. Unlike many of her contemporaries she did not fully commit to any one style to the exclusion of others, she consumed it all and created her own visual language which, much like the Mannerist Madonna in the foreground, is experimental and unapologetic. Adelle Hughes, November 2022 €20,000-€30,000 (£17,240-£25,860 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot33