IMPORTANT IRISH ART · 27 MAY 2024 AT 6PM

26 13 Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940) MONTAGNE SAINTE-VICTOIRE, FRANCE oil on board with faint Atelier O’Conor stamp on reverse 5.75 by 9in. (14.6 by 22.9cm) Frame Size: 11.25 by 14.5in. (28.6 by 36.8cm) Provenance: The Collection of Mervyn & Pat Solomon; Whyte’s, 4 March 2013, lot 43; Private collection Literature: Jonathan Benington, Roderic O’Conor: a Biography with a Catalogue of his Work, 1992, catalogue no.177, p. 211, as Mountain Landscape Although no documentary evidence has survived referencing a visit by Roderic O’Conor to Paul Cézanne’s home town, Aix-en-Provence, the fact that it was just 50 kilometres north of Cassis, where the Irishman spent much of the 1913 painting season, makes it perfectly possible that he undertook the small diversion, travelling by train via Marseille and packing a box of paints for the journey. It should also be remembered that O’Conor became a Cézanne devotee long before he was fully recognised, collecting photographs and two lithographs of his work that Clive Bell spotted in his studio as early as 1904, two years before the French artist’s death. And we know that the 1907 Cézanne memorial exhibition at the Salon d’Automne featured two oil paintings and two watercolours of the Montagne Sainte Victoire – his signature motif – which O’Conor would undoubtedly have seen and admired. That being said, to make this small panel he has chosen to view the 1,000 metre-high limestone ridge from the south, thereby departing from his hero’s unvarying profile view from the west. In this work, painting quickly and confidently, and focusing his attention on the colour modulations as opposed to the details, O’Conor has achieved the monumentall notwithstanding the small scale. Jonathan Benington, April 2024 €6,000-€8,000 (£5,130-£6,840 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot13