WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2024 FROM 6PM

38 23 George Russell (“Æ”) (1867-1935) CHILDREN PLAYING IN AWOOD oil on canvas signed with monogram lower left 20.50 by 24in. (52.1 by 61cm) Frame Size: 24 by 28in. (61 by 71.1cm) Provenance: Gifted by the artist; Private collection; Gifted to the present owner George Russell is commemorated with a plaque describing him as “Poet, painter, economist and mystic” at his former home at 17 Rathgar Avenue, Dublin where he lived from 1911 to 1933. It is quite possible the present work took inspiration from the grounds of Bushy Park, Terenure - located less than a 30 minute walk from the artist’s home - however, it is also reminiscent of his woodland scenes of Raheen in Galway and other untitled examples of glades and woodlands which have appeared at auction since the 1980s. Russell, who wrote and painted under the pseudonym Æ (derived from an earlier “Æ’on” signifying the lifelong quest of man) was a central figure in the Irish Literary Revival or Celtic Twilight of the late 19th century. 17 Rathgar Avenue was a hub for this movement and Æ, together with his wife Violet, hosted “at homes” there, attended by W.B. Yeats, Michael Collins, Oliver St John Gogarty and James Joyce among many others. W.B. Yeats in The Trembling of the Veil (1922) wrote of Æ, “At the time I write of him, he was the religious teacher, and that alone-his painting, his poetry, and his conversation all subservient to that one end. Men watched him with awe or with bewilderment; it was known that he saw visions continually, perhaps more continually than any modern man since Swedenborg; and when he painted and drew in pastel what he had seen, some accepted the record without hesitation, others, like myself, noticing the academic Graeco-Roman forms, and remembering his early admiration for the works of Gustave Moreau, divined a subjective element, but no one doubted his word.” Children Playing in a Wood, with its dappled light and impish figures, typifies the artist’s style. Like all of his oeuvre, whether it be site specific scenes in Dublin, Connemara or Donegal, it is imbued with an otherworldliness that connects back to his fascination with the occult and sets his oeuvre apart from that of his contemporaries. The present work was a gift from the artist to his friend’s daughter who, it was recalled to the present owner, played ‘chasing fairies’ with the artist in Bushy Park. Demand for Æ’s paintings and interest in him remains strong with the opening of a permanent national and international appreciation society dedicated to his memory at the United Arts Club, Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin (which he helped found in 1907) opening in 2023. Portraits of Æ as well as numerous examples of his work can be found in the National Gallery of Ireland, the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin and many other public and private collections nationally and internationally. Adelle Hughes November 2024 €8,000-€12,000 (£6,720-£10,080 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot23