IMPORTANT IRISH ART Monday 23 November 2026 from 6PM

36 19 Letitia Marion Hamilton RHA (1878-1964) UPPER LOUGH MASK oil on canvas signed with initials lower right; inscribed on artist’s label on reverse 20 by 24in. (50.8 by 61cm) Frame Size: 25 by 29in. (63.5 by 73.7cm) Provenance: Family of the artist Letitia Hamilton’s first encounters with the west of Ireland as an artist came in her early forties. The Watercolour Society of Ireland Index of Exhibitors records Hollymount, Co. Mayo (WCSI, no. 134, £5-5-0) shown in 1919; its subject the house and demesne of Heremon Lindsey FitzPatrick (c.1860-1929). Other trips to the west can be traced to 1922 when she visited Sligo and later Kerry, Connemara and Achill. 1The west would also become a more prominent subject matter for her later during WWII when travel to the Continent became too dangerous. Lough Mask, a vast natural limestone lake, stretches between counties Galway and Mayo, spanning 20,500 acres. The lake shoreline is varied, with sheltered coves and quieter bays on the northern and eastern shores and exposed limestone shelves to the western half 2 - often called Upper Lough Mask - where the waters are much deeper. Many of Hamilton’s contemporaries found inspiration there also, among them Paul Henry and Evie Hone while earlier examples can be found in James Arthur O’Connor and his View of Lough Mask from c.1818 (Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, NGI.4013). Hamilton painted Lough Mask a number of times exploring the surrounding landscape, mountains, bog, thorn trees, the dwellings of its inhabitants and the changing weather all through her distinctive lens of a pastel palette and a textured application of paint. In the present work the foreground is dominated by a rocky terrain at the water’s edge and the heathers and grasses that cover it. An arched bridge to the right leads the eye to a cluster of houses and beyond them to the mountain range in the distance. Upper Lough Mask together with Self Portrait in the Mirror (lot 15) and French Courtyard (lot 16) have all been consigned to auction from the artist’s family, a highly desirable provenance. A companion to the present work can be found illustrated in Kenneth McConkey’s A Free Spirit: Irish Art 1860-1960 (Antique Collectors Club, 1990), p.178. Adelle Hughes October 2026 1 Odlum, Stephen, Eva, Letitia and the Hamilton Sisters - Class, Gender and Art, Zest Publications, 2020, p.73 2 https://fishing.ie/venues/lough-mask €10,000-€15,000 (£8,400-£12,610 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot1 9