IMPORTANT IRISH ART Monday 23 November 2026 from 6PM

80 50 Colin Middleton MBE RHA RUA (1910-1983) MURIEL, 1939 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right; titled and dated [Nov.] on reverse 29.25 by 23.50in. (74.3 by 59.7cm) Frame Size: 36 by 31in. (91.4 by 78.7cm) Provenance: Collection of George and Maura McClelland; Adam’s in association with Bonhams, 7 December 2005, lot 30; Private collection; Bonhams, 14 November 2012, lot 85; Private collection Exhibited: ‘115 Works by Colin Middleton’, Stranmillis Museum & Art Gallery, Belfast, August 1943 Muriel was painted only months into the SecondWorldWar, and the painting has an air of ambiguity and isolation that perhaps reflects the environment in which Middleton was living at that time. It was also less then six months since the sudden death of Middleton’s first wife, Maye, which had an enormous impact on him; apparently, he destroyed all her art, and also all of his own work that remained in his possession, so that we now only have tantalising glimpses of Middleton’s highly progressive abstract and symbolist painting from the mid- 1930s. Muriel belongs to a small group of paintings of single female figures in highly stylised urban locations, and was included in Middleton’s extensive first one-person exhibition, held in 1943 at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery. Although it was not directly connected to the symbolist or metaphysical meaning of the main body of the exhibition, included instead in a separate section, Muriel explores the female archetype that was central to Middleton’s work. Repeated shapes and patterns make formal connections across the well-organised composition, recalling Middleton’s work as a damask designer, and integrating the figure with her surroundings. The slight shadow of the moon, for example, is also used in the right eye and the light above the door, while the long vertical of the nose mirrors the shape of the door and of the railings. Placing one or both hands at the lower centre of the painting is a device Middleton often used, perhaps to connect the figure and the viewer. In Muriel, it adds to the sense of mystery and intimacy, perhaps beckoning on an admirer, or giving a private sign, even about to draw back her cloak further. It is intriguing to compare Muriel to paintings such as Fish and Chips, painted in the same year, or Strange Openings (both Irish Museum of Modern Art Collection), as comparable, psychologically charged images of wartime Belfast. Dickon Hall, October 2026 €80,000-€100,000 (£67,230-£84,030 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot5 0