Sean Keating Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Sean Keating Art Value Price Guide

Dec. 02, 2024
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) ARAN ISLAND SCENE
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) ARAN ISLAND SCENE charcoal signed lower right h:18 w:24 in. Provenance: Whyte's, 27 September 2021, lot 26; Private collection
Whyte's
Sep. 25, 2024
Sen Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889 -1977) The Trinity Oil on board, 55 x 83cm (21_ x 32_) Signed The Trinity is most commonly seen in visual representations of Christian art as the dove symbolising the Holy Spirit descending from h
Est: €15,000 - €25,000
Sen Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889 -1977) The Trinity Oil on board, 55 x 83cm (21_ x 32_) Signed The Trinity is most commonly seen in visual representations of Christian art as the dove symbolising the Holy Spirit descending from heaven, accompanied by two figures representing God the father and Jesus Christ. In this instance, while the figures adopt the traditional triad format, they have been substituted with three ordinary people from the west of Ireland. An older man stands with his hat removed in reverence looking off into the distance, a younger woman with her back to us, her hand outstretched in amazement, towards the central figure of the composition, a woman wrapped in a tartan shawl, standing in the position most often associated with Christ. Her arms are outstretched and the palms of the hands facing upwards. The fingers or her right-hand point in a gesture usually representative of a blessing, an intervention of the sacred in the human world. There is a serene expression on her face and a bright light falls on her, as if a divine vision has broken through the clouds. She stands in front a donkey and cart, which immediately calls to mind Mary and Joseph travelling to Bethlehem on the eve of ChristÕs birth and his own arrival into the Jerusalem riding on the back of one. Keating does not provide us with much narrative content and the arrangement of the composition also suggests that more may be occurring beyond the picture plane. The arched canvas is reminiscent of traditional altar pieces, it frames the landscape mirroring the rolling shapes of the hills and fields behind. The trees sway in wind as clouds amass on the horizon suggesting inclement weather to come. The colour palette of red and green is picked up in the dress of both women and repeated in the gate and door frame of the cottage. He has captured perfectly the chalky, whitewashed walls of the west of Ireland houses. Throughout his career Keating painted religious works, often for specific commissions in churches. He was not a stranger to the language and mythology of the genre. It makes this work quite interesting to witness his mixing of the two styles of which he was so adept. It is not a straightforward image, as was common of KeatingÕs work, he enjoyed employing allegory and symbolism that moved beyond a linear narrative format. In works such as this and in his well-known history paintings, he was commenting not only on contemporary times but also on the greater arc of traditions that had formed Irish society. In many ways Keating became the official artist of the Irish Free state helping to shape, in visual terms, the new identity of an independent Ireland.
Adam's
Sep. 25, 2024
Sen Keating (1889 -1977) The Arrival of the Turf Boat, Aran Oil on artist's board, 49.5 x 60cm (19_ x 23_) Signed The mercurial nature of the sea held great fascination for Sen Keating. He spent hours contemplating it, days fishing an
Est: €30,000 - €50,000
Sen Keating (1889 -1977) The Arrival of the Turf Boat, Aran Oil on artist's board, 49.5 x 60cm (19_ x 23_) Signed The mercurial nature of the sea held great fascination for Sen Keating. He spent hours contemplating it, days fishing and swimming in it, weeks and months travelling on it, and many years sketching and painting it. Primarily an outdoor person, he sought personal peace and artistic inspiration in its reflective qualities, and in the ever-changing colours of the sky and the movement of cloud. From an early stage in his artistic career he sought, and found, a comparable sense of freedom among the people of the Aran Islands, for whom the lifestyle was entirely dependent on the daily humour of the sea. While the colourful local costume worn by the local women was often the focus of his artistic attention, most of his studies of the Islanders at work or rest are bounded by an atmospheric panorama created by the climatic conditions. This example of Keating's work illustrates a then long-standing routine on the Aran Islands. The image of the thatched, cosy cottage, with smoke spiralling from the chimney from a turf-stacked fire, may well arouse homely thoughts. But there was no bog on any of the islands, and so there was no indigenous turf. A boat, such as the one illustrated in this instance, brought turf to the little pier at Kilronan, where it was unloaded onto the quayside for collection by the locals. The ritual, which was entirely dependent on the disposition of the sea, encouraged exchange of many types: pecuniary, argumentative, discursive, familial, and maybe even intoxicating. But ultimately, the custom, and many others like it, illustrates the extent to which the Aran Islanders were dependent on the sea. This peaceful scene offers a well-observed example of Keating's artistic concerns. He shows the habitual rhythm of the Islanders amidst the powerful, but momentarily restful energy of the sea, while restrained grey clouds navigate the blue sky. Keating's ability to render great atmospheric detail is notable and was already apparent in his earliest surviving painting of Aran, a watercolour titled Steamer to the Aran Islands (1913). But there is a greater intensity of colour and power in his paintings featuring water and climatic conditions in the 1930s and 40s. We acknowledge with thanks the writings of Dr Eimear OÕConnor, upon which this piece is based.
Adam's
May. 29, 2024
Sean Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) Flat Calm Oil on board, 47 x 60cm, (18.5 x 23.6) Signed Provenance: Dermot Kinlen, His sale, The Kinlen Collection, these rooms, 28th May, 2008, lot 22 where purchased by the present owner Exhibited:
Est: €25,000 - €35,000
Sean Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) Flat Calm Oil on board, 47 x 60cm, (18.5 x 23.6) Signed Provenance: Dermot Kinlen, His sale, The Kinlen Collection, these rooms, 28th May, 2008, lot 22 where purchased by the present owner Exhibited: Limerick, Hunt Museum, June 2009, Sean Keating in Focus The composition is a twofold one, often essayed by the artist in that the main concentration is on the boat moored off the quay, and the second part is the watchers. The latter is so typical of the artist in that his western seaboard paintings are those of the people looking on or watching an event, often out of the sight of the viewer but immanent in the idea of the composition. The boat which is a púcán or a glóthóg is a kind of open decked craft developed in the west of Ireland as a general cargo carrier. They were used all round the small islands of south Connemara to bring supplies to the smaller clachans or villages notably around Maoinish and other islands, as well as the three Aran Islands. They were most in use to bring peat (turf) to Aran which has no natural supply of its own, so the whole business of moving the peat cargo and its loading and unloading provide many artists but notably Keating with an opportunity to make splendid works out their observations on the important not to say vital business of moving and transporting peat by sea to the Islands. In this work the tide as receded so the boat at anchor has dropped below the point at which the cargo can continue to be unloaded, although it seems as if most of it has already been moved ashore but some still remains in the hold. The Glóthóg is moving sluggishly in the tidal outflow awaiting the next incoming tide to lift it back up and there is as the title suggests not a breath of wind, which will of course change with the tidal changes. The limpid waters of the natural and built harbours of Cill Murbhí on Inis Mór are typical of Keating at his best in observing the tidal phenomenon of the Atlantic shoreline and one can see why long after Keating that the film maker Robert Flaherty was also drawn to the area to make his great epic Man of Aran, filled with grand and heroic images. Adjoining the quay at Cill Murbhí, Flaherty built himself a house for the purposes of filming the Aran epic and repaired and restored the older quay structures to accommodate the fleet of Hookers (Púcáns & Glóthógs) which he filmed to such great effect. This work is pre Flaherty and painted probably in the early 1920s. It was exhibited in the Keating retrospective held in the RHA Gallagher Gallery 1989 curated by Dr.Thomas Ryan PRHA, and the catalogue from that exhibition is a comparative rarity for collectors. This is a great work filled with the best of Keatings signature gestures of depth of pigment, terrific human observation and the arrestation of a moment in time, of a civilisation now long vanished but here immortalised by the artist. Ciarán MacGonigal
Adam's
May. 27, 2024
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) THREE IRISH WORKMEN, c.1971
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) THREE IRISH WORKMEN, c.1971 charcoal heightened with white chalk signed lower right h:21.50 w:29.50 in. Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by Dr Bloomfield, 1971, for £50; Thence by descent; Whyte's, 20 September 2005, lot 146; Private collection In a letter to the original owner of this work, Keating refers to the three workmen depicted as "three sinister heads", but then goes on to add, "they are not really sinister, but illtreated and oppressed".
Whyte's
May. 27, 2024
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN
Est: €2,500 - €3,500
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN pastel on buff-coloured paper signed lower right h:19 w:15.25 in.
Whyte's
May. 27, 2024
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG BOY
Est: €1,500 - €2,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG BOY pastel on buff-coloured paper signed lower right h:19.25 w:14.25 in.
Whyte's
May. 27, 2024
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) ARAN COUPLE, c.1971
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) ARAN COUPLE, c.1971 charcoal heightened with white chalk signed lower right h:21.50 w:29.50 in. Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by Dr Bloomfield, 1971, for £50; Thence by descent; Whyte's, 20 September 2005, lot 146; Private collection The figure on the right is believed to be a portrait of Tiger King, who was renowned on the Aran Islands as a boxer. In a letter to the original owner of this drawing, Keating mentions a drawing of two heads which Dr Bloomfield had seen exhibited at the Oireachtas, and promised to sell him either the original preparatory sketch or a variant thereof.
Whyte's
May. 02, 2024
Taking Their Ease
Est: €4,000 - €6,000
Sean Keating, P.R.H.A 1889 - 1977 Taking Their Ease signed ceitinn (lower right) watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper, squared up for transfer unframed: 72.5 by 101.5 cm.; 28 1/2 by 40 in. framed: 79.5 by 108.5 cm.; 31 1/4 by 42 3/4 in. Executed in 1918. -------------------------------------------------- Sean Keating, P.R.H.A 1889 - 1977 Taking Their Ease signé ceitinn (en bas à droit) aquarelle, gouache, crayon sur papier, mis au carré sans cadre: 72.5 by 101.5 cm.; 28 1/2 by 40 in. avec cadre: 79.5 by 108.5 cm.; 31 1/4 by 42 3/4 in. Executed in1918.
Sotheby's
Dec. 06, 2023
Sean Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) Flat Calm Oil on board, 47 x 60cm, (18.5 x 23.6) Signed Provenance: Dermot Kinlen, His sale, The Kinlen Collection, these rooms, 28th May, 2008, lot 22 The composition is a twofold one, often essaye
Est: €50,000 - €70,000
Sean Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) Flat Calm Oil on board, 47 x 60cm, (18.5 x 23.6) Signed Provenance: Dermot Kinlen, His sale, The Kinlen Collection, these rooms, 28th May, 2008, lot 22 The composition is a twofold one, often essayed by the artist in that the main concentration is on the boat moored off the quay, and the second part is the watchers. The latter is so typical of the artist in that his western seaboard paintings are those of the people looking on or watching an event, often out of the sight of the viewer but immanent in the idea of the composition. The boat which is a púcán or a glóthóg is a kind of open decked craft developed in the west of Ireland as a general cargo carrier. They were used all round the small islands of south Connemara to bring supplies to the smaller clachans or villages notably around Maoinish and other islands, as well as the three Aran Islands. They were most in use to bring peat (turf) to Aran which has no natural supply of its own, so the whole business of moving the peat cargo and its loading and unloading provide many artists but notably Keating with an opportunity to make splendid works out their observations on the important not to say vital business of moving and transporting peat by sea to the Islands. In this work the tide as receded so the boat at anchor has dropped below the point at which the cargo can continue to be unloaded, although it seems as if most of it has already been moved ashore but some still remains in the hold. The Glóthóg is moving sluggishly in the tidal outflow awaiting the next incoming tide to lift it back up and there is as the title suggests not a breath of wind, which will of course change with the tidal changes. The limpid waters of the natural and built harbours of Cill Murbhí on Inis Mór are typical of Keating at his best in observing the tidal phenomenon of the Atlantic shoreline and one can see why long after Keating that the film maker Robert Flaherty was also drawn to the area to make his great epic Man of Aran, filled with grand and heroic images. Adjoining the quay at Cill Murbhí, Flaherty built himself a house for the purposes of filming the Aran epic and repaired and restored the older quay structures to accommodate the fleet of Hookers (Púcáns & Glóthógs) which he filmed to such great effect. This work is pre Flaherty and painted probably in the early 1920s. It was exhibited in the Keating retrospective held in the RHA Gallagher Gallery 1989 curated by Dr.Thomas Ryan PRHA, and the catalogue from that exhibition is a comparative rarity for collectors. This is a great work filled with the best of Keatings signature gestures of depth of pigment, terrific human observation and the arrestation of a moment in time, of a civilisation now long vanished but here immortalised by the artist. Ciarán MacGonigal
Adam's
Dec. 06, 2023
Sean Keating PPRHA RSA RA (1889-1977) Aran Harbour Oil on canvas, 70 x 91cm (27½ x 35½) Signed Provenance: Possibly sold through Victor Waddington between 1947 and 1950; Private collection, Dublin During the 1940s Seán Keating painted a
Est: €80,000 - €120,000
Sean Keating PPRHA RSA RA (1889-1977) Aran Harbour Oil on canvas, 70 x 91cm (27½ x 35½) Signed Provenance: Possibly sold through Victor Waddington between 1947 and 1950; Private collection, Dublin During the 1940s Seán Keating painted a series of images based on a similar compositional arrangement, all of which focus on the peace and quiet at the end of a days work for the islanders. He exhibited several of the paintings with the Victor Waddington Gallery in Dublin using titles such as End of the Day and Conversation Piece. However, the artist rarely recorded the titles of his paintings, so while this fine example may have been exhibited with the Victor Waddington Gallery, the original title has been lost to time. It is of note that throughout his career the artist was keenly interested in the atmospheric conditions created by the ever-changing weather on the islands, and many of his on-site sketches are overwritten with his notes on the time of day, the effect of the wind and clouds on the sea below. Similar to other examples in the series, Keating shows two women of the islands, one looking out to sea, the other peering out towards the viewer. The limestone foreground on which they sit, cast into dynamic light and shade by the setting sun, frames the view to the anchored fishing boats and the vast tranquil ocean under a windless sky beyond. It is a scene in which texture, tone, and the play of light demonstrate the artists concentration on the atmospheric conditions to produce the overall narrative in his work. The result is a pleasing view of unruffled calm, a painterly window into a peaceful yet vibrant place of charm to Emergency-tired audiences in late 1940s Ireland. The context in which Keating painted the series of the Aran Islands to which this example belongs, and which were much sought after at the time, deserves mention. Throughout the Second World War, during which Ireland was neutral, Keating was constantly reminded of the wars of the past, of which he wrote in his personal notes that all the naked cruelty and horribleness of everything yawns wide like the mouth of a savage beast. In a world yet again gone mad, the artists deceptively idyllic paintings of Aran, remain just as popular as an anecdote to the savage beast. Dr Éimear OConnor HRHA, HRUA. Author, Seán Keating: Art, Ireland, and Building the Irish Nation, Irish Academic Press.
Adam's
Dec. 05, 2023
SEAN KEATING (1889-1977)
Est: €8,000 - €12,000
Self-portrait. Signed bottom right. Oil on canvas. Framed. Provenance: The Dr. Kevin Moynihan Collection, Macroom, Co. Cork. (Irish Art) Image size: 46 x 38 cm.; framed: 56 x 48 cm. Approximate Time: 11:25 Lot Number: 117
Sheppards
Dec. 04, 2023
Seán Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) THE GOOSE GIRL, 1917
Est: €25,000 - €35,000
Seán Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) THE GOOSE GIRL, 1917 oil on canvas signed lower right h:42 w:36 in. Provenance: RHA, Dublin, 1918: Private collection; With Daniel Egan Gallery, 1928; Private collection; Sotheby's, 21 October 2015, lot 16; Private collection Exhibited: RHA, Dublin, 1918, catalogue no. 38; Solo exhibition, The Hall Gallery, Leinster Street, Dublin, 1923; 'Seán Keating Retrospective', Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, May 1963, catalogue no. 7 Painted for exhibition at the annual Royal Hibernian Academy show in 1918, The Goose Girl features Seán Keating's sister, Veronica, known as Vera (1895-1953), posed to emulate William Orpen's painting of a similar theme, The Dead Ptarmigan (1909) (1). By this stage Orpen, who visited the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (DMSA) to teach four times a year, and who 'brought new life and enthusiasm to the school,' had removed himself from his role as a teacher with the DMSA and from his membership of the RHA. (2) His former student, Keating, hoped to be appointed to take his mentor's place at the school. Significantly, and in spite of exhibiting major work such as Men of the West in the RHA in 1917, Keating had not yet been elected a member, a position that was considered essential to the development of an artist's professional career at the time. So it was that in 1918 he showed eight paintings at the annual RHA exhibition, among which was The Goose Girl. Clothed in untypical attire for a supposed house maid or kitchen maid at the time, Keating's rosy faced Goose Girl presents the angel-like wings of the martyred bird at the moment before plucking. From his artistic attention to the detailed lace in her Edwardian style cap to the extraordinary hues describing his sitter's features, from the treatment of her gold necklace to the multiple shades of white in her blouse and cuffs echoed in the feathers of the goose, and from the texture of her cotton gingham apron to the balance of light, tone and colour throughout, the composition is a well-considered homage to Orpen, and a demonstration of the range of painterly capacity appropriate for an artist seeking recognition from his peers, which ultimately proved successful. Keating was elected an Associate or ARHA in 1918, and the following year, in late 1919, he was appointed to the role of part time teacher of anatomy at the DMSA. Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA, HRUA. Biographer, Seán Keating: Art, Politics, and Building the Irish Nation, (Irish Academic Press, Kildare) Footnotes: 1. Collection: National Gallery of Ireland, NGI 19184. 2. Seán Keating, 'Report on the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art,' reproduced in Éimear O'Connor, Seán Keating in Context: Responses to Culture and Politics in Post-Civil War Ireland (Carysfort Press, Dublin), pp. 77-79.
Whyte's
Dec. 04, 2023
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) STUDY OF A YOUNG MAN
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) STUDY OF A YOUNG MAN charcoal signed lower right h:15 w:18.75 in.
Whyte's
Dec. 04, 2023
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) MAN OF ARAN
Est: €1,500 - €2,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) MAN OF ARAN charcoal signed lower left h:14 w:9.75 in.
Whyte's
Dec. 04, 2023
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) STUDY OF A YOUNG BOY - JUSTIN KEATING
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) STUDY OF A YOUNG BOY - JUSTIN KEATING charcoal signed lower right; exhibition label on reverse h:18 w:13.50 in. Justin Keating (1930-2009), son of the artist, was a distinguished lecturer, broadcaster and politician. He was a labour TD from 1965 to 1977, and later an MEP. He served as Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1973 to 1977.
Whyte's
Dec. 04, 2023
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG BOY
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG BOY pastel on buff coloured paper signed lower right h:19.25 w:14.25 in.
Whyte's
Nov. 07, 2023
SEAN KEATING (1889-1977)
Est: €15,000 - €25,000
Self-portrait. Signed bottom right. Oil on canvas. Framed. Provenance: The Dr. Kevin Moynihan Collection, Macroom, Co. Cork. Approximate Time: 12:52 Lot No: 236
Sheppards
Nov. 07, 2023
SEAN KEATING (1889-1977)
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
Connemara couple. Signed bottom right. Pencil sketch with body wash. Provenance: The Dr. Kevin Moynihan Collection, Macroom, Co. Cork. Approximate Time: 12:19 Lot No: 191
Sheppards
Oct. 02, 2023
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) STILL WATERS, 1947
Est: €60,000 - €80,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) STILL WATERS, 1947 oil on canvas signed lower right h:21 w:26 in. Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the grandfather of the present owner Introduced to the Aran Islands by his friend, Harry Clarke, in 1912, Seán Keating found himself as an artist there, so much so that he became synonymous with the location during his lifetime. Keating had been using photography as a compositional aid on the islands since the early 1920s, along with handwritten notes on sketches which recalled the time of day, the direction of the sun, the cloud formations, the multifarious moods of the sea. Keating's approach to his paintings of Aran changed in the mid-1930s after he met the documentary film maker, Robert Flaherty, who was on the islands to film Man of Aran (1934). Flaherty inspired Keating's interest in the cinecamera as a means of speedy documentation, a method that appealed to the artist who maintained a life-long fascination with the ever-moving tones of the weather and the conjoined reaction of the sea. Film for the camera was expensive and harder to obtain during the Second World War, so from the mid-1930s onwards Keating recycled scenes or parts of filmed scenes, to assist him to produce his intended composition and atmosphere. Still Waters (1947) is one of a series of images representing the island people painted after the artist acquired his cinecamera. The painting illustrates a sequence of scenes that Keating observed using his cinecamera while on the islands, and then put together to compose the work. As the sun sets in the west, it is the end of a busy day on the islands and on the sea. In the foreground, two women in west of Ireland shawls are huddled in conversation while a gathering of island men listen intently. Whatever the news was, it must have been fascinating, as nobody on land takes notice of the fishermen arranging their nets, perhaps for an evening trip on the quiet sea. The entire scene is swathed in an atmosphere of calm, formed by Keating's well observed sundown sky with the attendant gentle lapping of the water below. Exhibited in the RHA in 1947, Still Waters, was purchased from the exhibition by a long-standing friend who had known Seán Keating from the days of the War of Independence. A frequent purchaser of the artist's work in the late 1940s, it is tempting to consider that the image presented something of a stark contrast to the era of tumult during which the two had first become friends. Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA, HRUA Author, Seán Keating: Art, Politics, and Building the Irish Nation (Kildare: Irish Academic Press, 2013).
Whyte's
Oct. 02, 2023
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) PORTRAIT OF PADDY DALY
Est: €2,500 - €3,500
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) PORTRAIT OF PADDY DALY pastel on paper signed in pencil lower right; inscribed and bearing historical note on reverse h:15.25 w:12 in. Inscribed: "Paddy Daly, Friend of Dick Mulcahy, well known I.R.A. man." Also bearing substantial historical note by John Dowling, Christmas 1977, on label on reverse. Paddy Daly (1888-1957) sometimes referred to as Paddy O'Daly fought in the 1916 Easter Rising, leading the unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park. He was later wounded in the fighting near the Linenhall. He was subsequently interned in Frongoch internment camp until 1918. In the War of Independence (1919-1921), he served as leader of the "Squad", Michael Collins' assassination unit. Daly and the men under his command were responsible for the killing of many British intelligence officers. He did not directly lead any of the attacks on Bloody Sunday but In the aftermath, in November 1920, he was arrested and interned in Ballykinlar Camp in County Down. He was released on parole from Ballykinlar in March 1921 - the British apparently being unaware of his senior position within the Dublin Brigade of the IRA. After the Anglo-Irish Treaty split the IRA, Daly and most of his men sided with the pro-treaty party, who went on to found the Irish Free State. He was appointed to the rank of Brigadier in the newly created Irish National Army, which was inaugurated in January 1922. When the Irish Civil War broke out in June 1922, Daly commanded the Free State's troops who secured Dublin, after a week's fighting. Daly resigned from the Free State army in 1924 but served in the Defence Forces as a captain during the Emergency (World War II) 1940-1946. He died in 1957.
Whyte's
May. 25, 2023
§ Seán Keating (1889-1977)
Est: £1,000 - £1,500
§ Seán Keating (1889-1977) Self Portrait signed 'KEATING' (lower left) black crayon on paper 36 x 25cm Provenance: Gifted by the artist to Nora Hanbury Kelk (1889 – 1977), a friend of the artist, thence by descent within the family to the present owner
Cheffins
Apr. 29, 2023
Sean Keating (1889 - 1977) Irish
Est: $800 - $1,500
Sean Keating (1889 - 1977) Pencil and Watercolor on Paper, Signed, Measures (6 x 4 inches) w/frame (12 x 10 inches) A noted portrait and figure painter, influenced by both Romanticism and Realism, Sean Keating was an Irish nationalist painter who executed several iconic images of the Irish Civil war era, and of the ensuing period of industrialization. One of the great exemplars of representational painting in Ireland, Keating was an intellectual artist in that he set out to depict the birth and development of the Republic of Ireland, and his pictures are deliberately idealized even heroic. However, he held very conservative views about art - verging on the academic style - and was a committed defender of traditional Irish painting, considering much modern art to be bogus. Born in Limerick, Sean Keating studied drawing at the Limerick Technical School before winning a scholarship, arranged for him by William Orpen, to study fine art painting at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. In 1914 he won the Taylor Scholarship
Cutler Bay Auctions
Apr. 18, 2023
Sean Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) Eamon de Valera
Est: €2,500 - €3,500
Sean Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) Eamon de Valera charcoal drawing heightened signed 'KEATING' lower right h:44 w:36 cm. Provenance: These Rooms, 21st January 2019 lot 7; Private Collection Full of character and vigour, this portrait of Eamon de Valera is more than a sketch: Sean Keating has used charcoal and white conte crayon expertly, bringing life and animation to might otherwise be a dull monochrome image. The portrait depicts President de Valera when the veteran politician was probably in his late 'seventies, and therefore can be dated to circa 1960, not long after de Valera had won the presidential election. He had problems with his eyesight and had had several operations during the 1950's; Keating captures the thinning hair, hooded eyes and round spectacles worn by de Valera, as he advanced into old age. Keating also did a portrait of de Valera in 1972, to celebrate the President's 90th birthday. Peter Murray, March 2023
Morgan O'Driscoll
Mar. 06, 2023
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) THE GENEOLOGIST (PORTRAIT OF MICHAEL P. CRONIN)
Est: €4,000 - €6,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) THE GENEOLOGIST (PORTRAIT OF MICHAEL P. CRONIN) pastel signed lower right; signed and titled on reverse h:16.50 w:12.25 in. Michael P. Cronin appears seated second from the left in Keating’s A Republican Court, 1946, which now hangs in Collins Barracks in Cork. He was Clerk of the Republican Court in Kiskeam, Co. Cork, 1920-1921. He had joined the Irish Volunteers in 1917and served under Seán Moylan, See Bureau of Military History document W.S.1171. This lot is accompanied by a letter from the artist to the previous owner detailing the medium used and recollecting an encounter with the subject.
Whyte's
Nov. 28, 2022
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) THE HELLFIRE CLUB, 1944
Est: €4,000 - €6,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) THE HELLFIRE CLUB, 1944 oil on canvas board signed lower right; titled and inscribed on note affixed to reverse h:18 w:27 in. Provenance: Adam's, 29 September 1999, Dublin, lot 128; Private collection The Hell Fire Club on Montpelier Hill was built as a hunting lodge c.1725 by William Conolly and is located in the Dublin Mountains. It is positioned on the site of a prehistoric passage grave, the stones from which were used in the construction of the lodge. What was interpreted as a misappropriation of the earlier landmark led to much superstition and alleged otherworldly activities at the site. This association was later reinforced when members of the Irish Hell Fire Club, active 1735 to 1741, began using the lodge as a meeting place. Although the Club later relocated following a fire, their association with the place remained. The Hell Fire Club and its surrounding lands, including Killakee Estate are now State owned.
Whyte's
Nov. 28, 2022
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) UNLOADING THE TURF BOAT, ARAN
Est: €80,000 - €120,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) UNLOADING THE TURF BOAT, ARAN oil on board signed lower right; signed in Irish on reverse h:36 w:48 in. Provenance: Christie's, Dublin, 24 October 1988, lot 109; Private collection Well-known during his lifetime for his portrayal of the life of the people of Aran, this example by Seán Keating dates stylistically to somewhere between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s. Having met and worked with Robert Flaherty during the filming of Man of Aran in the early 1930s, Keating purchased a cine camera, the footage from which he used, along with his own photographs and sketches, to assist with the composition of paintings to fulfil the ever-increasing demand from his patrons at home and abroad for images of the Aran Islands. Keating's interest in photography derived from his student days at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, and it is known that he referred to his own photographs for several major early works including Men of the West (1915-17) and his series of paintings of the Stations of the Cross for Clongowes Wood College (1919-1921). The close-up composition of Unloading the Turf is an art historical device derived from photography, and seen in the work of Degas, for example. It is used to create a more intimate environment for the viewer. As the sun sets, reflected in the calm waters, a two-man currach sets out to sea, perhaps on its way to another of the three Aran Islands. Two large fishing boats, hookers, are anchored by the shore, sails down, the day is over. Meanwhile, four local men in traditional clothing, sit around the freshly unloaded turf. Two wear pampooties, the local soft shoe made from calf skin, while another, an older man, has a woven basket, known as a creel, at his back. He will fill the creel with turf when the gossip of the day is complete. You, the viewer, are sitting on a higher rock to the right, surveying the scene, listening to the quiet chatter of island men, the mild, rhythmic beat of the rigging on the boats, and the melodic lapping of the gentle sea. The scene is an elegy to a life long gone, and yet a metaphor to the rewards of hard work. Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA, HRUA. Author, Seán Keating: Art, Politics, and Building the Irish Nation (Kildare: IAP, 2013).
Whyte's
Nov. 16, 2022
Sean Keating (1889-1977) “Waiting for the Steamer, Aran Islands” c. 1950, oil on canvas, 76cms x
Est: €50,000 - €70,000
Sean Keating (1889-1977) “Waiting for the Steamer, Aran Islands” c. 1950, oil on canvas, 76cms x 102cms (30” x 40”) Signed lower right ‘Keating’. On a wide expanse of beach, on one of the Aran Islands, a group of islanders have gathered, waiting for the steamship “Dun Aengus” to arrive from Galway. The scene depicted may be at Killeaney or Kilmurvey on Inish Mor island, although the topography suggests Inis Oirr, the smallest of the Aran Islands. There was a pier at Inish Mor, but it could not be used by the large steamer, and so cattle and people had to be ferried out on currachs. In Keating’s painting, a white horse and a black cow are ready also to be brought to the ship. Transporting livestock was not easy; cattle would be towed behind curraches, swimming as best they could, before being lifted on board using block and tackle. Keating was scrupulous in his depiction of both the men and women’s clothing. The dress of the islanders had essentially remained unchanged for centuries; the women wore either red or white hopespun shawls, and red flannel petticoats. The men wore white flannel shirts, and waistcoats. Madder, lichens, and indigo were used as dyes, and the men’s clothing was generally either indigo, natural wool colour, or grey flannel. The men often wore wide-brimmed 'Tam O'Shanter' hats. Aran islanders were largely self-sufficient in terms of clothing. Woollen jumpers were knitted by hand and there were looms for weaving tweed. From early in his career, Keating painted scenes set on the Aran Islands. He does not overly heroise the people of Aran, but evidently admired, even revered, the traditional way of life preserved on the islands. There is often a theatrical quality to his paintings; they are like tableaux, scenes from Riders to the Sea or In the Shadow of the Glen, two plays by Synge set on the Aran Islands. This is not a coincidence. When Synge first visited the islands in 1898, he brought a camera to photograph the people and their everyday life. On his return to Dublin, his teenage nephew, Francis Edmund Stephens, developed the negatives. Over the years, Francis, or Frank, Stephens also began to visit the islands and take his own photographs. Using glass plate lantern slides, Stephens, who worked as a teacher, gave illustrated talks on the Aran Islands, at cultural events in Dublin. (His photographs are now in the library of Trinity College.) A characteristic of Stephens’ photographs is that men often turned their back to the camera. They did not wish to be photographed but were reluctant to ask the photographer to cease his work. This reticence appears also in Keating's paintings, where men are often depicted from the side, looking introspective, or else standing with their backs to the viewer. In this painting, while there are people chatting in the background, the main figures seem isolated and lost in their own thoughts. When Keating depicts figures side by side, often there may be little or no connection between them. In his Men of Aran, painted in the mid-1930’s, five men, standing and seated, are depicted in profile, all looking in the same direction, while each man appears to be deep in thought. There is more interaction between the men gathered on the beach in Slán Leat a Athair, a large canvas painted in 1936 and now in the Ulster Museum. Keating was not in search of glamour but preferred to depict people who had lived through hard times, and whose life experiences were etched in the lines in their faces. In his portraits of islanders, eyebrows are emphasized, as are deep-set eyes. He delighted in a realist approach that emphasized lines, wrinkles, and ruddy cheeks. Although he visited the Aran Islands frequently, in later years Keating often used photographs, such as those taken by Stephens, as source material. The use of such mechanical aids did not have a deadening quality on his art and this painting is characterised by his expert use of paint, applied in gentle layers of browns, russets, and bright red colours, set against a pale background of sand. There are superb passages of expressive paint, in which figures and animals are suggested, rather than represented in detail. The sky is also pale light ochre, grey on the horizon, with a hint of pink. The rugged landscape of the island is captured in vivid brushstrokes of green and grey. Provenance: Important Private Collection, West of Ireland.
Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers
Nov. 16, 2022
Sean Keating, (1889-1977) “Man and Woman collecting Seaweed, Aran Islands,” c. 1950, oil on
Est: €30,000 - €40,000
Sean Keating, (1889-1977) “Man and Woman collecting Seaweed, Aran Islands,” c. 1950, oil on canvas, 61cms x 76cms (24” x 30”), Signed lower right ‘Keating’. Seen in profile, standing on a rocky foreshore on the Aran Islands, a man and a woman are gathering kelp. Keating has depicted an aspect of island life that involved back-breaking work, with both figures bending forward as they tug at the seaweed. To the left, a pier juts out into the sea, while in the background, an expanse of wind-whipped sea is finely painted, with flickering brushstrokes of blue and green. In the far distance can be seen the pale blue peaks of the mountains of Connemara. A dark area of sea near the horizon hints at rain. Gathering kelp was an important part of subsistence farming on the Aran Islands, and it also generated additional income, as iodine that could be sold to pharmaceutical companies—iodine is a vital chemical for treating thyroid deficiency and is also a valuable antiseptic. Collected on the seashore after storms, the kelp was loaded onto the backs of donkeys. When access to the shore was difficult, it was packed into square wicker baskets, secured to islanders' backs with straw ropes, and carried by them up onto dry areas of limestone rock. In his book The Aran Islands, published in 1907, John Millington Synge described the process: “At the south-west corner of the island I came upon a number of people gathering the seaweed that is now thick on the rocks. It was raked from the surf by the men, and then carried up to the brow of the cliff by a party of young girls. In addition to their ordinary clothing these girls wore a raw sheepskin on their shoulders, to catch the oozing seawater, and they looked strangely wild and seal-like with the salt caked upon their lips and wreaths of seaweed in their hair.” The kelp was then stacked in large ricks, protected from rain with a covering of straw, and left to dry for several months. Synge again described the process: “The seaweed is collected from the rocks after the storms of autumn and winter, dried on fine days, and then made up into a rick, where it is left till the beginning of June. It is then burnt in low kilns on the shore, an affair that takes from twelve to twenty-four hours of continuous hard work, . .” The kelp was then allowed to cool for several days: the iodine contained within molten and solidified kelp. In Synge’s day, it would fetch four pounds a ton. Seaweed was also used to create a fertile soil in which potatoes could be grown. Island fields were made by laying down a mixture of sand and seaweed, then covering it topsoil, the field bounded with walls of stones gathered from the karst limestone landscape. Provenance: Important Private Collection, West of Ireland.
Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers
Nov. 16, 2022
Sean Keating (1889-1977) “Village on the Aran Islands,” c.1950, oils on board, 44cms x 61cms (17” x
Est: €15,000 - €20,000
Sean Keating (1889-1977) “Village on the Aran Islands,” c.1950, oils on board, 44cms x 61cms (17” x 24”), Signed lower right 'Keating'. In 1911, having won a scholarship to the Dublin Metropolitan School, Sean Keating moved from his home city of Limerick to Dublin. Settling into his studies, he quickly developed a life-long regard for his tutor William Orpen, whose style of Realism, tempered by Impressionist and Romantic overtones, Keating adopted. Orpen reciprocated this admiration, recognising his pupil's talents as a draughtsman, and employed him as an assistant. Keating also appears in several paintings by Orpen. However, Keating was torn between the world inhabited by Orpen, who had a successful portrait practice in London, and his own wish to capture the spirit of his native country, as it emerged from centuries of British rule. In 1914, Keating was introduced to the Aran Islands by his friend and fellow student Harry Clarke. Although Keating was low in funds, Clarke assured him that he could live inexpensively on Inis Oirr, the smallest of the islands. Thereafter, although he worked as an assistant for Orpen in London, Keating was drawn to paint landscapes and genre scenes on the Aran Islands. The introduction of conscription in England in 1916 helped him to make up his mind, and he returned to Ireland permanently. In spite of Keating's efforts to persuade Orpen to go with him, the latter opted to remain in London, and was commissioned as a war artist. Over the years Keating continued to visit the Aran Islands, in an attempt to capture what remained of a pure, Gaelic heritage, free of modern consumerist influence. However, that very purity and authenticity was what drew visitors to the Islands, and in time, tourism came to replace farming and fishing as the mainstay of the islands' economy. In this painting, probably depicting a scene on Inis Oirr, the smallest of the islands, Keating picks out a view of houses above a landscape of dunes that is clearly being eroded by storms and rain. A fragile sward of green turf is receding, as sand is blown away, exposing rocks that litter the gully in the sands. Although highlighting the fragility of the islands' ecosystem, the painting is nevertheless a wonderful evocation of a fine windy day in the West of Ireland, painted with delicacy and skill. Keating draws with his paint brush, tracing the lines of the landscape, and suggests, rather than paints in detail, the areas of green grass. The light ochre underpainting is left exposed in several areas. Set on a ridge above sand dunes, the village is the same as that depicted in the background of a larger painting by Keating, Waiting for the Steamer. Provenance: Important Private Collection, West of Ireland.
Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers
Sep. 26, 2022
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) SYBIL'S HEAD
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) SYBIL'S HEAD pastel signed lower right h:18.25 w:15.75 in.
Whyte's
Sep. 26, 2022
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) SKETCHES [PICKETERS]
Est: €1,200 - €1,800
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) SKETCHES [PICKETERS] charcoal signed in ink lower right h:24.50 w:18.50 in.
Whyte's
Sep. 26, 2022
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) GOOD OLD STUFF, c.1928
Est: €30,000 - €50,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) GOOD OLD STUFF, c.1928 oil on board signed lower right h:28.25 w:36 in. Provenance: Adam's, 4 December 2013, lot 86; Private collection Exhibited: 'Annual Exhibition', Royal Academy, London,1928, catalogue no. 217; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1928; 'Annual Exhibition', RHA, Dublin, 1929, catalogue no. 14; Helen Hackett Gallery, New York, 1929; Museum of Irish Art, New York, 1931/2; 'Seán Keating Exhibition', Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin, 1947; 'Seán Keating Retrospective Exhibition', Municipal Gallery, Dublin, 1963, catalogue no. 24; 'Seán Keating: In Focus', Hunt Museum, Limerick, June to September 2009 Literature: 'Ireland Painters, 1600-1940', Anne Crookshank and The Knight of Glin, fig. 385 on p. 281; 'Seán Keating; In Focus', Dr. Éimear O'Connor, 2009, illustrated p. 21 and again p. 53; 'Seán Keating: Art, Politics and Building the Irish Nation', Dr. Éimear O'Connor, Kildare, 2012, p. 91, illustrated p. 92 Known for his overtly nationalist paintings made between 1915 and 1924, the series of images of citizen heroes that Seán Keating made after that date indicate a lot about his unceasing confidence in the Irish people, even if he was relentlessly disappointed with the governing classes. Keating's choice to use the common people as models in non-commissioned work from the 1920s onwards was an expression of his democratic spirit, and in doing so, he was determinedly placing himself on the progressive side of the political divide in Europe at that time. Good Old Stuff is one of a group of paintings made in the late 1920s in which the artist was investigating both the process, and the inherited wisdom of old age, but through the lens of allegory. Other paintings in the sequence include Past Definite, Future Perfect (1928), Old Kitty (1928), The Turf Gatherer (1928) and two versions of Don Quixote (1927 and 1932). The old man in Good Old Stuff is shown seated at a table on which there is a tea cup, a tea pot and a bottle of some sort of alcohol - whiskey perhaps. However, given the artist's predisposition to the use of symbolism, there is far more to this image than simple witticism. The old man is shown seated in a secluded space. Stories from years long past are inscribed into the creases of his face, and the veins in his hands. He is not actually looking at the containers on the table; he is in reflective mood and lost in his own world. Yet, his far-off gaze is reassuring, calming, and gentle. The old man is good old stuff itself, and he has much to offer anyone who cares to listen, or to see. Thus, Good Old Stuff was also a tribute to the wisdom and experience of old age, which, as far as Keating was concerned, was equally as important to New Ireland as the exuberance and inexperience of youth. The model for Keating's Good Old Stuff remains unidentified, but he appeared in several paintings made by the artist in the late 1920s, including The Models' Interval (1927) and the first version of Don Quixote (1927). In 1927, when Keating was working on Don Quixote, he took several photographs of the old man seated at a table. The artist appears to have been very happy with that composition, and when he began Good Old Stuff the following year, he used those photographs to recreate the exact same pose, but placed his model holding a teacup instead of the infamous helmet that is central to the story of Don Quixote. Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA Resident Director, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre
Whyte's
Jun. 06, 2022
+Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) SKETCHES [PICKETERS]
Est: €1,000 - €1,500
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) SKETCHES [PICKETERS] charcoal signed in ink lower right h:24.50 w:18.25 in.
Whyte's
Jun. 06, 2022
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) LOADING AND UNLOADING TURF BOATS, CONNEMARA, c.1940s
Est: €10,000 - €15,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) LOADING AND UNLOADING TURF BOATS, CONNEMARA, c.1940s oil on board signed lower right; with Victor Waddington Galleries label on reverse h:19 w:20.50 in. Provenance: Private collection since early 1940s; Whyte's, 29 September 2014, lot 19; Private collection This example of Seán Keating's work, which is known as Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara (c.1939-46) is one of a series of studies and paintings of the western seaboard of Ireland and the Aran Islands that the artist began in c.1939 and concluded in the late 1940s. There was no indigenous turf on the Aran Islands, so it was necessary to have the fuel brought over from the mainland on boats that looked like currachs, but were larger versions called bád iomartha. Keating's image shows the boats being loaded with turf in Connemara. There are three bád iomartha in the little harbour; two masts are visible and one is anchored in view in the shallow waters. In the background, another bád iomartha is at full sail and headed west across the North Atlantic sea towards one of the Aran Islands. Two older men sit and watch as the others work hard to load the rest of the turf onto the boats before night falls, or the brooding storm, evident in the dark clouds beyond, intensifies enough to put a halt to the day's work. In the background, the sun has parted the skies to illuminate the tiny whitewashed and thatched cottages that dotted the coastline between Spiddal and Carraroe. The arrangement of the pictorial elements in this study is demonstrative of the artist's concern with the use of photography and cine-film footage as a means to construct his compositions. Indeed, as a result of his interest in such technology Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara has a lot in common in terms of composition with another example by the artist, Loading the Turf Cart, The Quay, Kilmurvey (c. 1940), which was sold in Dublin in 2006. The two men in the red cart drawn by a white horse in the background, and the bád iomartha anchored in the shallow harbour, make an appearance in both images. Such repetition was not unusual for Keating at that time. His paintings of the western seaboard and the Aran Islands were enduringly popular. The re-use of certain vignettes and compositional elements helped to create a readily recognisable body of work on the topic, while at the same time, his artistic familiarity with the material allowed the artist time to complete several studies and commissioned paintings featuring the traditional ways of life which were then still evident. Furthermore, Keating's use of a camera and cine-camera to capture the habitual routines of the west of Ireland people, which he then transferred to canvas or paper, gave a sense of validity and authenticity to his work. As a result, images such as Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara, although composed from individual vignettes, are studies of contemporary history, and as such, they are important visual documentary evidence of a traditional way of life now lost to modernity. Keating exhibited with the Victor Waddington Gallery in Dublin, and he also had his work framed there throughout the 1940s. It is of significance to note that Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara is still in its original Victor Waddington frame. An uncommon find, the original frame and Waddington label are important and integral components of the work. Significantly, the frame is a little more decorative than the artist could have afforded to use. Hence, it seems reasonable to assume that the artist either sold or, as seems more likely, gifted the work to the original owner, who then brought it, on Keating's advice, to Waddington to be suitably framed. The subject of Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara seems to be related to a painting by the artist titled Turf Boats, Connemara (1946) which entered a private collection at that time and has not been seen in public since. Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA Author and Research Associate-TRIARC Irish Art Research Centre, TCD October 2012
Whyte's
Mar. 30, 2022
Sean Keating PPRHA RSA RA (1889-1977) Portrait of Hal Macdermott Oil on canvas, 106 x 91cm (41¾ x 35¼) Signed
Est: €1,000 - €2,000
Sean Keating PPRHA RSA RA (1889-1977) Portrait of Hal Macdermott Oil on canvas, 106 x 91cm (41¾ x 35¼) Signed
Adam's
Mar. 07, 2022
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN WEARING A STRING OF PEARLS
Est: €1,200 - €1,500
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN WEARING A STRING OF PEARLS pastel and charcoal on board signed lower left; inscribed in another hand on reverse h:14.50 w:13.50 in.
Whyte's
Oct. 26, 2021
Sean Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) Portrait Drawing of Captain Consadine
Est: €7,000 - €10,000
Sean Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) Portrait Drawing of Captain Consadine charcoal and brown conte with white chalk highlights signed lower right h:54.50 w:73.50 cm. Provenance: Private Collection A portrait dating from Keating's time on the West of Ireland in the early 1930's, this drawing depicts an elderly man, a farmer or a fisherman, whose weathered face is a study in longevity and endurance. Full of character and vigour, the portrait is far more than a sketch: Keating has used brown conte over charcoal in an expert way, to lend colour to what otherwise would be a monochrome drawing and has further highlighted the portrait with white conte crayon. Grasping a wicker basket or creel with his right hand, the aged man looks directly at the observer, his eyes full of the wisdom and stoicism that so captivated those generations of writers and artists to travelled to the West of Ireland in search of inspiration, from George Petrie and Frederick William Burton, to Paul Henry, John Millington Synge and Maurice MacGonigal. In the Greyfriars Gallery in Waterford, where the municipal art collection is housed, there is a pastel on paper portrait by Keating titled "Captain Consadine". The present drawing is more elaborate version of the Waterford work. The name Consadine is common in Co. Clare, particularly in the Doolin and Liscannor areas. The bar nearest to the Cliffs of Moher is owned by the Consadine family. Born in Limerick, John (later Sean) Keating initially studied drawing at Limerick Technical School. Recognising his talent, William Orpen arranged a scholarship for Keating to the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin in 1911. Keating visited the Aran Islands in 1914 and the following year worked in Orpen's London studio where he tried, unsuccessfully, to convince the successful portraitist to return to Ireland. Keating himself moved back to teach at the Metropolitan School. Through the ensuing years, in a series of ambitious Academic Realist canvases, he documented the struggle for political independence. The unspoiled Aran Islands provided subject matter for many paintings, while Keating also celebrated the industrialisation of the newly emergent Republic in a cycle of semi-allegorical paintings documenting the building of the hydroelectric plant at Ardnacrusha in 1926-29. Keating painted what he saw and said what he thought. He followed the realist tenet that art could not be separated from life, and portrayed the great events of his time. He recorded different stages of the Hydroelectric Scheme, realising that this massive engineering project would help bring prosperity to an impoverished West of Ireland. His interest in progress was further revealed in a mural commissioned for the Irish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. However, the public on both sides of the Atlantic preferred Keating's more traditional subject matter. His 'The Race of the Gael' , a prize-winner at an exhibition organised by IBM in New York, also in 1939, showing a group of Irishmen in profile, has something of the feeling of a Norman Rockwell set piece. While Keating's large allegorical works, such as 'Night's Candles are Burned Out', are powerful, realist canvases, his watercolours and sketches reveal a delicacy and aesthetic quality similar to that of John Singer Sargent. President of the RHA from 1949-62, Keating was one of the key artists who defined visual culture in Ireland in the early to mid-twentieth century. Peter Murray, September 2021
Morgan O'Driscoll
Sep. 29, 2021
Seán Keating PPRHA RSA RA (1889-1977) Don Quixote Oil on board, 73.5 x 84cm (29 x 33'') Signed verso Provenance: Boston (1927); British Artists Association, Buenos Aires (1928); Helen Hackett Gallery New York (1929); Grace Horn Gallery, Boston
Est: €30,000 - €50,000
Seán Keating PPRHA RSA RA (1889-1977) Don Quixote Oil on board, 73.5 x 84cm (29 x 33'') Signed verso Provenance: Boston (1927); British Artists Association, Buenos Aires (1928); Helen Hackett Gallery New York (1929); Grace Horn Gallery, Boston (1929). For Irish artist, Seán Keating, the artistic and allegorical possibilities offered by literature were endless. A fluent French speaker, his interest in all things Spanish was ignited on meeting his future wife, May Walshe, in 1916. Raised in a convent in Spain, May was so immersed in the culture that the language of her dreams was Spanish. It was hardly surprising that he would turn to one of the best-known works of Spanish literature to critique issues such as self-invention, social change, questions of truth, and the cult of individualism at the time. Miguel de Cervantes published the first part of Don Quixote in 1605, followed by a second volume in 1615, and ever since the central eponymous and comical character has been popular as a satirical metaphor for those not enamoured of the political classes, or of the self-satisfied. Formerly Alonso Quijano, the delusional old man read so many chivalric novels that he lost his mind. Led by his over-ripe imagination, he decided to transform himself into a knight. He created a cardboard helmet and found himself an ancient horse and an old suit of armour. In the guise of Don Quixote he took to the roads to serve his nation as a chivalric knight, but failed miserably in the face of a series of catastrophic events. Along the way he acquired the services of an elderly assistant, Sancho Panza, otherwise known as the magician, whose role was initially self-serving, yet ultimately, he helped his master through the reality of the terrible tribulations that they encountered. The first image in a series of three relating to Don Quixote was El Prestigiador Despojado (The Magician), a portrait of Sancho Panza, which was painted by the artist in 1918. It is now in the collection of the Crawford Gallery in Cork. Keating did not return to the theme again until the late 1920s, and when he did, it was Don Quixotes character that offered him the opportunity to allegorically critique the impractical pursuit of idealist goals by politicians, and individuals amid the socially, economically, and politically problematic years of the late 1920s and 30s. Indeed, it was Don Quixote who gave his name to the term quixotic. Thus, this version, Quixote, was the first of two images of the unlucky knight. Painted in the artists home in Killakee in the Dublin Mountains in 1927, it was initially sent to an exhibition in Boston organised by the then President of the RHA, Dermod OBrien. Quixote is a quiet and contemplative painting in which the eponymous antihero appears without his suit of armour. He sits in an undefined but decorative interior setting, his hand on a book, his sword and helmet on the table, thinking about his future, and of his supposedly chivalric deeds. But he has yet been fully taken over by the delusions that haunt the character in the book. That was to come in the second version of the painting, which Keating produced amid major political change in Ireland in 1932, and titled Don Quixote (sold in Adams in 2010). Don Quixote is described in the novel as tall and gaunt. Keating always chose his models to suit the character he wanted to portray. In this instance, he used a man with suitable physical attributes from among those that modelled the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. The same man appears in this version, Quixote (1927), in Quixote Models Interval (1927) (private collection), in Good Old Stuff (1928) (private collection) and in Don Quixote (1932). Dr Éimear OConnor HRHA Author: Seán Keating: Art, Politics, and Building the Irish Nation (IAP, 2013). Director: The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig.
Adam's
Sep. 27, 2021
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) ARAN ISLAND SCENE
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) ARAN ISLAND SCENE charcoal on paper signed lower right h:18 w:24 in.
Whyte's
Jun. 02, 2021
Seán Keating PPRHA RSA RA (1889-1977) - Segregation (1972)
Est: €20,000 - €40,000
Seán Keating PPRHA RSA RA (1889-1977) Segregation (1972) Oil on board, 55 x 65cm (21¾ x 25½'') Signed; also signed and dated 1972 verso Sean Keating was eighty-three years old in 1972. He had not visited the Aran Islands for many years, but he had come to the attention of a new audience as a result of televised interviews with Colm O'Briain (ROSC) and Gay Byrne (Late Late Show Tribute). Invigorated by his renewed popularity, Keating took on several commissions for portraits and images of the Aran Islands, for which he had been well-known. Segregation was privately commissioned from the artist in 1972. This is the second version of the work in Oil for which he also did three studies in charcoal. During that year he had been working on a drawing titled The Good Humoured Ladies, a study of three women, which was exhibited at the Oireachtas exhibition. He returned to this study in order to compose the main elements of Segregation, which shows three Aran women, two of whom are good-naturedly teasing the only male in the composition, while the other adopts a coquettish and flirtatious pose. Through their playacting, the women have managed to segregate, or isolate, the man, who appears self-conscious and outnumbered in their company. Dr Eimear O'Connor Starting Bid: € 14000
Adam's
Jun. 02, 2021
Seán Keating PRHA (1889-1977) - Head Studies a Young Man and a Self Portrait
Est: €4,000 - €6,000
Seán Keating PRHA (1889-1977) Head Studies a Young Man and a Self Portrait Charcoal, 51.5 x 70cm (20¼ x 27½) Signed Starting Bid: € 2800
Adam's
May. 31, 2021
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) THINKING OUT GOBNET [PORTRAIT OF HARRY CLARKE] 1917
Est: €50,000 - €70,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) THINKING OUT GOBNET [PORTRAIT OF HARRY CLARKE] 1917 oil on canvas signed, titled and with original price on handwritten label preserved on reverse; also dedicated [John Keating / To Harry Clarke / 29 Aug 1917] on the stretcher on reverse and in Irish script on canvas; with original Daniel Egan framing label h:30 w:30 in. Provenance: A gift from the artist to Harry Clarke RHA (1889-1931); Private collection; James Adam & Bonhams, 7 December 2005, lot 78; Private collection; Whyte's, 1 October 2018, lot 26; Private collection Exhibited: RHA, Dublin, 1918, catalogue no. 339 (Lent by Harry Clarke); 'The Arts and Crafts Movement: Making It Irish', McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, USA, 6 February to 5 June, 2016; 'Conflicting Visions in a Turbulent Age 1900–1916', Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 3 June to 20 August 2016 Literature: N., Gordon Bowe, The Life and Work of Harry Clarke, Dublin, 1989, plate no. 64; Éimear O'Connor, Seán Keating: Art, Politics and Building the Irish Nation (Kildare: Irish Academic Press, 2013), pp. 63-4; Éimear O'Connor, Conflicting Visions in a Turbulent Age 1900-1916, catalogue for eponymous exhibition, Crawford Art Gallery Cork (Cork: Crawford Art Gallery, 2016), pp. 60-1; Éimear O'Connor, 'Harry Clarke and Seán Keating: Art, Inspiration and the Aran Islands' in R. Kennedy, A. Griffiths & M. Helmers (eds.), Harry Clarke and Artistic Visions of the New Irish State (Kildare: Irish Academic Press, forthcoming November 2018), chapter 5 Harry Clarke and Seán Keating met at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art in 1911. With interests in common they became friends and it was Clarke who introduced Keating to the Aran Islands in c.1912. While the islands had a profound effect on Keating's artistic identity, and he continued to visit until 1965, as it turned out Clarke made his final trip there in 1915, a few months after he began the commission for his series of eleven windows for the Honan Chapel, Cork. As St Gobnait is traditionally associated with Ballyvourney in Co. Cork and with the Aran Islands, Keating's painting offers evidence of the friendship between the two men and their mutual interest in the islands at the time. The painting simultaneously acknowledges Clarke's extraordinary ingenuity evident in his tour de force portrayal of St Gobnait which was installed in the Honan Chapel in 1916, but possibly 'thought out' during that last trip to Aran in 1915 with Keating at his side. Yet Thinking out Gobnait is not simply an image of Clarke thinking about his work. It is an allegory drawn from a composite of the picturesque ruins of the ancient churches of Inis Oírr, and influenced in style by William Orpen's The Holy Well (1916: NGI). The painting shows Clarke sitting on a grave slab within the ruins of Teampall Chaomháin (St Kevin's church) on Inis Oírr, along with a holy water font at his feet, and a holy well to the bottom right of the image. The tree, known as the 'tree of Inisheer', had always been associated with St Gobnait and her church on the island Cill Ghobnait. Keating simply removed the tree from its original place and positioned it by Teampall Chaomháin, thereby introducing a simultaneous visual reference to Clarke's commission. But it is the depiction of Clarke on the grave slab in Teampall Chaomháin that denotes the crucial, though symbolic emphasis in Keating's portrayal of his friend. The church is traditionally associated with miraculous cures; those who lay on the grave slab were, apparently, healed. Clarke had not been well while 'thinking out Gobnait', and Keating suggests, perhaps, that all might be alright now that his friend had reclined on the miraculous grave slab. An inscription in old Irish and another in English on the reverse of the work, both in Keating's hand, reveal that he gifted the painting to Clarke in 1917. Anxious to be elected to the RHA, Keating borrowed the painting from Clarke to exhibit in the annual exhibition in 1918. He was elected an Associate of the Academy later that year. Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA Resident Director, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre
Whyte's
May. 31, 2021
Sean Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) IRISH FREE STATE BACON, 1928
Est: €10,000 - €15,000
Seán Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) IRISH FREE STATE BACON, 1928 gouache, pencil and coloured chalk signed lower right h:39 w:59 in. Provenance: Paul Conran; From whom purchased by the previous owner in October 1982; Christie's, The Irish Sale, London, 10 May 2007, lot 74; Whyte's, 24 November 2008, lot 81; Private collection The Empire Marketing Board (EMB) was established in London in 1926 for the purpose of promoting the sale of produce from countries associated with the British Empire. The methods of advertising included posters for shop windows and outdoor billboards. Continued access to the British market was of vital economic necessity to the newly established Irish Free State, a point that was given recognition when in 1927 the EMB commissioned Seán Keating to undertake the design of three posters, Irish Free State Dairying, Irish Free State Bacon and Irish Free State Chicken, to advertise Irish produce to the English market. The three posters were used around England between June and July 1929 on specially designed outdoor billboards. Keating was familiar with the skills necessary for large-scale poster design owing to his training at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. His brief was firmly controlled by the EMB, and at the same time, the artist knew that the designs had to be visually specific and immediately legible. The drawing illustrated is Keating's innovative design for Irish Free State Bacon, which is replete with the visual iconography that was expected of Ireland in the 1920s. However, this is a design by Keating, and therefore there is more to the image than immediately apparent. Keating's work for the EMB appears at first glance, to reflect an imagined view of Ireland as a rural ideal and idyll, as dictated by the advertising concerns of the EMB. But arguably, there is degree of artistic subterfuge in the image. There are no green rolling hills, shamrocks, shillelaghs or white thatched cottages. Instead, Keating posited an image of a peaceful and prosperous peasantry within a well maintained farmyard, which refutes the age-old vision of misery and deprivation in Ireland of the 1920s. The close range view and the stage-like setting combined with clear architectural and figurative detail serves to further engage the viewer with the atmosphere of a real and flourishing farm. The appeal in the work is therefore premised on Keating's ability to suitably advertise Irish Free State Bacon within the limits of the constraints set by the EMB, but without reducing the images to mere pastiche. The survival of Keating's original design for Irish Free State Bacon, which was intentionally ephemeral, is noteworthy, and an exceptionally rare surviving example of Keating's extensive career as an artist of ephemeral work. Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA Resident Director, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre
Whyte's
May. 31, 2021
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) SELF PORTRAIT WEARING A HAT, c. 1940s
Est: €30,000 - €50,000
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) SELF PORTRAIT WEARING A HAT, c. 1940s oil on canvas signed lower left h:19.50 w:20 in. Provenance: Bank of Ireland Collection; Adam's, 24 November 2010, lot 4; Private collection Exhibited: 'Seán Keating: Contemporary Contexts', Crawford Art Gallery, Cork,13 July to 27 October 2012 A major aspect of Seán Keating's training at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art was the technique of portrait painting. He proved a talented portraitist and the skill was to become vital for his economic livelihood. From the beginning of his professional career in 1914 until his death in 1977 Keating undertook hundreds of public and private portrait commissions in charcoal, pastel and oil. The fact that he also painted dozens of self-portraits was not due to any sense of self-importance or vanity. He had been taught by William Orpen to work every day in order to keep his artistic hand and eye in practice. So if there was no model available, and no commission awaiting completion, Keating turned to the next best thing - his own features. In this excellent example, which dates to the mid to late-1940s, Keating wears a hat common to the west of Ireland at that time, and layers of woollen pullovers reminiscent of the Aran Island, the colours of which serve to balance the composition. He stares out at the viewer with an intense gaze that is typical of his self-portraits. The look of concentration signals the artist's use of a mirror while working, and at the same time, it illustrates something of his character and individuality. In this instance, Keating could pass for an Aran Islander, or even, an actor in the Abbey Theatre. His sartorial reference to the Aran Islands was deliberate; from an early stage in his career, Keating's name, and his career, had become synonymous with the west of Ireland in general, and the Aran Islands in particular. Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA Resident Director, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre
Whyte's
Apr. 11, 2021
SEAN KEATING (IRISH, 1889-1977).
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
Charcoal on paper. Aran Island Scene. Signed lower right. From a Port Washington, NY collection.
Clarke Auction Gallery
Oct. 27, 2020
Sean Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) Paddy Martin
Est: €1,500 - €2,500
Sean Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) Paddy Martin pastel signed lower right h:61 w:51 cm. Provenance: Fred Keetch Ltd. Gallery, Devon (label verso); Private Collection
Morgan O'Driscoll
Oct. 19, 2020
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) THE TALLYMAN'S WIFE
Est: €3,000 - €5,000
signed lower right
Whyte's