Lot 48: George Collie RHA (1904-1975) The Fruit and

George Collie RHA (1904-1975) The Fruit and Vegetable Market, Smithfield, Dublin 1927 Oil on board, 68 x 86.5cm (26.75 x 34") Signed Provenance: Bought in these rooms 27th March 2002, lot 57, by the current owner. Taylor Prize Winner Literature: Eamonn Mallie, One Hundred Years of Irish Art - A Millennium Presentation, Nicholson & Bass, 2000, colour illustration p.79 George Collie was born in Co. Monaghan but was educated in Dublin, receiving his art training at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. He exhibited two paintings at the RHA at the age of eighteen and in 1927 he won The Taylor Prize and Scholarship with the present work 'Dublin Fruit and Vegetable Market'. The following year he again won The Taylor Prize with 'The Midday Meal'. The judges at the 1927 prize giving stated '....and as this work displays exceptional merit, they recommend that the trustees make a special grant to this student to enable him to study abroad'. Collie continued his art training in London at the Royal College of Art and in Paris at the same schools as Mary Swanzy had attended, namely La Grande Chaumière and Colarossi. After his return to Dublin he taught at the Metropolitan School of Art and later set up his own teaching studios at Schoolhouse Lane off Kildare Street. He is probably best known as a portrait painter producing some of the finest portraits of the leading figures of his day.