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Lot 49: Maurice MacGonigal PPRHA HRA HRSA (1900-1979) RED COATED MAN, CONNEMARA

Est: €10,000 EUR - €15,000 EURSold:
Whyte'sDublin, IrelandOctober 19, 2020

Item Overview

Description

signed lower left; titled on reverse

Dimensions

h:18 w:26in.

Artist or Maker

Medium

oil on board

Condition Report

Very good stable condition. Paint surface is clean, and board is in equally very good condition. Backing board affixed verso with window cut-out revealing inscription. Presented in a water gilt frame; unglazed.

Provenance

Dawson Gallery, Dublin;
Where purchased by Mrs. Wallace Sterling, circa 1969;
The Estate of Judith Sterling Morse Plunkett, Pasadena;
Her sale, Abell Auctions, Los Angeles, 14 June 2020, lot 338;
Private collection



Notes

The present work, depicts the cattlemen of Connemara, above the Clifden Fair and was inspired by the poem High and Low by James Henry Cousins (1873-1956) the Anglo-Irish poet, playwright, actor, critic, editor and teacher. He used several pseudonyms including Mac Oisín and the Hindu name Jayaram. In 1897 Cousins moved to Dublin where he became part of a literary circle which included W.B. Yeats, George Russell and James Joyce among others.

High and Low
by James H. Cousins

He stumbled home from Clifden fair
With drunken song, and cheeks aglow.
Yet there was something in his air
That told of kingship long ago.
I sighed - and inly cried
With grief that one so high should fall so low.

He snatched a flower and sniffed its scent,
And waved it toward the sunset sky.
Some old sweet rapture thro' him went
And kindled in his bloodshot eye.
I turned - and inly burned
With joy that one so low should rise so high.

MacGonigal loved painting fairs and cattle. The cattle fairs of Connemara always fascinated him, as much for the cattle dealers as for the animals themselves, and Clifden and Maam Cross drew large crowds of sellers and buyers. The men and women from the surrounding mountain areas driving their cattle to sale, the small farmer with two or three to sell and often the MacGonigal family neighbour, Maggie from Faul, with her much prized three or four cows would all be there.

The Woods family from Roundstone (buyers), Joyces (sellers and buyers), the Westmeath and Longford buyers, Farrells, Molihans would all be there with the Purcell brothers... this latter group with big lorries and flashing bundles of notes bestrode the fairs like Lords of the Atlas.
But they knew not only the cattle over the years but the sellers and would always watch out for the seller with few but high-quality beasts from limestone fields. (Stock of this provenance built up strong bones and good lean meat and fatty cattle were going 'out of fashion' by this time).

The artist, then in his seventies, had reverted to his colour palette of many years previously, brilliant reds, scarlets, vivid greens all deriving from his interest in prismatic colour and his early training in the stained-glass studios of his uncle Joshua and cousin Harry Clarke.
In the present work the colour is so vivid that the two cattlemen appear to be moving forward. The artist anchors the composition with the signpost and echoes and re-echoes the colour composition by notes of red on a diminishing scale. The composition is further anchored by the foreground cattle and the young bull calf in the centre of the composition, positioned just 'off' centre to stop the eye rushing out of the frame.

The artist's interest in dynamic asymmetry is captured to great effect in this painting. But the balance of it all is the telling of the tale, the pictorial logic of its making if you like, and all reflecting the artist's intense interest in the scale and importance of figurative processes. The origins of painting into white (the prismatic scale) used traditionally in the medium of stained-glass to gain its point, beautifully captured in the present work.

Ciarán MacGonigal
Summer 2020


Payment & Shipping

Payment

Accepted forms of payment: MasterCard, Money Order / Cashiers Check, Personal Check, Visa, Wire Transfer

Shipping

The buyer will be responsible for all removal, storage and insurance charges in respect of any lot which has not been collected within fourteen days of the date of sale.

Auction Details

Important Irish & International Art

by
Whyte's
October 19, 2020, 06:00 PM IST

Freemasons Hall 17 Molesworth Street, Dublin, 2, IE

Terms

Buyer's Premium

20.0%

Bidding Increments

From:To:Increment:
€0€99€5
€100€299€10
€300€699€20
€700€1,299€50
€1,300€2,999€100
€3,000€6,999€200
€7,000€12,999€500
€13,000€29,999€1,000
€30,000€69,999€2,000
€70,000€129,999€5,000
€130,000+€10,000

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Whyte & Sons Auctioneers Limited, trading as Whyte's, hereinafter called "the auctioneer" exercises all reasonable care to ensure that all descriptions are reliable and accurate, and that each item is genuine unless the contrary is indicated. However, the descriptions are not intended to be, are not and are not to be taken to be, statements of fact or representations of fact in relation to the lot. They are statements of the opinion of the auctioneers, and attention is particularly drawn to clause 5 set out below. Comments and opinions, which may be found in or on lots as labels, notes, lists, catalogue prices, or any other means of expression, do not constitute part of lot descriptions and are not to be taken as such unless they are made or specifically verified by the auctioneers. 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(g) Any lot listed as a "collection, range, portfolio etc." or stated to comprise or contain a collection or range of items which are not described shall be put up for sale not subject to rejection and shall be taken by the purchaser with all (if any) faults, lack of genuineness and errors of description and numbers of items in the lot, and the purchaser shall have no right to reject the lot; except that, notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this sub-clause, where before a sale a person intending to bid at the sale gives notice in writing to, and satisfies the auctioneer that any such lot contains any item or items undescribed in the sale catalogue and that person specifically describes that item or those items in that notice, then that item or those items shall, as between the auctioneer and that person, to be taken to form part of the description of the lot. 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Condition

Whyte & Sons Auctioneers Limited, trading as Whyte's, hereinafter called "the auctioneer" exercises all reasonable care to ensure that all descriptions are reliable and accurate, and that each item is genuine unless the contrary is indicated. However, the descriptions are not intended to be, are not and are not to be taken to be, statements of fact or representations of fact in relation to the lot. They are statements of the opinion of the auctioneers, and attention is particularly drawn to clause 5 in our full Terms & Conditions. Comments and opinions, which may be found in or on lots as labels, notes, lists, catalogue prices, or any other means of expression, do not constitute part of lot descriptions and are not to be taken as such unless they are made or specifically verified by the auctioneers.

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