Lot 55: Richard Thomas Moynan RHA (1856 - 1906) The

Richard Thomas Moynan RHA (1856 - 1906) The Travelling Show (1892) Oil on canvas, 61 x 101.5cm (24 x 40'') Signed and dated 1892 Provenance: Purchased by the current owner 1979. Exhibited: RHA Annual Exhibition, 1892, Cat. No. 23 Irish International Exhibition, Dublin, 1901 Crawford Gallery, Cork, ''Whipping the Herring Exhibition'' 2006 National Gallery of Ireland, ''A Time and a place'' 2006/7, Exhibition Cat. No. 42 ''Ireland: Her People and Landscape'' The AVA Gallery, June - Sept 2012, Cat. No. 36 Literature: ''Dictionary of Irish Artists'' by Walter Strickland 1913 P p145 ''Irelands Painters 1600 - 1940, Ann Cruikshank and The Knight of Glin 2002 p267 (Fig 365) ''Whipping the Herring'' Published by The Crawford Gallery p104 (Note by Julian Campbell) Full page illustration p105 ''A Time and a Place'' Published by NGI p89 /90 (Note by Brendan Rooney) Illustrated Fig 40 ''One Hundred Years of Irish Art - A Millennium Presentation'' by Eamonn Mallie p222 Full page illustration p223 ''Ireland: Her People and Landscape'' Exhibition Catalogue, illustrated front cover and p43 Moynan was born in Dublin and first studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons, before attending the Metropolitan School of Art with Roderic O'Conor. He trained at the Antwerp Academy between 1883 and 1885 where he won first prize in painting from life, and shared lodgings with fellow Irish artist Henry Allan. He returned to Dublin in 1888 and was employed for a time by local newspaper The Union as a political cartoonist under the pseudonym 'Lex', but hoped to become renowned for large scale genre paintings such as this. He exhibited regularly at the RHA between 1880 and 1905. He was the principal recorder of Dublin city and county in the late Victorian era, and was influenced by Osborne in his portrayal of naturalistic scenes of village life. Moynan painted several pictures of children such as this, which were popular amongst late nineteenth century artists. Moynan brings his individual strong narrative quality and his cultivated naivety belies a keen eye for detail and composition. Moynan painted several pictures of children playing marbles, ball games or see-saw in the village street. Such scenes of mischievous barefoot children or ragged urchins were popular amongst late nineteenth-century artists, like the work of Adrian Ceccioni (of the Macchiaioli in Italy), Bastien-Lepage in France, John George Brown in America and Moynan's friend Walter Osborne in Ireland. But Moynan brings his individual mark to this sub-genre in the large number of children featured in the one picture, in the receding perspective of the village scenes and in the strong narrative quality. In A Travelling Show Moynan captures the excitement when the Punch and Judy show arrives in a tiny village. Touchingly, he includes older and younger children, girls and boys, playing together. an he contrasts obedient children with mischievous urchins. In the background, the Punch and Judy man beats a drum in front of a striped tent, while in the foreground a barefoot boy shouts with excitement. Moynan made several preparatory sketches for this painting (NGI no. 19,171 and 19,172). It was exhibited at the RHA in 1892, and at the Irish International Exhibition in Dublin in 1901. Julian Campbell