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Lot 217
A Wilson & Sharpe of Edinburgh silver plated biscuit barrel with Celtic handles and collar, 14 cm, along with a Brook & Son of Edinburgh folding cake stand, two Prince of Wales Feathers letter openers, a stag figure and a cork screw, (6). The Alastair & Sheila Brooks Collection: of Oaklands (& past owners of Ednam House Hotel), Kelso
Lot 2731
AN ARTS & CRAFTS CELTIC CROSS the handmade white metal cross is hand chased with Celtic knotwork, with applied granulation details, set with a amethyst and two opals. on a white metal bobble chain. length of cross with bail 8.3cm x 5.8cm. Weight 30.2gms Condition Report:Available upon request
Lot 2665
MALEY, WILLIE THE STORY OF THE CELTIC Printed for the author by J.L. Paterson Ltd.at the Villafield Press, Bishopbriggs, 1939, first edition bound in green cloth with gilt crest to upper cover, retaining dust jacket, signed to free endpaper "Willie Maley, Celtic F.C., 1888-1940" Condition Report:Available upon request
Lot 2281
A SCOTTISH SCHOOL BRASS HEXAGONAL JARDINIERE each panel with celtic knotwork, 25cm high, together with a brass Arts and Crafts velvet lined box, the lid decorated with stylised flowers, 25.5cm long (2) Condition Report:"jardiniere - one corner slightly bent with a small dent below, other tiny dingsbox - has areas of rust to the rim and under the lid. Legs a bit bent but sits fine"
Lot 60
A Roman marble head of a Celtic houndCirca 2nd Century A.D.30cm highFootnotes:Provenance:Private collection, USA, acquired in 1939; and thence by descent to the present owner.The naturalistic portrayal of the dog's expression, along with its smoothly defined musculature and up-tilted head, closely resembles two collarless crouching hounds in the Naples Archaeological Museum (inv. nos 6216 and 6219). The upward pose of the above head suggests that it may also have come from a seated sculpture of a hound that conveys aspects of loyalty and protection. Such sculptures would have been suitable for both residential and funerary contexts. The life-size proportions and features of the above lot are also similar to those of two groups of hounds that were excavated by Gavin Hamilton in Monte Cagnolo and sold in 1774 to the Vatican (Vatican Museum, Belvedere Palace, Room of Animals, TY 12/3:Library 4) and to Charles Townley (now in the British Museum, London, acc. no. 1805.0703.8). Townley initially mistakenly referred to his sculptural group of playful or grooming dogs as 'greyhounds'; it is now thought that this type of sculpture represents either Celtic Greyhounds or salukis, as identified by Sir Terence Clark. The above lot is also related in style to the Thomas Hope hounds that were collected on his Grand Tour in the late 18th Century, cf. G. Waywell, The Lever and Hope Sculptures, Berlin, 1986, p. 90, nos 36 & 37, pl. 54 and subsequently sold at Bonhams, in the Antiquities sale of 3 July 2019, lot 151.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Lot 647
A GOLD RING/HAIR COIL BELIEVED TO BE LATE ROMAN/EARLY CELTIC? Size: ring size approximately F Gross weight 7.1 grams Provenance: Ex Private collection, UK formed in the 1970's Condition Report: Marks, scratches and abrasions commensurate with age, use and wear Please see additional images for visual references to condition which form part of this condition report. All lots are available for inspection and Condition Reports are available on request. However, all lots are of an age and type which means that they may not be in perfect condition and should be viewed by prospective bidders; please refer to Condition 6 of the Conditions of Business for Buyers. This is particularly true for garden related items. All lots are offered for sale "as viewed" and subject to the applicable Conditions of Business for Buyer's condition, which are set out in the sale catalogue and are available on request. Condition Report Disclaimer
Lot 656
A RARE SMALL ANCIENT BRITISH CELTIC BUFF COLOURED SANDSTONE HEAD 1ST CENTURY BC-1ST CENTURY AD With dramatic staring pierced eyes, a bulbous nose and slightly open slit mouth, modern stand head 12cm high, 8cm wide, 11cm deep Provenance: Said to have been found near Wroxeter Shropshire, once the Roman Town of Viroconium, the Territory of the Celtic Cornovii Ex Private English collection acquired from Chris Rudd Antiquities 1998 Ex Private London collection
Lot 665
AN ANCIENT BRITISH CELTIC RED SANDSTONE HEAD 1ST CENTURY BC-1ST CENTURY AD Of unusual shape with a long narrow face striking deeply cut truncated eyes and parted lips two gashes to the nose, modern display base head 18cm high, 9cm wide, 13.5cm deep Provenance: Reputedly found near Hadrian's Wall Ex Private English collection acquired from Chris Rudd Antiquities 1998 Ex Private London collection In the late Iron Age Yorkshire was the terrain of a powerful hegemony of Celtic tribes known as the 'Brigantes' or 'the High Ones' worshippers of the great pan Celtic goddess Brigantia who later morphed into the popular Christian Saint Brigid. The Brigantes were wild and war-like and as headhunters, were feared by the Romans who were garrisoned in the forts along Hadrian's Wall. The Romans tried to ban Druidism as they distrusted the influence, both spiritual and political, of the Celtic priests, but were mostly unsuccessful. Headhunting and human sacrifice were prohibited, but also continued amongst a Celtic populace resentful of Roman interference. For the Celts, eyes were an important feature, and they were often emphasised in their sculpture to indicate divinity. This severed head simply fashioned from sandstone has a strange and disconcerting power of its own.
Lot 659
A FINE CELTIC CAST COPPER ALLOY ARM RING WESTERN EUROPE, 8TH CENTURY B.C. Of thick overall construction, twisted with flattened terminals, modern stand 11.5cm high, 12.5cm wide, approx. 1cm diameter Provenance: Ex Private collection Walton-on-Thames, acquired 1930s-1960s Ex Jon Lawton collection UK Jon Lawton acquired the piece from a neighbour in Walton-on-Thames who in the early 1970s had inherited the piece from her late husband who had been collecting from the early 1930s through to the late 1960s.
Lot 394
THREE 1953 CORONATION CUP FOOTBALL SOUVENOR PROGRAMSconsisting of first round Rangers v Manchester United and Aberdeen v Newcastle United, first round Celtic v Arsenal and Hibernian v Tottenham Hotspur, Semi-final ties Celtic v Manchester United and Newcastle United v Hibernian, also including Queens Park Rangers Souvenir Pictorial 1950-51 and Official Program of Tottenham Hotspurs vs Glasgow Celtic, 1966 in Ontario (6)
Lot 211
Archibald Knox for Liberty and Co., a Cymric Arts and Crafts silver and enamelled caddy spoon, Birmingham 1901, the pear shaped bowl cast with Coronation cypher and initials for Edward VII, knotted tendrils and blue green enamel panels, on a bisected and Celtic knot hilted Grecian blade handle, 12.5cm long, 1.56ozt
Lot 202
An early twentieth-century Irish eighteen-carat gold and silver chalice, modelled in the Gothic-revival style, with a detachable central beaker section in hallmarked 18ct gold, secured by a screw thread, atop a silver superstructure, adorned with inset faceted amethysts, the body decorated with Celtic motifs, the flared foot with vignettes depicting Saints, including Saint Patrick, the underside of the foot with presentation inscription, "Presented to Mother Mary Bernard Hackett on the occasion of her Jubilee, 24, November 1903", all component parts duly hallmarked, sponsor's mark Gunning & Reynolds, Dublin 1903, height 26cm, actual gold and silver weight indeterminable, weight of detachable beaker section 214g/6.88ozt, total weight 870g/27.97ozt gross all-in approx
Lot 229
Gerald Benney C.B.E. (British 1930-2008), a boxed silver and enamel belt buckle, modelled in the Scottish or Celtic style, of rounded rectangular form, each corner with a circular boss modelled in relief depicting a Celtic knot, with a central circular band decorated in enamel depicting a basket-weave pattern, with central Celtic knot boss, ensuite with a black leather belt, and presentation box, with applied label, "Gerald Benney, Beenham House Beenham Berkshire", surmounted by four Royal Warrants, "By appointment to H.M. The Queen", and others, the buckle marked, "GERALRD BENNEY LONDON", and with sponsor's mark "AGB", London 1993, together with the original invoice, signed by Benney and dated 29.11.1993, buckle dimensions 8.4cm x 7.4cm, weight 197g/6.33ozt approx
Lot 310
* JOCK MACINNES RGI (SCOTTISH, b. 1943) WHERE ARE WE GOING? mixed media construction, initialled, titled versoframed and under glassimage size 23cm x 23cm, overall size 41cm x 41cm, 7cm deepNote: Jock MacInnes RGI (b.1943) is a Scottish artist producing paintings derived from a collection of objects, images and symbols associated with Celtic traditions and heritage of a narrative culture. Jock MacInnes was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1962 to 1967. In the year after graduation he travelled to Europe with a scholarship and on his return took up a lecturing post at Glasgow School of Art where he remained until 1996. In 1988 he was elected member, and to the council, of the Scottish Society of Artists and member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts. In 1995 he was elected to the council of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts. His many awards include the Colquhoun Memorial Painting Competition – 1st prize in 1978, the Scottish Drawing Competition at the Paisley Art Institute – 1st prize in 1988 and 1991, the Cargill Award also in 1991 and the Scottish Amicable Prize in 1999 both at the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts. Since 1980 he has had regular solo exhibitions in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Ayrshire, London, Truro and Collioure in France. MacInnes’ paintings refer to memories of an experience or a feeling and for him the drawing process relies heavily on this recollection. He is liberated from the constraints of strict observation, so that invention and discovery can be embraced in the process. His paintings are recognised by his own developed style of mark-making on prepared gesso boards and canvases. The combined subject matter of and technique are reminiscent of the works of his influencers; the early twentieth century European masters and St. Ives group artists George Braque and Ben Nicholson included. His work is held in private, corporate and public collections including the Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, the Paisley Art Institute, the Dunbartonshire Education Authorities, Scottish Amicable, Glasgow University and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Lot 66
* JOHN WATLING (BRITISH b. 1943) THE STORR FROM THE QUIRRAING, SKYE watercolour on paper, signed, titled versomounted, framed and under glass image size 31cm x 41cm, overall size 49cm x 58cm Label verso: Hanover Fine Arts, EdinburghNote: John Watling was born in Manchester, England in 1943. He is a graduate of Leeds College of Art. In 1965 John was founder member of Leeds 'Sweet Street Group' - bringing art into industry. He exhibited in the Leeds City Art Gallery (one man show) and The Austin Hayes Gallery in York in 1967 and 1968. After teaching art for two years he left Leeds and moved to Newcastle upon Tyne where he became a freelance illustrator for the Sunday Sun Newspaper. From 1971 he found himself involved with the Entertainment Industry on the management side. This carried him over to Australia where he also exhibited paintings in Sydney between 1972 and 1974. He returned to England and Newcastle upon Tyne where he worked in promoting and organising Arts Festivals and exhibiting locally. In 1984 he returned to teaching art. In 1989 he went on holiday to the West coast of Scotland and the Republic of Ireland. This began a love affair resulting with a period of painting which still continues to this day. He exhibits frequently in Edinburgh and since 2000 in London's West End. John Watling's paintings are landscapes of the West of Scotland and Ireland. The Scottish paintings are mainly of the island of Iona where he finds inspiration for the almost Celtic strata of the rocks against the white sands and the oddly shaped islands off the coast. The paintings have a surreal look about them, which he says reflects his feelings about the island. His paintings of the West Coast of Ireland are mostly of the Aran Islands off the coast of Galway which to him have a timeless feel about them. His main interest is in the dry stonewalls which cover the islands like an enormous maze. His paintings are in oil and watercolour. He paints mainly in his studio from sketches and photographs rather than in 'situ'. This is because of the frequent light changes which can alter by the minute in the areas where he draws inspiration from. He is a prolific painter and has a large number of admirers and investors throughout the British Isles. He has paintings which are in collections in Britain, Ireland, USA, Europe, Australia and Canada.
Lot 309
* JOCK MACINNES RGI (SCOTTISH, b. 1943) GOLDEN GLOW OVER ARRAN oil on board, initialledframedimage size 28cm x 23cm, overall size 44cm x 39cmNote: Jock MacInnes RGI (b.1943) is a Scottish artist producing paintings derived from a collection of objects, images and symbols associated with Celtic traditions and heritage of a narrative culture. Jock MacInnes was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1962 to 1967. In the year after graduation he travelled to Europe with a scholarship and on his return took up a lecturing post at Glasgow School of Art where he remained until 1996. In 1988 he was elected member, and to the council, of the Scottish Society of Artists and member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts. In 1995 he was elected to the council of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts. His many awards include the Colquhoun Memorial Painting Competition – 1st prize in 1978, the Scottish Drawing Competition at the Paisley Art Institute – 1st prize in 1988 and 1991, the Cargill Award also in 1991 and the Scottish Amicable Prize in 1999 both at the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts. Since 1980 he has had regular solo exhibitions in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Ayrshire, London, Truro and Collioure in France. MacInnes’ paintings refer to memories of an experience or a feeling and for him the drawing process relies heavily on this recollection. He is liberated from the constraints of strict observation, so that invention and discovery can be embraced in the process. His paintings are recognised by his own developed style of mark-making on prepared gesso boards and canvases. The combined subject matter of and technique are reminiscent of the works of his influencers; the early twentieth century European masters and St. Ives group artists George Braque and Ben Nicholson included. His work is held in private, corporate and public collections including the Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, the Paisley Art Institute, the Dunbartonshire Education Authorities, Scottish Amicable, Glasgow University and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Lot 49
* MILLIE FROOD (SCOTTISH 1900 - 1988), TURNING HAY oil on board, initialled, titled label versoframedimage size 47cm x 72cm, overall size 72cm x 96cm Label verso: Cyril Gerber Fine Art, GlasgowNote: Painter, draughtsman and teacher, born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire. She studied at Glasgow School of Art and taught at Bellshill Academy. Early on she showed with RSA and RSW and with the arrival of the painter J D Fergusson and his dancer wife Margaret Morris from France in 1939, and the influx of foreign painters such as Josef Herman and Jankel Adler, Frood became part of a movement which revitalised the arts in the city after World War II. She showed with the New Scottish Group and designed the costumes and set for the ballet The Harvesters, put on in 1961, dance in Scotland having been given new life with Margaret Morris’ Celtic Ballet Club, the Celtic Ballet of Scotland and the resulting Scottish National Ballet. Frood had a number of solo shows in Lanarkshire and Glasgow, latterly her work was exhibited in America and Japan and in 1989 Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow, held a show linking her with the New Scottish Group.
Lot 344
A 9ct gold Celtic weave charm bracelet, with heart shaped padlock clasp and nine various charms including a George V full sovereign, 1911, in mount, two swivel fobs, a black opal and seed pearl pendant, a spherical locket set with coral turquoise and jad, an oval pendant set with an old cut diamond and an enamel flag pendant, total weight 66.2g.
Lot 1266
SQUIRE, (Charles), Celtic Myths and Legends, Poetry and Romance, London, The Gresham Publishing Company, circa 1900, together with MONCRIEFF, (A.R.Hope), Classic Myth and Legend, (2)Condition Report: The A.R.Hope book: foxing to the front endpapers, half title and title page. 50% of the pages have some form of foxing. Page 436-443 of the Index pages have foxing. The first 2 extra images show the foxing.The Poetry and Romance volume has foxing to the endpapers at the front. It has 40% foxing overall. 433-450 of the Index has some foxing. The extra images are 4,5 and 6, 4 and 5 show two extremes of it.
Lot 35
Aloysius O’Kelly RHA (1856-1936) Interior with Two Girls Oil on canvas 91 x 73cm (35¾ x 28¾”) SignedLiterature: Niamh O’Sullivan, Aloysius O’Kelly: Art, Nation, Empire, Dublin, Field Day, 2010.Throughout his life, O’Kelly returned to a series of paintings of young girls in which there is a sense of continuity, indeed a familial resemblance, as if of the same girl growing a little older. In Blowing Bubbles, A Hearty Breakfast and Seated Girl with Hydrangea Blossoms, the generic smocks connect the sitters, and the light red hair would suggest a common Celtic ethnic origin that could be Irish, Breton or American. Moreover, the informality of the portraits intimate perhaps a relationship with the artist. The paintings are undated (probably around 1910-15) and placeless – studies in childhood charm rather than location.The fourth painting in this series, however, depicts two girls, one of whom we recognize from the other paintings. The scale here is such that one would normally associate with a commission of significance – girls from a wealthy family – if it were not for the simplicity of their dress and setting. O’Kelly is not interested in the social status of these girls – there is no attempt to contextualise them – the subject is their mood and intimacy. The melancholy is affecting; an older girl comforting a younger, tenderly, suggests a backstory. The children seem to speak eloquently of loss.An rumour concerned with O’Kelly’s private life alleged a relationship with a French nurse in New York, but neither that nor the additional speculation that O’Kelly had a daughter have been confirmed, indeed he is recorded in the US censuses as unmarried (although that is not necessarily proof that he was not a father). Aloysius was very close to his militant republican brother James J. O’Kelly whose political activities – in which he embroiled Aloysius – necessitated extreme secrecy, and many aliases. Additionally, amid the many personal scandals James occasioned was a series of women and, at least, one bigamous marriage in which Aloysius was decoy, one of the wives living as Mrs A. O’Kelly in Paris This wife died tragically young having given birth to her second child (and in these annals, there is mention of third child). After moving to the US in 1895, Aloysius was closely involved in the life of a nephew, James Herbert, probably a son of his brother James. And in this family, in 1900 there occurred the mysterious death of two babies and their mother. The 1910 census then records Herbert living with his (second?) wife Jeanie, and daughter Jessie. Given the recurrence of the sitter, consistent with Jessie’s age over a four or five year period, it is likely she is one of his sitters in this series of paintings.In the interstices between academic painting and Impressionism resided naturalism and O’Kelly was at his best in this space. In his early summers in Brittany, he was taken with the work of Jules Bastien-Lepage who spent some time there in the early 1880s. Bastien-Lepage’s dictum – to remain true to nature – was core to O’Kelly’s work. Evolving from the Realist tradition of Millet and Courbet, both Bastien-Lepage and O’Kelly shared a commitment to naturalistic landscapes peopled with honest workers who are depicted with authenticity and dignity. And under the French artist’s influence, O’Kelly lightened his palette and broke his brushstroke. As we see here, both artists worked close to his model, and on the same level, creating a marked intimacy between himself and his sitter, an intimacy that is extended to the viewer. The verticality, the closeness of the painter to the subject and the high horizon, have the effect of eliminating the traditional vanishing point and tilting the sitters parallel to the picture plane. O’Kelly clearly assimilated both stylistic and technical features of Bastien-Lepage, in effect, blending academic, realist and plein-air elements into a beguiling rural naturalism.Niamh O'Sullivan, October 2024
Lot 33
Edward Delaney RHA (1930-2009) Cathedral Bronze, 90cm high (35½'') Unique, circa 1961Cathedral is a major work of sculpture by Edward Delaney RHA (1930-2009) who is considered one of Ireland’s most important 20th century sculptors. Delaney’s best known works include the 1967 statue of Wolfe Tone and the Famine Family memorial in St Stephen’s Green in Dublin and the statue of Thomas Davis and angels fountain in College Green, opposite Trinity College Dublin. These are all examples of lost-wax bronze castings, his main technique during the 1960s and early 1970s. Cathedral is in a similar vein and emulates the monumental form of these sculptures. Influenced by Celtic art and by European modernism, Delaney’s work is in many public and private collections. He was born in County Mayo and studied at the National College of Art and Design, after which he studied bronze casting and sculpture in Germany. He later received many foreign scholarships and would represent Ireland at foreign exhibitions such as the international Biennales in Paris, Tokyo and Buenos Aires. Delaney gained a reputation not only through Dublin galleries such as Hendriks, the Royal Hibernian Academy and the Solomon, but through showing work internationally. He is also known for his small figurative bronze work, stainless steel sculptures and his drawings and paintings on paper. His work is in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), the Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane, OPW, AIB, Bank of Ireland, the Central Bank, the Arts Council of Ireland and the Ulster Museum among others. Cathedral is characteristic of Delaney’s monumental, zoomorphic style and is expressly abstract as well as ‘rock-form’ naturalistic. He developed this dramatic style in tandem with his interest in the standing human and animal form. The sculpture, which has been newly patinated and mounted, is of hollow bronze but heavy, and about four feet high and two feet wide. Large scale works by Delaney rarely come up for sale and they are all unique. There are no editions. The image here shows Cathedral from an RTE still of 1962, with the poet Patrick Kavanagh sitting in front of it. Kavanagh was a friend of the sculptor. In 2009, his son Eamon Delaney published a book about his father and the Irish arts scene of the 1960s and 1970s, entitled Breaking the Mould - A Story of Art and Ireland (2009). In the book, he describes this image as a great moment in Irish modernism -: Irish television, then in its infancy, the modern sculpture and the ‘pastoral to modernist’ poet. He describes how, in the image - which has gone around the world as part of the famous, Writers of Ireland poster - Kavanagh actually resembles the featured sculpture. ‘Kavanagh’s pose is particularly satisfying because Cathedral is such an abstract piece’ Delaney writes. ‘Whatever about the public work, this really is modern, like a section of moon rock with a niche in its side or a gouged out tree trunk. Uncannily, the whole piece resembles the poet himself: solid, grounded and both traditional and modern, recognisable and abstract. He even shares the special quality of Eddie’s work: brute weight rendered tenderly.’ Condition Report: - 85kg - overall condition is very good - 48 x 30 x 90.5cm high
Lot 28
Edward Delany (1930 - 2009) Celtic Dawn Bronze, 89 x 89 x 179cm(h) including baseProvenance: Collection of the late Margaret Grant, Newcastle, Co. Down Celtic Dawn is a large two piece bronze sculpure, which dates from the late 1960s and was cast by the sculptor in his foundry in Dun Laoghaire, south Dublin. The foundry was operational for about 20 years. The title reflects the artists’ continuing interest in the ancient Celtic past, but with such symbolism and imagery re-imagined and re-engaged in a modern context, as was popular in the 1960s, especially by Delaney hinself. The sculpture also represents Delaney’s move to abstraction and to geometrical and angular forms, after his early period of representational and figurative art. The honeycombed circles at the centre of the two pieces are a frequent motif in Delaney’s work, especially from this period onwards. In a rare commentary that he supplied for a similar sculpture (called Finnegan’s Wake), Delaney described the interlinked circles as echoing the cyclical nature of life, death and regeneration. Eamon Delaney, October 2024 Eamon Delaney is the author of Breaking the Mould, A Story of Art and Ireland, (New Island Publishing) which explores his father’s career and the Irish arts scene of the 1960s and 1970s. Condition Report: - Overall condition is very good. - The base is made from plywood with a composite concrete resin finish. - 70kg
Lot 34
Aloysius O'Kelly RHA (1853 - 1936) The Christening Party (1908) Oil on canvas, 68.6 x 91.4cm (27 x 36'') Signed and dated 1908 (lower right)Provenance: The Artist's family; With Gorry Gallery, Dublin 1981; Collection of the Hon. Francis D. Murnaghan Jr., thence by descentExhibition: Dublin, Gorry Gallery, February 1981, No. 13; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, The Irish Impressionists, 1984, No. 25.Literature: Niamh O’Sullivan, Gorry Gallery, An Exhibition and Sale of 18th - 21st Century Irish Paintings, 2024; O’Sullivan, Gorry Gallery, An Exhibition of 18th - 21st Century Irish Paintings & Sculpture, 2011; O’Sullivan, Aloysius O’Kelly: Art, Nation, Empire, Field Day, 2010; O’Sullivan Re-orientations: Aloysius O'Kelly: painting politics and popular culture, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 1999; Julian Campbell, The Irish Impressionists, National Gallery of Ireland,1984.In 1874, O’Kelly became one of the first Irish artists to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he was admitted to the prestigious studio of Jean-Léon Gérome; separately he studied portraiture with Léon Bonnat; in addition, his early experiments in plein-air painting in Brittany were the foundations on which his work evolved.There is a striking stylistic cohesion between O’Kelly’s paintings set in Brittany in two phases, the late nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century, but these converge in two almost identical paintings dated 1908 and 1909 called The Christening Party and L’auberge. By coincidence, both have come up for sale within a few months of each other. O’Kelly tended to date paintings destined for major exhibition venues such as the Royal Academy, the Royal Hibernian Academy and the Paris Salon. And indeed he did exhibit a painting in the Salon in 1909 called L’auberge. The Christening Party thus predates the all-but-identical L’auberge. One surmises that he intended this painting for the Salon, but found an early buyer, and so painted a second version for Paris the following year.The painting features a group of adults joyously holding their glasses of cider aloft. This version was given the title The Christening Party when it was exhibited in the Irish Impressionists exhibition in the National Gallery in 1984, although it not clear that it is indeed a christening, as the child must be about two-years of age, and the focus is more widely dispersed: the oval disposition is designed to lead the eye around the painting in an inclusive way.O’Kelly was the first Irish artist to discover Brittany in the 1870s and was influential in drawing other Irish artists such as Thomas Hovenden and Augustus Burke there. Moreover, in recognizing the historical, cultural and ethnic connections between Ireland and Brittany, O’Kelly was at pains to counter the negative stereotyping of marginalized people. The American critic, E.L. Wakeman noted that '[t]hrough the grime and slime of their hard cold lives a few things must stand luminously revealed …. the people of Ireland and those of Brittany are the closest of kin and from one common Celtic stock, the affection and family ties, and to neighbourhood and communal yearnings, find here universal expression to a degree that almost approaches pathos'. (Wakeman's Wanderings, Weekly Inter Ocean, 7 January 1890). Wakeman went on to cite their respective ‘love of and reverence for babies’, as shines through here. O’Kelly’s paintings of both Irish and Breton people insistently reflect a hard-working, healthy and dignified people, as projected here.O’Kelly moved around Brittany over more than a fifty-year period. From the distinctive clothes, the setting in this painting can be identified as the pays de Rosporden (around Concarneau and the Fôret de Fouesnant): the women wear white linen coiffes and wide collars, dark skirts, fitted bodices, embroidered waistcoats, and heavy wooden sabots; the men woollen jackets, waistcoats, bragoù-bras, black gaiters and felt broad-rimmed hats.The table and the rush-woven Breton chairs are timeless, but other aspects identify the painting as early twentieth century, notably the visible hair of the women (previously, no self-respecting girl would have herself painted with her hair even partially uncovered). Over time, O’Kelly’s Breton landscapes and seascapes became increasingly and iridescently impressionistic, while his interior scenes retained their structure and hark back to Dutch seventeenth-century interiors and, more contemporaneously, the work of American artist, Robert Wylie. Executed towards the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, the dark interior of The Christening Party, connects these paintings to a considerably earlier form of genre painting, characterized by academic draughtsmanship and conventional painting skills. Notwithstanding their archaism, the compression of so many figures in The Christening Party into such a confined space demanded considerable skill, in addition to which he countered the apparent informality of the figures by granting to each an individualised physiognomy. The loose yet controlled brushwork, broad values, and strong contrasts evident in the portraits are a testament to Bonnat's realist teaching.The treatment of the still life on the upper shelf verges on the semi abstract and contrast with the narrative details that include the man pouring the drink with his left hand on his companion's shoulder, the young girl wiping the bowl, the man lighting his pipe, the shadowy figure in the background squatting low to tap the cider.The painting is full of gesture and expression. Notwithstanding the dark interior, the play of light on form, on the bottles and glasses, on the rugged furniture, on the animated faces of the figures, is typical of O'Kelly, an artist who painted sometimes separately, sometimes coterminously tightly and precisely, and loosely and freely.Prof. Niamh O'Sullivan, October 2024 Condition Report: Very good overall condition Under UV inspection very minor florescence appears particularly in the figure, see images The frame with loss to the mid right as indicated in the catalogue image, other areas of the frame with cracking, splitting, evidence of old glue repairs and one section missing from the back of a piece of relief carving on the left hand side of the frame, see all images for further details
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