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Lot 19
Frank McKelvey, RHA, RUA (1895 - 1974) Children in the Park Oil on canvas, 51 x 68.5cm (20 x 27") Signed Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by Mr Solomon and by descent within the Solomon family, from whom purchased privately by current owner, July 2000 Exhibited: The National Gallery of Ireland "New Millennium Wing Opening Exhibition of 20th Century Irish Art" January 2002 - December 2003; "Collector's Eye" Exhibition, The Model Arts and Niland Gallery Sligo, Jan/Feb 2004, Cat. No. 19; "A Celebration of Irish Art and Modernism", the Ava Gallery, June/September 2011, Cat. No. 32 Literature: "Collector's Eye" 2004, illustrated p11; "A Celebration of Irish Art and Modernism", illustrated p41 Painted a year after ‘The Good Companions,’ McKelvey has already rejected the intimacy of the classic genre study in favour of a composition that demonstrates a sense of place and features a larger study of society. While the former, in a detailed manner not unlike Walter Osbourne, focuses on the carefully composed study of two girls and the pet rabbits they watch, ‘Children in the Park,’ includes two younger girls in the left foreground, yet here they lack facial detail and are now more impressionist in execution rather than typical of a genre study. The intention of the inclusion of children here is as a starting point to communicate the atmosphere of a busy recreation ground, believed to be Belvoir Park in Belfast. S.B. Kennedy has described McKelvey’s tendency to orchestrate his canvas - ‘the clear division of the composition into distinct areas of recession - the foreground containing the narrative and darker in tone, contrasting with the sunlit middle distance.’ He employs elegant chiaroscuro to gently lead the eye further into the middle ground. There is a familiarity of scene and apparent ease in execution that lends the entire an air of serenity and contentment. As Anne Crookshank has observed, ‘he was a very prolific and somewhat slick practitioner...[who produces work of] great freshness and competence.’ (Ireland’s Painters, 2002, p290). While the overall tone is limited, there is an interesting range of colours employed. People are largely captured in browns, whites, blues with some highlighted elements in pink and green. The trees are delightfully rendered with their detail becoming looser as the eye roams further into the composition. The painting is unified through its even cast of light representing high summer. The painting shows the immediacy of plein air painting. McKelvey sketched directly before his subject, making notes on colours, light and effects, to enable an accurate representation in his studio. The artist achieves a similar quality in ‘The Park’ featured in the collection of Buxton Museum and Art Gallery. No doubt well known innovations of the late nineteenth century would have been known to the artist such as George Seurat’s ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,’ highlighting the peopled park as an aesthetically appealing subject. McKelvey was equally adept in landscape, portraiture and genre scenes. He depicted many parks - Ormeau, Woodvale, Belvoir as well as a number of paintings featuring children; feeding chickens, picking blackberries, playing by the riverbank, and sitting in the park. ‘Children in the Park’ is harmonious in its composition and technically fluent in its execution. Typically of McKelvey, detail is developed to create interest but never to the point of complication. Marianne O’Kane Boal
Lot 34
Louis Le Brocquy, HRHA (1916-2012) Boy with Flowers Watercolour, gouache & ink on paper, 29 x 22cm (11½ x 8¾") Signed and dated '51. Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist in the 1950's by a Dublin Collector and sold by him through the Frederick Gallery Christmas Exhibition, 2002, Cat. No. 11 (Front Cover Illustration) where acquired by current owner Exhibited: "Collector's Eye" Exhibition, Model Arts and Niland Gallery January/February 2004, The Hunt Museum Limerick March/April 2004, Cat. No. 15; "A Celebration of Irish Art and Modernism", The Ava Gallery, June/September 2011, Cat. No. 28 Literature: "Collector's Eye" 2004, illustrated p9; "A Celebration of Irish Art and Modernism" 2011, illustrated p37 'Boy with Flowers' is one of a series of works executed by Louis le Brocquy in London in 1951 which were to lead up to his iconic work 'The Family' (1951), now in The National Gallery of Ireland (NGI). Late in 1950 Louis had moved to a small Georgian watch house in Holly Hill in Hampstead, London which belonged to the Northern Irish film producer William McQuitty. He was surrounded by interesting people, including his old friend and fellow artist, Derek Hill who had a house nearby. Louis converted the large garage beside the house into a studio complete with skylight. It was here that he was to commence a series of works sometimes referred to as his "Grey period" which culminated with 'The Family'. Regarding that work, Dr Yvonne Scott has written : "Carried out in the aftermath of World War II, it was intended to reflect the threatening and unstable environment, indicated in the painting by the austere surroundings, and revealed in the agonised expression of the woman and defeated posture of the man". The artist has been quoted as saying of this work : " 'A Family' was conceived in 1950 … in the face of atomic threat, social upheaval, and refugees of World War II and its aftermath ….. fifty years ago it was painted while contemplating a human condition stripped back to Paleolithic circumstances under the electric light bulbs" It is thought that "Boy with flowers'' was included along with other works in the 'Family' series in le Brocquy's Gimpel Fils June 1951 exhibition which was his most important exhibition to date. The reviews were very favourable, with an entire page of The Listener, written by Eric Newton, devoted to it. It was also written about at length by Neville Wallis of The Observer and John Russell of The Times. In a long article in Art News and Review (16th June, 1951) the critic John Berger wrote: "…. le Brocquy is completely free of the contemporary tendency to cosmic megalomania. It has become pretentious to talk of an artist's humility, yet that is what distinguishes his work, his studies testify to his patience, and his final, large picture to his refusal to evade simple but difficult problems by relying on the grandiose cliché ….. " We are indebted to the artist's wife Anne Madden, the late Dorothy Walker and Dr Yvonne Scott of TRIARC whose research and writings have formed the basis of this catalogue entry.
Lot 46
Breguet: A gold ruby cylinder watch with secret signature, white enamel dial with Arabic numerals signed Breguet beneath 6 o`clock, the secret signature signed Breguet no.314 below 12 o`clock, gold moon hand (tip to minute hand lacking) the gilt bar movement mounted eccentrically within the case, blued steel 3 armed balance with parachute suspension, regulation within the case band, in a guilloche case, the inside back with sinks and stamped 314B and 881S, casemakers mark LS within a lozenge; with short chain and key: male for winding and female for hand set, both through the back, 33mm diam. This is No 314 of Breguet`s 4th series. Breguet`s records show that this `nouveau calibre` was sold to J. Bates on 23rd November 1843 for 1,000 francs.
Lot 239
A GROUP OF THREE WORLD WAR I MEDALS awarded to 6285 Corporal R.H.Martin of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, consisting of the 1914-18 War medal, the Great War medal and the August-November 1914 Star together with Corporal Martin`s watch and watch chain and a piece of shrapnel by repute embedded in Corporal Martin until his death many years later
Lot 642
Rare Casualty group to Lieut Douglas Watson 6th & 8th Bn`s Royal Highlanders, later Black Watch, Killed 26/4/1941. Medals - BWM & Victory Medal, GVI Special Constabulary Medal, Defence Medal plus original Casualty Scroll named to Constable D Watson, Norfolk Special Constabulary. Born Aislaby, Nr Whitby, lived Arlington House, Arlington Lane, Norwich. On the 26th April 1941 he was in the Ferry Inn at Horning, Norfolk, when it received a direct hit from a lone German Bomber, 22/3 people were Killed, and 8 injured while they were drinking at the bar, 3 of the killed were RAF pilots from RAF Coltishall. Watson at the time lived at The Croft, Horning and is buried at Smallburgh. GVF-EF (4)
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