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A 'Tournament at Camelot' chess set, circa 1970s, walnut effect chess table on a folding stand, the two end drawers with a crafted pewter chess set, electroplated with 0.995 silver and twenty four carat gold by Franklin Mint Ltd, the cabinet top with chess board finish, 50 cms square
An antique style crossbanded mahogany two door sound system cabinet with two side table speaker housings having twin flaps and end drawers with brass swing handles, one with crossbanded top on square tapering supports, the other with shaped top, canted legs with reeded decoration and double stretcher, various measurements
An excellent reproduction oak refectory table, the three plank top over a leaf and berry carved frieze, substantial block and turned supports and stretchers, all peg jointed, along with four modern spindleback farmhouse chairs, 76 cms high, 185 cms wide, 80 cms deep the table
Gerard Dillon (1916-1971) THE FISH EATERS, 1946 oil on board signed lower right; Arts Council of Ireland label on reverse 17¼ x 21in. (43.82 x 53.34cm) C.E.M.A. Collection, Tyrone House;Arts Council of Northern Ireland;Sotheby's, 24 November 1993, lot 29;Private collection;Sotheby's, 13 May 2005, lot 97;Private collection 'Gerard Dillon Retrospective', Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 5 January to 4 February 1973, catalogue no. 24 S. B. Kennedy, 'Irish Art & Modernism 1880-1950, Belfast, 1991, p.141 (illustrated) In The Fish Eaters Gerard Dillon draws inspiration from Celtic manuscripts and the relief carving on the High Crosses that he studied while staying with his friend, the artist Nano Reid, in Drogheda. Dillon and Reid went out sketching to Monasterboice and Mellifont Abbey in the Boyne Valley where they studied the architecture and the relief carving on the monumental High Crosses which date from the tenth century. While staying with Reid in 1950, Dillon wrote to the Australian art historian Bernard Smith, 'I've done a lot of watercolours from early Christian carvings on an old Celtic Cross near here, they are wonderful - all the male figures have got big walrus moustaches like Douglas Hyde, the last President.' (1)The 'big walrus moustaches' that Dillon admired, one of which can be seen in The Fish Eaters, originate on Muiredach's Cross at Monasterboice. Like the Tall Cross at the same site, Muiredach's Cross is a 'scripture cross' carved with scenes from the Bible. In later paintings such as Holy Island, Dillon included balding figures with long curling moustaches that are comic self-portraits. The resemblance between the moustached figure in The Fish Eaters and the artist is not as obvious as it is in later works but this may still be an instance of the artist putting himself into the painting. As Niamh NicGhabhann has pointed out in her essay in the catalogue for the exhibition Nano Reid and Gerard Dillon, the images that Dillon borrowed from the high crosses were often changed or rearranged to suit his needs. (3) In this work, he has utilised the stylised figurative style and flattened perspective from high crosses to create a scene of four figures eating a meal of fish and potatoes. The bottle of Chianti in its traditional fiasco bottle, brings a contemporary note to what could otherwise be a timeless scene. From the window a west of Ireland landscape is visible and the statue of the Madonna and Child also helps to contextualise the scene. Unlike the similar work, Fast Day, which is now in the Drogheda Municipal Collection at Highlanes Gallery, The Fish Eaters does not feature the stylised patterning taken directly from Celtic manuscripts such as The Book of Kells. And yet, the simple dress and bare feet of the four figures, which appear to be two men and two women, are more austere than other paintings of this period. The unadorned interior, simple clothes and dominance of the statue of the Madonna and Child may suggest that this is an image of a religious community eating the traditional Friday meal of fish, or simply a very poor and pious household. Nano Reid's painting Friday Fare, painted in 1945, a year before The Fish Eaters, also depicts a table laden with fresh fish, wine, fruit and vegetables, ready to be made into Friday's dinner.In his biography of Dillon, James White suggested that the high cross carvings plus the influence of manuscript illuminations, allowed Dillon to move away from the literary nature of much Irish art and to combine narrative painting with modernist flatness. In The Fish Eaters, Dillon is not illustrating any particular story but does hint at a narrative that is neither ancient nor modern, but timeless. Dr Riann CoulterApril 20161. Letter from Gerard Dillon to Bernard Smith, 1950, CSIA, National Gallery of Ireland. 2. Niamh NicGhabhann, 'Ancient and Modern', Nano Reid and Gerard Dillon, exhibition catalogue, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, 2009, p.52. L
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