Seán Keating PRHA (1889-1977)
'Pipes and Porter'
Oil on canvas, 101.5 x 127cm (40 x 50")
Signed
Provenance: A Dublin Collection
Exhibited: RHA, Annual Exhibition 1915 Cat. No. 78
Having won the coveted RDS Taylor Award for painting in 1914, Seán Keating moved to London to work as a studio assistant to William Orpen. The First World War had begun, and as conscription beckoned, Keating decided to return to Ireland in late 1915 or early 1916. Orpen, already a well-renowned portrait painter, remained in London and accepted an appointment to the Army Service Corps. He was sent to France under the war artists' scheme in 1917, where, initially as a Second Lieutenant and later a Major, he produced some of the most extraordinary and thought provoking images of his entire career (1). Meanwhile, Keating returned to Dublin, joined the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge), and began to make a series of paintings that placed the west of Ireland in general, and the Aran Islands in particular, at the centre of his personal sense of national and political identity. He sought to make his nationalist allegiance clear in his work, but arrest for sedition was commonplace, and as a result, his use of symbolism or allegory can be understood in the context of the socio-political conditions at that time. The best known of those images is Men of the West, a painting that Keating began in 1915, but completed and exhibited in 1917, the year after the Easter Rising had taken place(2). An allegorical work, it features a self-portrait of the artist holding the Irish tri-colour flag, and a double portrait of his brother, Joe Hannan Keating, who was then a member of the IRB and the Irish Volunteers, and both are dressed in traditional Aran Island clothing. But there was an image that prefigured Men of the West. It was shown in the RHA in 1915 and it was titled Pipes and Porter(3).
An extraordinary painting, Pipes and Porter features a self-portrait of the artist with his ubiquitous beard, together with a portrait of his aforementioned brother, Joe, an unnamed young boy, and an unidentified piper(4). A castle tower dominates the background, while the lower landscape is dotted with several white-washed and thatched cottages, and the sun is setting in the western sky. Keating, his brother, and the young boy regard their audience with confidence. But the piper's gaze suggests that he is lost in concentration of his tune. He is playing the bagpipes, also known as the 'war pipes' because they were 'played in medieval Ireland to lead soldiers or sporting groups' (5). Importantly, in terms of Keating's artistic objectives, 'both the uilleann pipes and the war pipes had political links' in the early years of the twentieth century. 'Thomas Ashe was a well-known war piper', while 'Éamonn Ceannt played the uilleann pipes and was leading member of the Dublin Pipers' Club' (6). The war pipes that feature in Pipes and Porter appear to be 'an occasional set' that may have been made by 'MacCullough' of Belfast and seem to have 'two drones, beaded and combed like Highland pipes' with 'plain projecting mounts on the drones, and metal ferrules' (7). The colour combination illustrated on the piper's conspicuous hat may well refer to his place of birth, and/or his national sporting allegiance. Black and amber are the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) colours for Kilkenny. While the GAA was not a political organization, several members fought in the Easter Rising in 1916 (8). Although he remains anonymous at present, the man playing the 'war pipes' may have been a piper that Keating knew from among those that played at nationalist gatherings and marches in Dublin, if not from his own branch of Conradh na Gaeilge, or who perhaps played at GAA matches. Thus, far from being a simple scene of the west of Ireland, Pipes and Porter has symbolic meaning, which is amplified by the presence of the artist, and his nationalist brother, Joe, both of whom are dressed in the traditional Aran Island clothing that was to feature in Men of the West a little time later. At the same time, the realities of the socio-political conditions are evident in the painting. Irish artists were physically and geographically restricted by the rules of the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA), introduced to Ireland in 1914, as a result of which they were not allowed to paint the Irish coastline, or harbours, without written permission from the authorities. Therefore, there is little by way of a detailed coastline in Pipes and Porter or in Men of the West.
Keating was a painter of honest, no nonsense portraits. It was a skill that provided him with a constant source of income throughout his life. He did not believe in flattering his models, which meant that his insightful honesty got him into trouble at times. Trained by Orpen in the necessary techniques, he never forgot to include a fleck of light in the eyes, a detail that gave life and personality to his portraits and that is seen to excellent effect in Pipes and Porter. Furthermore, although it is an early work, the painting also demonstrates Keating's expertise as a painter of still life, landscape, sky scape, and the detailed texture of clothing.
What of the porter to which the title of the painting also refers? It would appear that necessity was the cause of invention, and porter, a type of beer, was served in any type of vessel that came to hand. The glass is empty, but is there porter in that mug, or does it contain a cup of tea? Keating was having a little fun with his title and content. He continued to use such puns throughout his career, evident, for example, in Good Old Stuff (1928), a painting that is also featured in this auction catalogue (lot 86).
The artist typically signed his paintings using his surname in Irish or English, but he wrote his full name on the bottom right of Pipes and Porter. This detail suggests that the painting, which has not been seen in public for many years, may have been a commission in 1915, although the identity of the likely patron is not known at present.
© Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA
Research Associate
TRIARC-Irish Art Research Centre
Trinity College Dublin
October 2013.
(1) See Bruce Arnold, Orpen: Mirror to an Age, (London, 1981), pp. 307-380.
(2) Collection: The Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.
(3) Keating is known to have painted two images featuring pipes. The first, Pléaráca in Arainn (A Gay Time on Aran)(1913), won the Orpen Composition Award at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art in 1913. It would appear that this painting did not include a self-portrait of the artist. It was described some years later as 'a rather large painting…depicting an Aran piper in full “war paint”…playing lustily on his Píob Mor (large pipes) for the delectation of several of his friends, who, to judge by the expression on their faces, are thoroughly enjoying themselves', John J. R. O'Beirne, 'A Coming Irish Artist: The work of John Keating' in The Rosary, Vol. 21, 1917, pp. 571-577.
(4) Information on the identity of the piper and the young boy would be gratefully received by the author on info@eimearoconnor.ie
(5) The author would like to acknowledge and thank Nicholas Carolan, Director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, 73 Merrion Square, for his help and advice with regard to the pipes illustrated in Pipes and Porter. See www.itma.ie
(6) The author would like to acknowledge and thank Emmett Gill, Administrator, and Terry Moylan, Archivist, Na Píobairí Uillean, 15 Henrietta Street, Dublin 1, for information pertaining to Thomas Ashe and Éamonn Ceannt, and the political significance of the uilleann pipes and the war pipes in 20th century Ireland. See www.pipers.ie
(7) With thanks to Nicholas Carolan and Seán Donnelly. MacCulloughs opened premises in Dublin in the 1920s, and in 1926 the company published MacCullough's Irish War Pipe Tutor and Tune Book, written by Liam Mac Andreis (William Andrews), leader of a pipe band at Trinity College Dublin. See Adam Sanderson on
(8) Coincidentally, James Nowlan, a native of Kilkenny, served twenty years, from 1901 to 1921, as president of the GAA. He was interned in England after the 1916 Easter Rising. Nowlan was a supporter of Sinn Fein and an alderman of Kilkenny Corporation for many years. See
