AN ARAN MAN AND HIS WIFE
Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977)While a student at the DMSA, Keating and the renowned stained glass artist Harry Clarke became lifelong friends. It was Clarke who introduced Keating to the Aran Islands in 1912, both travelling with little more than five pounds to Inisheer during their summer holidays from the DMSA. As an artist, Keating developed an intense relationship with the Islands, revelling in the strange Western light, dramatic cloud and sea movements and the inscrutable minds of the island people.1
Keating became well known and respected for his pictorial representations of the Aran Islanders, his best known painting being An Aran Fisherman and his Wife, 1916 (Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin). The prevailing political and social situation in Ireland sought a new art for an emerging state, a vision with which Keating became closely associated. However, with regards to the Aran Islands, Keating is quoted as saying that he did not care whether it was “Ireland, Greenland or Timbuctoo”, only that Aran was interesting from a painter’s point of view due to the landscape, colour, costume and the monumentality of the Islanders themselves.2
An Aran Man and his Wife is dated 1921 on reverse and is worked in mixed media including chalk, pastel and watercolour. The format of the work is unusual and it may well be a cartoon for a larger oil painting.3 The figures appear to be placed onto a background that loosely depicts the Aran Islands and is also found in such images as The Kelp Burners (Limerick City Gallery of Art).4 However, the figures are not imbued with “the monumentality of the Islanders themselves”, rather, they are very small in a huge, nearly pantheistic landscape. The unidentified male figure seems rather uncomfortable in his pose and is much less animated than his female companion.5 Keating uses a similar figure in the right front of foreground of his religious mural Saint Therese in the eponymous church in Mount Merrion in Dublin, completed in 1955.6 By comparison with her male companion, the female in the painting is far more animated and indeed, somewhat flirtatious. She ‘throws’ a look at her admirer that is full of gesture and suggestions, while holding her shawl as armour against his hopeful gaze. Keating often used people he knew as models, and if comparison is made between his Stations of the Cross at Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare (1919-1921) or The Scapular Vision at Gort Muire Conference Centre in Ballinteer, Co. Dublin (1949), there can be little doubt that this colleen is a caricature of Keating’s wife, Mai.7
To specifically date Keating’s work can often be quite difficult, and in the case of this work it might be useful to consider that both he and many of his artist friends were involved in the design of sets and costumes for Dublin theatre productions during the 1920s.8 The theatricality of the image, particularly in the pose of the woman, suggests an acquaintance and familiarity with theatre. The figures appear to have been ‘dropped’ onto the Aran landscape, the male from a sketchbook and the woman from life. Therefore, while the painting is titled An Aran Man and his Wife, this may well be a later addition by either artist or gallery, as the work may have started out as something else entirely. However, there is a conflation of ideas in the title bearing in mind Keating’s work on Aran for Synge and the Irish theatre. Whether the date is entirely correct is difficult to ascertain, but there can be no doubt of the deliberate line and force of gesture of Keating. Certainly, a date range of 1919-1927 does not seem inappropriate.9
1 Keating continued to visit and work on the Aran Islands for over forty years. He often wore the crios or belt and báinín or cap, of the island people while in Dublin. He includes both in many of his self portraits over the course of his career.
2 Liam Martin, ‘A Fireside Chat with Mr John Keating RHA’, Social and Personal, December 1969, unpaginated.
3 It was Keating’s habit to make preliminary cartoons of many of his larger works. This involved making a drawing about two thirds of the envisaged finished painting and placing the most important figure and landscape elements. The cartoon would eventually be ‘worked up’ to full scale.
4 The Kelp Burners was donated to the gallery by Keating in 1948. It is undated but depicts a group of islanders burning seaweed on the shore.
5 The male figure could be a composite of Harry Clarke if comparison is made with Keating’s Thinking about Gobnait, 1917, a work that depicts Clarke contemplating his recently completed St Gobnait window in the St Honan chapel, Cork.
6 Keating made vast quantities of sketches throughout his career. He would often reuse them years later, hence, there can be some difficulty with dating.
7 Keating used his wife Mai as the model for the Virgin Mary in both Clongowes Wood College and Gort Muire.
8 Keating was involved in one of the productions of The Playboy of the Western World in the late 1920s. He illustrated a limited edition of Synge’s play in 1927.
9 This date range includes Keating’s Stations of the Cross at Clongowes Wood College, his design work for the Abbey Theatre and his illustration of Synge’s Playboy of the Western World in 1927. Keating rarely placed a date on a sketch or painting. It seems likely that the Dawson Gallery placed the date of 1921 on the label on reverse. It may also be that the gallery titled the painting, as Keating tended to use slightly more literary titles such as Simple Folk, which was donated to the Limerick City Gallery in 1948 and depicts both Keating and his wife in Aran costume.
Eimear O’Connor, August 2004
Postgraduate researcher currently engaged in writing a thesis titled Seán Keating: A New Perspective, University College Dublin
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WHYTE AND SONS AUCTIONEERS LIMITED, 2022
We hold two types of auction - TIMED and LIVE SALEROOM
1. TIMED AUCTIONS
WHAT IS A TIMED AUCTION?Timed auctions do not have an auctioneer calling the bids – there’s just a bidding time frame and whoever bids highest during the time frame wins. Each lot can be bid on for a defined time period. At the end of this period, the bidder who has submitted the highest bid wins the lot, provided the bid exceeds the reserve price. You tell us the most you’re willing to pay – and we’ll bid intelligently for you, only bidding enough for you to meet the reserve or stay in the lead. Don’t worry, your maximum bid is not disclosed, and is held in confidence on our bidding system.
WHEN ONLINE BIDDING STARTS - YOU CAN LEAVE BIDS online and your bid will start at one step above the previous bid or at the start price if no other bid. You will be notified by email if you get outbid before the auction starts.
ONCE THE AUCTION BEGINS TO FINISH, ON THE DATE AND TIME SPECIFIED, THE EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS CEASE and you should follow the auction on-line to see how your bids are doing. Make sure you have logged in if you wish to bid.
WHEN THE AUCTION BEGINS TO FINISH ON THE DATE AND TIME SPECIFIED,THE BIDDING FOR EACH LOT REMAINS OPEN FOR 45 SECONDS at a start price determined by the reserve or bids already received. Each lot will be open and remain open for bidding until its end time is reached; the end time will be extended by 45 seconds if another bid is received. At the end time, if there are no further bids and the highest bid received equals or exceeds the reserve price the lot is sold to highest bidder.
The Buyers Premium for Art sales is 20% plus VAT ( 24.6% gross). The Buyers Premium for Collectibles sales is 24% plus VAT (29.52% gross). The Buyers Premium will be added to your winning bid amount. Your invoice will detail all the payment, collection and shipping particulars.
2. LIVE SALEROOM AUCTION:
If you can't attend the auction in the saleroom you can email or post or telephone bids to us, or you can book a telephone line to bid during the sale. Contact us on +353 16762888 or bids@whytes.ie
To bid on-line at a Live Saleroom Auction:
• Log in or register bid.whytes.ie
• Visit the online auction catalogue
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· The current highest bid will be displayed
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· You can place your bid. The screen will show the new highest bid and will indicate if that bid is yours. Note: if a previous bidder has left a bid that equals yours the previous bidder will win the lot unless you outbid them. If the screen doesn’t confirm that your bid is winning you will need to bid again if you wish to buy the lot. Don’t worry -the system will not allow you to bid against yourself.
• The live auction will begin at the announced date and time and will be sold in lot number order by the auctioneer.
• Invoices will be issued to successful bidders on the next working day after the sale has ended.
BIDDING STEPS:
Up to €300 x€10
Up to €700 x €20
Up to €1,300 x €50
Up to €3,000 x €100
Up to €7,000 x €200
Up to €13,000 x €500
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A FEW TIPS FOR ABSENTEE BIDDERS:
Bid the maximum price you would pay for the lot; we will try and secure the lot for you at the lowest possible price. For instance if you bid €2,000 on a lot and the highest other bid we receive is €1,200 you get it for €1,250. Most people tend to bid in round numbers, e.g. €500. It’s often a good idea to bid an odd number, e.g. €520, or €540 which will outbid an even number. Check the results the day after the sale: these are published on our website www.whytes.ie at about 10am on the day after the sale. Successful bidders are also notified of results by mail.
TIE BIDS: if two or more equal bids are received the lot will be sold to the first received.
The Buyers Premium for Art sales is 20% plus VAT ( 24.6% gross). The Buyers Premium for Collectibles sales is 24% plus VAT (29.52% gross). The Buyers Premium will be added to your winning bid amount. Your invoice will detail all the payment, collection and shipping particulars.