RED COATED MAN, CONNEMARA
Maurice MacGonigal PRHA HRA HRSA (1900-1979)Where purchased by Mrs. Wallace Sterling, circa 1969;
The Estate of Judith Sterling Morse Plunkett, Pasadena;
Her sale, Abell Auctions, Los Angeles, 14 June 2020, lot 338;
Private collection
High and Low
by James H. Cousins
He stumbled home from Clifden fair
With drunken song, and cheeks aglow.
Yet there was something in his air
That told of kingship long ago.
I sighed - and inly cried
With grief that one so high should fall so low.
He snatched a flower and sniffed its scent,
And waved it toward the sunset sky.
Some old sweet rapture thro' him went
And kindled in his bloodshot eye.
I turned - and inly burned
With joy that one so low should rise so high.
MacGonigal loved painting fairs and cattle. The cattle fairs of Connemara always fascinated him, as much for the cattle dealers as for the animals themselves, and Clifden and Maam Cross drew large crowds of sellers and buyers. The men and women from the surrounding mountain areas driving their cattle to sale, the small farmer with two or three to sell and often the MacGonigal family neighbour, Maggie from Faul, with her much prized three or four cows would all be there.
The Woods family from Roundstone (buyers), Joyces (sellers and buyers), the Westmeath and Longford buyers, Farrells, Molihans would all be there with the Purcell brothers... this latter group with big lorries and flashing bundles of notes bestrode the fairs like Lords of the Atlas.
But they knew not only the cattle over the years but the sellers and would always watch out for the seller with few but high-quality beasts from limestone fields. (Stock of this provenance built up strong bones and good lean meat and fatty cattle were going 'out of fashion' by this time).
The artist, then in his seventies, had reverted to his colour palette of many years previously, brilliant reds, scarlets, vivid greens all deriving from his interest in prismatic colour and his early training in the stained-glass studios of his uncle Joshua and cousin Harry Clarke.
In the present work the colour is so vivid that the two cattlemen appear to be moving forward. The artist anchors the composition with the signpost and echoes and re-echoes the colour composition by notes of red on a diminishing scale. The composition is further anchored by the foreground cattle and the young bull calf in the centre of the composition, positioned just 'off' centre to stop the eye rushing out of the frame.
The artist's interest in dynamic asymmetry is captured to great effect in this painting. But the balance of it all is the telling of the tale, the pictorial logic of its making if you like, and all reflecting the artist's intense interest in the scale and importance of figurative processes. The origins of painting into white (the prismatic scale) used traditionally in the medium of stained-glass to gain its point, beautifully captured in the present work.
Ciarán MacGonigal
Summer 2020
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WHYTE AND SONS AUCTIONEERS LIMITED, 2022
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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.
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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.
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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.