CHATSWORTH SUMMER FINE ART SALE May 28th & 29th 2024

105 Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 “Portrait of Patrick Kavanagh, 1957,” pastel on paper, approx. 39cms x 30cms (15” x 12”), Signed l.l. ‘Kernoff’. (1) A member of the Radical Club and the Studio Art Club, Harry Kernoff was active in Dublin’s cultural life, designing sets and costumes for theatre productions, notably Sean O’Casey’s The Shadow of a Gunman, and also working in the Little Theatre in South William Street. He was also a regular at a famous literary pub, the Palace Bar, on Fleet Street, close to the offices of the Irish Times. The Palace was also a favourite of the poet Patrick Kavanagh. In the studio at his home at 13 Stamer Street, Kernoff drew and painted portraits of leading literary and theatre figures, including Brendan Behan, Maureen O’Sullivan, F. R. Higgins, Flann O’Brien and Sean O’Casey. For these, he generally worked in pastels, and liked to begin and finish a portrait in one sitting. An inscription on the frame of this portrait of Patrick Kavanagh records that it was completed in two hours, in 1957. The poet is shown wearing a blue shirt, green jacket and red tie. A black beret is perched on his head at a jaunty angle, and he wears horn- rimmed spectacles. Kavanagh’s features are accented through the artist’s deft use of white gouache over pastel. According to anecdote, Kavanagh was a reluctant sitter and was not best pleased with the result, as Kernoff had perhaps portrayed him a little too accurately. Underneath his bushy eyebrows, the poet’s eyes seem to regard the world with scepticism. Although Kernoff depicted scenes of everyday life in the streets and pubs of Dublin, his paintings and drawings are far from banal; he introduced vivacity, colour and personality to his depictions of people and places. The Portrait of Patrick Kavanagh was for many years in the collection of Thomas Teevan, a distinguished lawyer who in 1953-54 served as Attorney-General of Ireland. Teevan was also the judge in a celebrated high court case in 1954 where Patrick Kavanagh, by then one of Ireland’s most famous poets, unsuccessfully sued The Leader magazine for libel. This portrait dates from three years after that court case. Peter Murray 2024 Provenance: Collection of Thomas Teevan, Dublin. A distinguished lawyer and judge, Thomas Teevan served as Attorney General of Ireland in 1953-54. €2000 - €3000 887. Harry Kernoff (1900-1974) 885. Harry Kernoff (1900-1974) “Askeaton, Limerick, 1929,”watercolour on paper, 23cms x 32cms (9” x 12½”), Signed, l.l. ‘Kernoff’ inscribed ‘Askeaton, Limerick’ and dated 1929. Although best-known for his paintings and woodcuts depicting Dublin city, its citizens and environs, Harry Kernoff was responsive to all aspects of Irish life and landscape, and painted regularly in the West of Ireland. During the 1920’s and 30’s, he travelled to counties Kerry, Limerick and Galway, staying at famous beauty spots such as Killarney and Renvyle, where he painted views of mountains, cottages and currach’s, which were then shown at the Royal Hibernian Academy. Most of Kernoff’s paintings depict everyday scenes; he did not paint grand houses, preferring instead to depict inner city tenements, houses of workers, and rural cottages. In addition to his paintings and woodcut print editions, he contributed to publications such as James Stephens The Crock of Gold, and the Broadsides of the Cuala Press. Painted in 1929, this lively watercolour depicts a traditional rural scene, in the village of Askeaton, Co. Limerick, with a man walking in front of a white-washed thatched cottage. Framed by trees, the two-store cottage has a little front garden and a lean- to outbuilding with red doors. Smoke billows from the chimney, while two people pause to chat at the front door. To the left is a larger lean-to shed, or barn, and in the background, behind the barn, a fourth figure tends to a cart. There are lively details, such as a donkey drinking from a barrel, a pile of turf, and geese and chickens running freely. In the distance can be seen small fields beneath a cloudy sky, with another cottage nestling between hills. Although in some ways a stereotypical scene, the painting is an authentic record, reflecting Kernoff’s desire to depict the realities of life on a smallholding in the West of Ireland in the late 1920’s. Over the intervening century, while Askeaton, the ancient home the Earls of Desmond, with it s castle and friary, has not changed markedly, there are now modern houses on the approach roads to the village, and very few old cottages remaining. The topography around the village is mostly flat fields, so Kernoff appears to have taken some artistic license in his depiction of the landscape. Peter Murray 2024 Provenance: Collection of Thomas Teevan, Dublin. A distinguished lawyer and judge, Thomas Teevan served as Attorney General of Ireland in 1953-54. €1500 - €2000