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Colin Middleton RHA RUAMBE (1910-1983)
Trawlers near Ardglass (c.1948/50)
Oil on canvas. 51 x 76cm (20 x 30’’)
Signed
Provenance:The Estate of Gabriel de Freitas, Beaulieu House, Drogheda
Colin Middleton’s move to Ardglass with his family in 1948 brought him into the heart
of a fishing community for the first time and these surroundings and way of life inspired
him to find a new emotional range within his work that did not depend on an obvious
narrative.
Trawlers
is unusual in its apparent simplicity and direct treatment of fishing
boats in harbour, but it prefigures the expressionist style that would dominate the entire
period, its loose but descriptive brushwork and fleeting passages of intense highlights
against the blues and blacks of the sea working effectively with the subject matter of the
Ardglass paintings. Certainly each place where Middleton lived appears to have inspired
a specific mood and stylistic shift. Despite this pictorial drama there is no suggestion of a
darker theme to the painting; the sea poses no threat and the boats are impressively solid
masses in the foreground.
Dickon Hall
€10,000 - 15,000
