104
98
Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940)
Landscape with Red Haystacks (1932)
Oil on board, 38 x 46cm (15 x 18¼”)
Exhibited: Possibly Copenhagen, Winkel and Magnussen, Gauguin Og Hans Venner (Gauguin and His Friends), 1956, (104) as Landskab med
Kornstakke
Provenance: Mr. J. P Reihill, Deepwell, Blackrock, Co. Dublin
Literature:
Roderic O’Conor 1860-1940
, by Jonathan Benington Cat. No. 302 p.225 Dublin 1992.
€20,000 - 30,000
In 1956, sixteen years after his death in France, a painting by
O’Conor was included in an exhibition titled
Gauguin and His
Friends
which was assembled in Copenhagen by the auction house,
Winkel and Magnussen. The similarity of subject matter between
O’Conor’s painting in that exhibition, Landscape with Cornstack,
and Landscape with Red Haystacks suggests a possible link between
them, but this has not been positively verified.
Of all the rural sites made famous by French artists in the mid-
nineteenth century, the most significant was the small village of
Barbizon, situated on the edge of the great forest of Fontainebleau
and a short journey from Paris. Barbizon had attracted landscape
artists such as Millet, Rousseau, Daubigny, Dupré and Corot, who
were drawn by the beauty of the forest and the dappled light which
filtered through the trees.
In 1932, Roderic O’Conor, at the age of seventy-two, accompanied
by his model and close companion, Renée Honta, left Paris
temporarily to paint in the country, choosing to stay at Chailly-en-
Bière rather than at Barbizon, which had become a popular tourist
destination. Apart from a visit to Cassis in the summer of 1913,
most of O’Conor’s painting activity in Paris had been centered on
studio-based subject matter and he probably felt the need to return
to landscape themes and a closer connection to nature.
Chailly was just three kilometres from Barbizon and provided a
more tranquil and suitable location for his needs at that time. There
was also an artists’ inn at Chailly, called L’Auberge du Cheval Blanc,
whose proprietor had developed a reputation for being sympathetic
to the activities of visiting artists who came to paint in the Barbizon
environment. The dining room at the inn was filled with paintings
donated by artists in lieu of payment for their accommodation.
Some of O’Conor’s friends who were in contact with him queried
his decision to paint in the Barbizon area at Chailly, claiming that
it had lost its relevance as an artists’ colony and that the area had
become a magnet for ill-informed tourists. Even his friend Joseph
Milner-Kite, who had studied with him in Antwerp, suggested that he
might be back on the bus to Paris within a few days.
Chailly’s location on the fertile plain of Bière and its distinctive flat
landscape provided the background for several O’Conor paintings in
which haystacks became the primary subject matter. He may have
been influenced by Monet’s 1890-91 grainstack series painted in
Normandy at Giverny. Whereas Monet was exploring the effects
of light and seasonal change upon a variety of grainstacks, O’Conor
appears to have only been interested in their shapes, the colors and
their relationship to the surrounding landscape. O’Conor was in the
last decade of his life when he painted Landscape with Red Haystacks.
The scene is lightly painted with well diluted oil pigment, quickly
sketched as if to capture the immediacy of the moment. The tracks
in the field lead the viewer into the composition and hint at recent
activity, probably associated with building the haystacks, which are
set against a belt of dark green trees running across the picture plane
in the center of the painting. The blue-gray pigment which O’Conor
introduced into the upper right corner creates a darkened sky and
suggests an impending storm.
Some of O’Conor’s friends who were in contact with him by letter
queried his decision to paint in the Barbizon area at Chailly, claiming
that it was no longer relevant as an artists colony and that the area
had become a magnet for ill-informed tourists. Even his English
friend and painter Joseph Miner- Kite, who had studied with him
in Antwerp, suggested to him that he would probably be back on the
bus to Paris within a few days (i). However, judging from the number
and range of his Chailly paintings, several of which include well
worked views of its 12th century Eglise de Saint Paul, it is evident that
O’Conor’s time in the area was well spent and he must have returned
to Paris in a much refreshed mood as a direct result.
(i) The letter was found in 1982 in a private collection in Nueil-sur-
Layon in the west of France where O’Conor died on 18 March, 1940.
Dr. Roy Johnston
