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Important Irish Art
,
wednesday 3rd December 2014 at 6pm
111 Harry Kernoff RHA (1900-1974)
Christopher Casson Playing the Harp, 1940
Oil on artist’s board, 21 x 15cm (8¼ x 6”)
Signed, inscribed with title and dated verso
Provenance: Vincent Price, Monterey Park, California.
The son of actors Dame Sybil Thorndyke and Lewis Cas-
son, Christopher Casson (1912-1996) first appeared on stage
aged just three in Julius Caesar at The Old Vic.
In 1938, he joined the Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Li-
ammóir company at Dublin’s Gate Theatre and subsequently
married the stage designer and artist Kay O’Connell in 1941,
with Mac Liammóir as his best man.
Casson went on to achieve great acclaim on radio, stage and
screen, most notably as Canon Browne in the long running
RTE series,The Riordan’s.
He was an accomplished harpist and ballad singer and his
depiction here by Kernoff, dressed in west of Ireland fish-
erman’s garb would seem to indicate that his performance
encompassed both disciplines.
€2,000 - 3,000