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George Russell (AE) (1867-1935)
Children Playing in Woodland Glade
Oil on canvas, 53.5 x 81.5cm (21 x 32”)
Signed with monogram
Armagh born, artist ‘George Russell (1867-1935), remembered always as ‘AE’, was much better known to his contemporaries
as a writer and editor on social as well as literary subjects, rather than a painter. He had a conventional artistic education at the
Metropolitan School and the RHA School and was a prolific painter of topics as varied as straight depictions of children playing,
theosophical subjects, with their mythological world, and an occasional conventional landscape, showing considerable talent.’
(299, Ireland’s Painters) According to Hilary Pyle; ‘The painters of Barbizon captivated him...He admired originality and was
prepared for the poetic infiltration of the avant garde, yet at heart he was a conservative, committed to Corot and Rousseau; and
to Millet, whose socialist ideals he shared.’ (5, George W Russell (AE)) It is clear that the pursuit of painting was a pleasure to
Russell - “Painting is the only thing I have delight in doing. Nature intended me to be a painter.” (40, A Memoir of AE) The
origin of Russell’s pseudonym Æ comes ‘from Æon, a Gnostic terms for the earliest created beings, later truncated to its first
diphthong by a careless printer.’ (3, George W Russell (AE)).
This painting is an appealing portrayal of figures in a woodland. Based on similar works by the artist the setting is most likely
to be the woods at Marble Hill, Dunfanaghy or the nearby Ards Forest.The children normally depicted by Russell are from the
Law Family, close friends of the artist (Hugh and Lota Law of Marble Hill House).The composition is a perfect example of the
potential of light and shade to dramatise a scene.The dappled light filters through the trees and falls brightly on the figures, all
girls, who are engaged in a lively game. While none of the figures have their features delineated, there is an energy and vivacity
to the figures and the overall scene.The artist has employed a broad yet appropriate palette to the woodland setting. He perfectly
captures both the mottled brown of the path and the rich carpet of green amongst the trees.The majesty of the trees, their robust
and authoritative stance, combine to create a timeless yet identifiable scene that is both beautiful and memorable. Remarkably,
although painted over eighty years ago this rich painting appears almost recently completed, perhaps ‘still wet’due to the assertive
application of paint, high colour of the composition and attendant sparkle. A smaller painting on this topic is included in the
NMNI collection at Armagh County Museum, where there is a considerable holding of Russell’s paintings. Entitled ‘
Girls in a
Wood
’, it is a looser composition more focused on the three featured girls themselves than on the overall scene.There is a sense of
a late expedition through the woods in this work where the sun can be glimpsed through the trees behind two of the girls, whose
facial features are discernible, which is somewhat uncharacteristic for Russell.
John Hewitt wrote; ‘Every year he spent his holidays paintings at Marble Hill, near Dunfanaghy, where, to quote John Eglinton
“He came to think of this corner of Donegal as his own peculiar spiritual kingdom, and it supplied the themes of his pictures.”
These were of sand-dunes and beaches with children vaguely at play, of sombre bogland and hillsides with gleams of light on dark
pools, and shadowy girls in the twilight.’ (53, Art in Ulster 1) The artist has described the appeal of his Donegal retreat where he
went for an annual vacation lasting a month for a period of 30 years; ‘Donegal..., to the wildest, loneliest and loveliest country I
know, a country of hills and hollows, of lakes and woods, of cliffs, mountain rivers, inlets of sea, sands, ruined castles and memo-
ries from the beginning of the world.’ (To Miss L. R. Bernstein, 11 June 1924, Letters from Æ pp.182-3)
John Hewitt, Art in Ulster 1, Belfast, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 1977.
Anne Crookshank and Knight of Glin, Ireland’s Painters 1600-1940, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2002
John Eglinton, AMemoir of AE George William Russell, London, Macmillan & Co Ltd, 1937.
Marcus Beale, George W Russell (AE), Sligo, Model Arts &Niland Gallery, 2006.
Marianne O’Kane Boal, November 2014
€6,000 - 10,000