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James Sinton Sleator PPRHA (1885-1950)
A Dublin Interior
Oil on canvas, 58 x 30cm (22.75 x 11.75”)
Signed with initials
Provenance: Hilton Park House Sale, Clones by Nick Nicholson, July 1985, Lot 244
Exhibited: “James Sinton Sleator” Retrospective, Cat. No. 30; Armagh County Museum, April/May 1989;
Fermanagh County Museum, May/June 1989; RHA, Dublin, June/July 1989.
Literature: “James Sinton Sleator” 1989, illustrated p.6
Sleator was born in County Armagh and studied at the Belfast College of Art. In 1910 he joined Orpen
at the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin. In 1912 he went on to the Slade and from there to Paris
where he spent a brief period before the outbreak of the Great War. By 1915 he was back in Dublin to
teach at the School of Art and to exhibit for the first time at the Royal Hibernian Academy. Referring to
his four portraits in this exhibition,The Studio commented ‘…one recognises “quality” of a very unique
kind. His rapidly executed head of a man in a red coat and his self-portraiture full of distinction and
beauty of tone.’Within two years he had been elected Academician.
In 1920 Sleator became a founder member of the Society of Dublin Painters although his work only
appeared in the inaugural exhibition, and in 1922, he left Ireland to spend five years working in Flor-
ence. When he returned he set up a studio in London where he established a successful portrait prac-
tice. As Orpen’s studio assistant Sleator often painted the sitter’s clothing and background areas in his
master’s portraits, and shortly after Orpen’s death in 1931, Sleator was asked to complete a number of
his unfinished commissions, including portraits of Prince Arthur of Connaught and the Duchess of
Westminster. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, was friendly with Lavery and for a time took over his
most celebrated pupil, Sir Winston Churchill. In 1941 he returned to Dublin, and in 1945 was elected
President of the Royal Hibernian Academy, a post which he held for three years until his death, when
the position was taken by Seán Keating. His obituarist, Estella Solomons, noted his ‘natural kindness’
and ‘abiding humour’ and suggested that is was his ‘warm and tolerant humanity which gave his work
its real distinction’.
This is one of Sleator’s few surviving genre scenes.The subject is unnamed and anonymous, in contrast
to his portraits of notable figures such as Orpen, Jack B. Yeats, the Rt. Rev Richard Tyner and several
self-portraits. It was almost certainly painted when he was living in Dublin shortly after his student
years at the Metropolitan School of Art.The subject-matter and composition may have been influenced
by Orpen, or perhaps by the work of Walter Osborne.The use of a mirror to suggest great depth in an
interior is Orpenesque and was a device often used by Sleator in these years.The picture is particularly
notable for the skilful use of diffused light to pick out details of the architecture and furnishings, and for
the subtle manipulation of muted tones.
We acknowledge the work of Dr. S.B. Kennedy, whose writings formed the basis of this note.
€5,000 - 7,000