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Fr. Jack P. Hanlon (1913-1968)
Still Life on Table
Oil on canvas, 53 x 74cm (20¾ x 29”)
Signed, also signed, inscribed with title and dated 1957 verso
Exhibited: The Frederick Gallery, Dublin, July 1999, Catalogue no 8.
“Analysing Cubism” Exhibition Irish Museum of Modern Art;The Crawford Gallery, Cork
and The F E McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge, 2013
Literature: Irish Arts Review, 1988, Vol. 15, illustrated on page 226
“Analysing Cubism” (2013) full page illustration page 73
“Still Life on Table” is a very stylised painting in the cubist mode, a style which Fr. Han-
lon returned to many times during his life. It is composed of a group of objects on a ta-
ble, but one has to look very hard to distinguish the component parts of the ensemble.
Because the work is composed of blocks of bright colour, the facets tend to blend into
each other. Gradually, the objects emerge - a coffee pot, an ear of corn, a slice of melon,
a coffee grinder - and for this reason the painting holds the viewer’s interest. The focus
here is on form, pattern and colour, with the use of straight, curved and diagonal lines
and vibrant shades of red, blue, green, orange and yellow. This was the sole work repre-
senting Father Jack P Hanlon in the prestigious 2013 exhibition “Analysing Cubism”.
Mary Reilly
€6,000 - 8,000