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RICHARD THOMAS MOYNAN (1856-1906)
The Little Newspaper Boy
Oil on canvas, 56 x 40cm (26 x 15¾”)
The Irish artist, Richard Thomas Moynan (1856-1906), painted a variety of subjects that reflected the social, political and eco-
nomic landscape of his day. As a student at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and the Royal Hibernian Academy, he won
many academic prizes, but his crowning achievement occurred in 1883 when he was awarded the Albert Prize, ‘for the best
picture shown in the Academy by a student’ (Strickland, 1989, p. 144). Roderic O’Conor, C.E. Lodge and H.C. Tisdell were also
contenders for this coveted award. Winning the Albert Prize facilitated Moynan’s move to the Royal Academy of Fine Art in An-
twerp where he followed in the footsteps of Irish artists such as Walter Osborne, Joseph Malachy Kavanagh and Nathaniel Hill.
It was only a matter of six months before:
‘He gained the first place for painting from the living model in the annual ‘concours,’ in which a hundred students of all nation-
alities competed.’ (Walter Strickland, 1989, p. 144). This entitled Moynan to private tuition from the Director of the Academy,
Karel Verlat. During the artist’s second year in Antwerp, the college admitted its most famous student, Vincent Van Gogh. How-
ever, the Dutchman’s temperament proved to be incompatible with the Academy’s ethos and, two months later, he moved on
to Paris. In 1885, Moynan also moved to Paris to study portraiture at the Academy Julian under ‘Collin, Courtois, Robert-Fleury
and Bouguereau’. (Strickland, 1989, p. 144)
Returning to Dublin in the winter of 1886, Moynan made several self-portraits to showcase his newly-developed skills. Two
works from this series, The Artist in His Studio at Harold’s Cross (1887) and Taking Measurements (1887), are in the National
Gallery of Ireland collection, while a third adorns the dining room of University College Galway.
Moynan was a dedicated father whose rapport with children was noted as far away as London: Mr Moynan was chiefly a
figure painter, and his favourite subject was child life in the slums. (Obituary of Richard Thomas Moynan: London Times, 11th
April 1906) He made many large compositions depicting children at play:
Tug of War
(1891),
A Travelling Show
(1892)
Ball in the
Cap
(1893),
Invitation to go Haymaking
(1898),
A Game of Skill
(1890s). But, the most celebrated of these works is
Military Ma-
noeuvres
(1891), (National Gallery of Ireland). This genre-piece depicts boys parading through Main Street Leixlip, pretending
to be a military band.
But the artist also painted smaller canvases featuring a single child. These so called Street Arabs were associated with an
occupation.
The Newspaper Seller
(1891) is the first of many works dealing with this subject. Three years later the same child
featured in
Only a Waif, Cold and Wearied
(1894). This signed and dated painting shows a sleeping boy in three-quarter view,
clutching a sheaf of newspapers. He is seated in an alleyway, dressed in a coat, muffler, skull-cap and knee-length trousers.
His left foot rests on his right, in an effort to avoid contact with the cold ground. The artist’s palette reverts to his Antwerp
days and is compiled chiefly of browns and greens, relieved only by the paleness of the boy’s face, the whiteness of the news-
papers, and the orange muffler at the child’s throat. This canvas is very similar to the smaller painting
The Little Newspaper Boy
,
in this catalogue. The child is seated in left profile, wearing identical clothing to the subject in
Only a Waif, Cold and Wearied,
with a newspaper secured under his arm, and his hands are similarly tucked into the sleeve of his jacket to provide warmth.
Once again his left foot rests on his right to help fend off the cold, but his eyes are open and downcast. The clean face of the
child suggests pride in his appearance despite his poverty. The detailed figure-painting coupled with a looser depiction of the
clothing and background brings the plight of the boy into close focus. This unsigned work has all of the elements of
Only a
Waif, Cold and Wearied
, but perhaps Moynan thought that a sleeping child would be more appealing and adjusted the compo-
sition accordingly.
Having worked as a political cartoonist on The Union newspaper, these little paper-boys had a special place in Moynan’s
heart. His final unfinished work:
Death of The Queen
(1902, National Gallery of Ireland), tells the true story of a Dublin newsboy
who commemorated Queen Victoria’s passing by spending his last penny on a bunch of violets that he placed on a bill-board
announcing her death. Moynan, who frequently looked to Dickens for his subject-matter, brought an empathetic eye to the
activities of the Dublin Street Arab.
Dr. Maebh O’Regan, October 2015
€ 3,000 - 5,000