Adam's Important Irish Art 5th December 2018

32 28 GERARD DILLON (1916-1971) Near Moyard Oil on board, 30 x 45cm (11¾ x 17¾’’) Signed Dawson Gallery Exhibition label verso Exhibited: ‘Gerard Dillon, Early Paintings of The West’ The Dawson Gallery, March, 1971, Ex Catalogue Dillon stayed in Moyard in Connemara in 1950 and 1953 but the style of this painting would suggest it was painted from a sketch at a later date. In the late 1950’s Dillon rented a cottage from an English couple in the area of Dawrosmore near Letterfrack and scenes from this period indicate he visited a number of locations between Clifden and Letterfrack. On his annual holidays to Connemara, the locals allowed him into their homes to paint portraits, or study them working outside in their fields cutting turf, thatching roofs, fishing, repairing currachs or planting vegetables. In this composition, a male figure is in the act of carrying fodder to his pony which is grazing in an enclosed field. The blue sky, washing line and cottage evoke an idyllic summers day from another era when people lived off the land. In the 1950’s, before modern transport, ponies and carts carried loads of hay, turf and wrack to small farms which were sparsely located in isolated areas in the West of Ireland. In March, 1971 Gerard Dillon was in the Adelaide hospital in Dublin recovering from a stroke when an exhi- bition of his ‘Early Paintings of The West’ was opened at Leo Smith’s Dawson Gallery. Twenty-nine oil paint- ings were listed in the catalogue but six oils were also exhibited but did not appear in the catalogue. This painting ‘Near Moyard’ was one of those paintings which was ex-catalogue. Leo Smith made regular visits to the hospital to give Dillon news of his exhibition and Dillon shared his feelings of pleasure with his family in Belfast. In a letter to his nephew, Dillon commented: ‘Leo [Smith] was here today - I’ve sold 32 paintings altogether - there were some that weren’t in the catalogue. So, the show has been a great success from a selling point of view.’ (undated letter addressed to Gerard and Maureen[- Dillon]) The reports in the Press and the success of the exhibition at the Dawson Gallery gave Dillon the stimulus and confidence to remain strong throughout his illness. After the exhibition ended, he wrote to his Belfast friend, Patrick Kelly in London from his hospital bed, ‘My show in the Dawson of early work of the West of Ire- land sold 35 and that is unbelievable…God isn’t it a good thing…’ Dillon did make a recovery from his illness and arrangements were being made for him to travel to London where he was expected to stay at a rehabil- itation treatment center. Tragically, he had another stroke and died at the age of fifty-five on 14th June, 1971. Karen Reihill November, 2018 € 30,000 - 40,000