Adam's Important Irish Art 5th December 2018

37 Important Irish Art | 4th December 2018 32 GERARD DILLON (1916-1971) Study for Tom Baker, Moyard Ink and watercolour, 26 x 32cm (10¼ x 12½’’) Signed Executed in 1950, the sitter in this composition can be identified as Thomas Baker who met the artist when Dillon decided to rent a thatched cottage, ‘Cloonederowen’ in Moyard in the West of Ireland. While Dillon stayed at Moyard he became friendly with the Baker family whose neighbouring farm supplied him with milk, eggs and potatoes. The youngest member of the Baker family, known as ‘Tom’ had the daily task of bringing supplies to Dillon, who often had friends and family visiting from London, Dublin and Belfast. Seated on a bed, Thomas Baker is depicted in shorts and a jacket. In an interview with this writer Thomas Baker recalled sitting for Dillon when he was a young boy. ‘People were regularly moving in and out of the cottage but I remember Gerard Dillon coming to stay because he paid me to be a model for his oil paintings. He did several sketches of me in Moyard, Roundstone and Leenane.’ (Interview with Tom Baker, Moyard, Connemara, 15.6.11) The drawings and watercolours were later transferred into known titles, ‘ Tom Baker by the Black Lake ’, (Private Collection), and ‘ The Yellow Bungalow’ (Ulster Museum). This watercolour ‘ Thomas Baker’ is a study for ‘ Thomas Baker, Moyard ’ (private collection) which was chosen to be included in Gerard Dillon’s retrospective exhibition in 1972/3 in the Ulster Museum in Belfast and the Municipal Gallery in Dublin and was illustrated in the accompanying catalogue. Karen Reihill, November, 2018 € 2,500 - 3,500