Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 2nd September 2020

102 89 COLIN MIDDLETON RHA RUA MBE (1910-1983) Birth of David Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 61cm (19¾ x 24’’) Signed; dated verso 4 July 1944 Exhibited: ‘ An Exhibition of Recent Works by Colin Middleton ’, CEMA Northern Ireland, 1945-46, catalogue number 6; Associated American Artists, New York, 1947, label verso. Literature: James White, ‘Irish Painters of Today’, The Studio, March 1950, illustrated. € 20,000 - 30,000 Birth of David was painted in the summer of 1944 during a successful and fertile period for Colin Middleton. In 1943 he had held an ambitious and generally well-received solo exhibition at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery and in 1945 his first exhibition in Dublin took place several months before another one man show in Belfast, with the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, in which the present painting was included. The 1945 Belfast exhibition largely maintained the uplifting tone of personal and philosophical integration with which the 1943 exhibition concluded. With its fine draughtsmanship and extensive use of symbolism Birth of David might seem to continue Middleton’s earlier surrealism, but its intense mysticism and the in- terest in the Old Testament demonstrated in the subject matter, also look forward to the period from 1948 when he worked with Victor Waddington. Its symbolism appears more esoteric and less related to Middle- ton’s own life and artistic identity than many works in the 1943 exhibition and, alongside the references to the life of King David, it is tempting to wonder whether the Star of David was also intended as a reference to the experience of the Jews in Europe in the pre-war and wartime years. It is possible that Birth of David was included in an exhibition of contemporary Irish painting held in New York in 1947 at the Associated American Artists gallery, although this was before Middleton began exhibit- ing with Victor Waddington, who seems to have been connected with the exhibition. Waddington’s interest in the painting is demonstrated by its use as an illustration in James White’s 1950 article on contemporary Irish art in The Studio magazine. While Middleton questioned Waddington over his decision to provide White with this image, as well as criticising White’s description of him as a surrealist, he remained commit- ted to the painting. ‘I do not in any way repudiate that canvas. It was a very important one in its period for in it, as in others of that time, I was endeavouring to come to terms with the pathological nature of mysticism.’ [1] Letter from Colin Middleton to Victor Waddington, 6th March 1950 (Private Collection) Dickon Hall, February 2020.