Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART Auction Wednesday 24th March 2021

www.adams.ie 25 14 NEVILL JOHNSON (1911-1999) The Year of Grace (c.1946) Oil on canvas, 25 x 35cm (9¾ x 13¾’’) Provenance: The artist’s family up to 2006. This painting is a second and extremely similar version of the work exhibited at the Victor Waddington Gal- lery in 1947; it was one of two works apparently given as a gift by the artist to his mother and they remained within the family until 2006. Painted around the same time as Kilkeel (sold, these rooms, lot 22, 9/12/2020) there is again a clear re- sponse to contemporary international events; a mushroom cloud emerging from the sea, half-destroyed buildings and a strangely-shaped form that appears to be a bone, echo the atomic threat of the time. The figure to the left appears to be one of the pieces of driftwood that Johnson incorporated into his post- war paintings, while the central image of the Mother and Child has echoes of an altarpiece in its elegantly carved figures that suggest redemption and hope at the same time as expressing vulnerability. While the present painting is witty, elegant and brilliantly crafted, recalling in its precision Johnson’s early friendship with John Luke, it also expresses his anger at the ‘lies and violent rhetoric’ of war. Dickon Hall € 2,000 - 3,000 CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOGRAPHS AND BIDDING