Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 30TH MARCH 2022

28 19 COLIN MIDDLETON RHA RUA MBE (1910-1983) Castle Park, Bangor Oil on canvas, 61 x 61cm (24 x 24’’) Signed with monogram; also signed, inscribed and dated 1979 verso Provenance: Sale, these rooms, 1/4/2015, lot 6; Private Collection. € 12,000 - 16,000 This late work is one of the surprisingly small number of paintings by Colin Middleton that record a spe- cific location in Bangor, the town where he lived for the last decade of his life (a blue plaque at 6 Victoria Road was unveiled in his honour in 2005). Middleton had first moved to Bangor for a shorter period in 1953 and had painted at least two canvases of Castle Park at that time; the turbulent and expressionist style of these works, typical of the early 1950s, is quite different to this later painting, where the more formally organised and architectural arrangement creates a mood of tranquillity. It is notable, however, that both paintings do share such a vibrant palette. In the present work, this is used in a less obviously expressive manner than in the 1950s and short and controlled strokes of high-toned colour are integrated into more subdued passages to imbue the scene with a subtle sense of luminosity. The presence of figures is unusual in Middleton’s post-1960 landscapes but the mother and child are reminiscent of his 1955 painting, November Evening, Bangor Pier . They are very much in harmony with the woodland, introducing solid passages of colour that make connections around the canvas, mirroring the shape of the tree to their right and occupying the triangle between the diagonal path and the higher level of land. The painting seems to convey a clear note of nostalgia; Bangor would have carried strong associations for Middleton of his own young family growing up in the 1950s and Castle Park appears to have been a place he enjoyed. This particular view must have been painted close to North Down Museum where, most appropriately, an exhibition of Middleton’s paintings of Bangor was held in 2013. Dickon Hall