Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 30TH MARCH 2022

20 GERARD DILLON (1916-1971) Moonlight Scene, West of Ireland Oil on canvas, 30.5 x 40.5cm (12 x 16’’) Signed Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by his friend, Ms. Sally Devlin; Sale, Whyte’s, Dublin 22/11/17, lot 40; Private Collection. € 15,000 - 20,000 Dillon has created a beautiful lunar scene of a west of Ireland inlet, with the moon slowly rising, orb like, over the still and silent bay. It illuminates the sky, casting bright rays, picked out in white highlights against the deep blue. We see a lone figure in the centre of the composition, walking back along the traditional patchwork stone walls towards the thatched cottages in the distance. He appears to be car- rying a fishing rod over his shoulder, perhaps on a journey back from a session of night fishing. There is a single black cow grazing behind him, picked out against the green and blues of the landscape. While it is a relatively small work, the sense of distance is well executed. As the viewer we feel as if we are standing on the grassy plain in the foreground looking over across the inlet to the figure in the back- ground. His clever use of colour, subtly separates land, from sea and sky. The inland waterways, and tributaries wind in and out and around the island, leading us out into the larger bay and sea beyond. He uses quick, flat strokes of white to delineate the varying tones in the natural stone walls. We get a sense of a place on the edge of the world, picturesque but isolated. We are reminded of the hardships of living on a remote island, with little or no connection to the mainland. It is reminiscent of another work sold in these rooms in 2019 Moonstruck Youth , of a local fisherman standing barefoot, after finishing his work for the day. It is a very different view from that of other artists who were also transfixed by this particular landscape. While the beauty is still there it is a more honest and melancholic expression. Yet it was also a place that Dillon loved to visit, enjoying many happy holidays on the island of Aran, following the more primitive and peaceful way of life. Niamh Corcoran, February 2022