Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 27 MARCH 2024

18 8 COLIN MIDDLETON RHA RUA MBE (1910-1983) K Knitting Oil on canvas, 61 x 51cm (24 x 20”) Signed Exhibited: Belfast, CEMA, January 1961, cat.no.11; ACNI Touring exhibition,1970, Colin Middleton 1960- 1970, cat.no.77. € 15,000 - 20,000 Painted in the early 1960s, K Knitting is one of a series of works which are particularly revealing of Middleton’s do- mestic life at the time. During the 1940s and much of the 1950s, the figures in his paintings were often invented and symbolic; even in those cases where there had been some inspiration from life, as in Teresa, these figures were given a more universal significance. In the late 1950s Middleton began a series of paintings of his wife, Kathleen, seated at the piano, which he continued through much of the time when they were living in Belfast in the 1960s. There are also more intimate paintings from this time, of subjects including his eldest daughter, Alison, reading, and of Kathleen absorbed in various activities, with knitting apparently a favourite hobby. The present work was painted in Lisburn, where they lived when Middleton was first employed as Head of Art at Friends School. During this time, he balanced his job with an extremely busy exhibiting schedule, including a number of exhibitions with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, in addition to regular, and generally successful, commercial exhibitions in Belfast and Dublin. The flattened picture space and geometric division of the image in K Knitting suggest the influence of Cubism, but might equally relate to the use of pattern and decorative, abstract form recalled fromMiddleton’s training and work as a damask designer, which became a strong influence in the 1960s. A similar technique is evident in other works of the period, including Red Landscape, Largymore , a rare land- scape painted around Lisburn. A similar use of a dominant colour throughout the painting is evident in K Knitting , with powerful and shifting tones of red suggesting Kathleen’s strong personality and the artist’s absorption in painting his wife. Dickon Hall, February 2024