Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 25th September 2024

Important Irish Art | 25 September 2024 www.adams.ie 83 es to over a dozen small canvases before leaving Grez in August 1887. [Nathan Bowe’s Archive] In 1886, O’Meara painted a large scale work Girl with a Distaff, the model was most likley a Shepherdess too, without her cloak, wearing a white woven shawl. O’Meara painted another work entitled Shepherdess at the Mill of Fosse ,1886, on this occasion the Shepherdess is not en- gaged in knitting, as in his first picture, of 1880 depicting a shepherdess. Although the painting is almost complete it would seem that O’Meara had planned to include some of her flock in the composition and to finish her cape in more detail. A sketch for this work, features in his Grez sketch- book includes a drawing of a ewe on the models left side and and of several more just barely indicated with circular strokes, infront of the Shepherdess. Since O’Meara gen- erally painted several versions of his major works, before being satisfied, there is every possibility that another com- pleted canvas of this composition Shepherdess at the Mill of Fosse exists, just waiting to be found. Mary Stratton Ryan. [3] [Fernande Sadler L’Hotel Chevillion et les Artists de Grez – sur-Loing , 1906, p11.] [4] Alexandra Herlitz, Grez –sur-Loing revisited , Goteborg Univer- sity, Makadam 2013, p 48. [5][ Mary Stratton Ryan, The Irresistable Frank O’Meara , 1853- 1888 An Irish Artist in France . 2024 p80.