Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 25th September 2024

84 65 THOMAS MARIE MADAWASKA HEMY (1852-1937) An Aran Funeral: Inishmaan (1912) Oil on canvas, 91 x 122cm (353/4 x 48’’) Signed and dated 1912 Literature: Pall Mall Gazette, Pictures of 1913 , May 1913, Illustrated Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1913, number 613 € 5,000 - 7,000 Thomas Marie Madawaska Hemy (1852-1937), the younger brother of fel- low artists Charles Napier Hemy (1841- 1917) and Bernard Benedict Hemy (1844-1910) was born on the passen- ger steamship Madawaska (hence his name) while his family were emigrat- ing to Australia. After studying at the School of Art in Newcastle and under Charles Verlat (1824-1890) in Antwerp, he exhibited widely. In the summer of 1912, Hemy travelled to the Aran Is- lands on a painting trip, an experience whose profundity he recorded both in painting and in writing, the former in this example and the latter in an article titled ‘ In the Isles of Romance ’, pub- lished in The Boy’s Own Paper (Issue 11, 1915). In this work Hemy depicts the funer- al of one of Inishmaan’s poorest men, with the coffin coming from nearby Inisheer as there was no carpenter on the island. Such was the sensitivity with which Hemy beheld this event that he ensconced himself ‘on a ledge of rock overlooking the burial-ground, so that the presence of a stranger should not obtrude.’ From this vantage, Hemy observed many minute details, includ- ing the stretched hide of a currach boat applied to the coffin lid and the three wood- en bars ‘lashed on’ the coffin for the purpose of carrying it from the house of mourning a mile and a half away. Moved by the event, Hemy went on to describe one of the most extraordinary episodes he had ever witnessed: ‘Most of the people following the procession made their way to the different gravestones and mounds and knelt at their own family graves, praying, ‘keen- ing,’ and wailing until all was ready for the interment. What a difference to the sombre Breton funeral that we have seen depicted - the falling rain, the sad garments of the spectators, and the priests and choristers with banners and crucifixes. I doubt if their ceremony is a tenth part as impressive as that of the poor farmer fisherfolk of the Aran Isles burying their dead.’ Unmentioned by Hemy is the name of the graveyard, that being Cill Ceananach, locat- ed on the eastern side of In- ishmaan. The flat headstones (‘only the more prosperous families have them’) remain a feature of the graveyard to this day, as do the remains of an ancient church. Hemy ex- hibited this work at the Royal Academy in 1913, alongside ‘ An Emigrant’s Departure ’ (currently untraced). A water- colour study for this work was sold in these rooms, 8 Decem- ber 2021, lot 116.