Adam's The Antoinette and Patrick J.Murphy Collection 23rd October 2019

164 152 MARY SWANZY HRHA (1882-1978) The Temple Offering (1943) Oil on canvas, 75 x 63cm (29.5 x 24.8“) Signed Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin 1974. Exhibited: Cork, ROSC 1980, ‘Irish Art 1943-1973’. € 15,000 - 25,000 Temple Offerings was completed in the Coolock home of Muriel Tullo, Swanzy’s younger sister, where the artist relocated from 1942-1945 to avoid the wartime bombing in London. It was a highly productive period for her having been absent from Ireland for almost twenty years. She re-engaged in the cultural life of her native city, as a founder member of the Dublin Painters Socie- ty in 1920, exhibiting frequently in the Stephens Green gallery on her return. Swanzy’s painting evolved during this period into a rich narrative, often allegorical style. In many respects it was the period, which saw her find her own voice, which she rarely moved away from for the remainder of her eighty-year career or hobby as she termed it in a somewhat acidic com- ment on her status as a female painter. In Temple Offerings she layers her images using thin glazes that create a translucent and delicate quality while her use of colour becomes quite heated and intense, similar almost to stained glass. At the same time she lends a sculptural quality to the modeling of her classical figures, landscapes and architecture, birds are frequently seen in this work. Her referencing of the classical world is broad and inclusive of many global traditions; Celtic deities appeared to mankind as birds and doves and pigeons were considered sacred. Her friend Evie Hone was known to have admired this work greatly. Liz Cullinane, September 2019