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Opening his first gallery in the late 1920s, Victor Waddington’s policy of placing gallery
artists under contract gave him control over titles
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and output, and in turn guaranteed artists
regular income, as well as solo and group exhibitions. Apart from the IELA exhibitions,
Waddington’s was the leading gallery for modernism in Dublin and by 1945 it was a magnet
for anyone interested in art.
In 1944, CEMA held an exhibition, ‘The Collection of Zoltan Lewinter-Frankl’. The thirty-
nine paintings included four works by Jack Butler Yeats.
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Victor Waddington held his first
solo show of Jack Butler Yeats in 1943, so it is likely Waddington met Lewinter-Frankl at
this time. Did Waddington and Lewinter-Frankl discuss the Belfast Boys ?
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Undoubtedly
they did.
In 1945, O’Neill and Campbell travelled to Dublin with pictures to see Waddington.
Campbell was paid thirty pounds for his paintings, which enabled him to travel to London
to seek out subject matter for his first solo exhibition with his gallery in 1946. In London, he
exhibited in a group exhibition under the title, ‘Artists of Fame and Promise’
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at the Leicester
Galleries. O’Neill and Campbell remained under contract
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to Waddington until the gallery
closed in 1956.
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Waddington did not always agree with O’Neill’s titles of his pictures. In a letter from Waddington to O’Neill,
he stresses the need to ‘carefully’ work out the titles to his new paintings (30 August 1956).
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Lewinter- Frankl was corresponding with Yeats during this time. Letter from Yeats to Lewinter-Frankl, 17
September 1945.
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Victor Waddington may have viewed Dillon and O’Neill’s work at their joint show at the Contemporary
Galleries, 1943 or at the IELA exhibitions from 1943.
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Campbell participated in seven group shows under the title ‘Artists of Fame and Promise’ at the Leicester
Galleries. Unidentified press cutting in artist’s scrapbook.
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Campbell received £20 per month, O’Neill received £20 a week and Dillon received £20 per month.
fig.39 Victor Waddington and Henry
Moore
fig.40 George Campbell with Victor Waddington
at his exhibition, 1950’s