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oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Jean le Corronc;
Thence by descent to his daughter Mme Marcelle Le Corronc;
Sale of Le Corronc Collection, Laurin, Guilloux, Buffetaud, Tailleur, Paris, 30 October 1995, lot 66;
Acquired from the above by the present owner
EXHIBITED

Pont-Aven, Musée de Pont-Aven, Roderic O'Conor, 1860-1940, 1984, no.1 (illustrated in the catalogue);
Limerick, Hunt Museum Galler, Roderic O'Conor, 26 June - 31 August 2003, no.8
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Jonathan Benington, Roderic O'Conor, a Biography with a Catalogue of his Work, Dublin 1992, no.6, illustrated on p.25, fig.3
CATALOGUE NOTE

Executed circa 1887.
This fine portrait of a rather pensive young Breton girl probably dates from an early visit which Roderic O'Conor made to Pont-Aven in Brittany, after his arrival in Paris from Dublin in the autumn of 1886 at the age of 26. By 1886 Pont-Aven was firmly established as a popular artists colony for at least twenty years and was well known in Irish art circles through paintings with Brittany themes which appeared at the Royal Hibernian Academy's annual exhibition in Dublin. In the 1885 exhibition, for example, in which O'Conor was represented by four works, paintings with Brittany subjects were exhibited by Aloysius O'Kelly, Stanhope Forbes and Nathaniel Hill. Brittany was popular with Irish artists and it is likely that O'Conor went to Pont-Aven in the summer of 1887 out of a sense of curiosity and in order to make his own assessment of the area.

Unfortunately O'Conor did not maintain an accurate personal record, neither of his own paintings, nor of his frequent excursions between the various sites where he lived and painted in France. There is, however, confirmation of this early visit to Brittany from J. Milner Kite, an English artist whom O'Conor met while both men were students in the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp. In a letter written to O'Conor's widow after her husband's death in 1940, Kite, writing without notes, recollected that he went to Pont-Aven in 1887 and that O'Conor arrived about the same time. Kite also referred to a number of paintings of heads of old Bretons by O'Conor which he described as being "very strong but still under the influence of Carolus-Duran". Clearly this portrait belongs to that group.

The choice of subject matter here might seem rather unusual since O'Conor's earliest known paintings (circa 1884-85) have landscape and seascape themes. There is also the contrasting evidence of his early experimentation with an Impressionist style soon after arriving in France (see for example, Groupe de peupliers, 1886, private collection). However, shortly after settling in to his new location in Paris O'Conor enrolled in the private atelier of Carolus-Duran to further his study of painting. Duran was well known in the city as a fashionable portrait painter and O'Conor may have chosen his studio on the recommendation of one of his former teachers in Dublin. It had earlier been the choice of other Irish artists including Norman Garstin, Frank O'Meara and Helen Trevor.

Carolus-Duran is known for a teaching style which unified form and colour in one process, as distinct from the earlier tendency among other professors at the École des Beaux-Arts to treat these separately in the process of making a painting. Carolus-Duran also had a reputation for flexibility in his teaching, adapting his advice to the needs of differing students and respecting individual differences in artistic temperament and painting methods. From what we now know of O'Conor's mature paintings, it is evident that his study with the otherwise academic Carolus-Duran was an excellent preparation for his later career.

This portrait is soundly constructed with an assured sense of drawing and understanding of the anatomy of the head. A strong sense of volume is achieved and emphasised through the carefully controlled distribution of light. Some of the paint, particularly in the area of the collar, was applied with a directness and vigour which reflect the unified activity of drawing and painting which Carolus-Duran encouraged. The more heavily textured build up of paint in this area is in contrast with a different method of paint application to the features of the head, where a thinner paint layer and more mixing and blending of the flesh tones on the canvas gives much more translucency to the painted surface. This contrast between the texture of the collar and the comparatively smooth painting of the features helps to emphasise the girl's youthful beauty in an academic painting of great charm and sensitivity.

Although the Carolus-Duran influence is evident, this painting also embodies an approach to its subject which can best be described as Northern European. This may have carried over from O'Conor's Antwerp days and his study of painting in the museum collection at the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The controlled lighting and the downcast eyes of the subject in the composition echo the work of Rubens, Rembrandt, and van Dyck.

Dr. Roy Johnston