Roderic O’CONOR (1860-1940)

Landscape with trees, circa 1919-20 Oil on canvas. Signed lower left. 32,5 x 41 cm Provenance : Primel Collection, In the descendants. Bibliography : Dr. Roy Johnston, Catalogue of the exhibition "Roderic O'Conor", Barbican Gallery, London, September 1985. Exhibition : - 'Roderic O'Conor', Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1985, (label on back). - National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1986 - Ulster Museum, Belfast, 1986 - Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 1986 Mr. Milmo-Penny authenticated on photograph this painting which he had been able to examine during the exhibition "Roderic O'Conor" at the National Gallery in Dublin in 1986. Roderic O'Conor, the Irishman of Pont-Aven In the years 1888/1894, around Paul Gauguin, a community of artists gathered in the small village of Pont-Aven which revolutionized the history of painting. Initially frequented by the French, the place quickly welcomed foreign artists: the Swiss Cuno Amiet, the Danes Ballin and Willumsen, the Pole Slewinski, the Dutchmen Meyer de Haan and Verkade, the Englishman Bevan and the American Harrison. All of them adhered to the synthesist revolution. But the Irishman, like his friend Amiet, was deeply influenced by the art of Vincent de Van Gogh. It is possible that O'Conor visited the posthumous exhibition two months after Vincent's suicide, organized by the artist's brother Theo in his Paris apartment. "Curtain of Trees at Dusk" is emblematic of this new synthesis that O'Conor developed between the art of Gauguin and that of Van Gogh: simplicity of the motif, expressiveness of the brush and power of the material applied in superimposed layers, impact of the colours (purplish pinks, pale lilacs, pure greens and yellows straight from the tube). We also find in our highly expressive painting the small parallel purplish touches on the treetops and the hillside that are the painter's signature since 1892.