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Artist: James Arthur O'Connor (1792-1841) Title: View from Killiney Looking to Bray Medium: oil on canvas Size: 30 x 40.30cm (11.8 x 15.9in) Framed Size: 46.1 x 56cm (18.1 x 22in) Provenance: Private Collection; Gorry Gallery, Dublin (label verso); Private Collection Exhibited: Exhibition of the Artists of Ireland at Dublin's Society House, 1819, J.A. O'Connor, 18 Dawson Street, No. 33 Literature: Thomas Bodkin, Four Irish Landscape Painters (Dublin and London, 120) p. 97; John Hutchinson James Arthur O'Connor (Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland, 1985), 191 a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} This panoramic view of the Dublin and Wicklow coastline, with the Wicklow hills and Sugarloaf mountains in the distance, is an accomplished work by one of the leading early nineteenth century Romantic artists. Dark clouds gather over Bray Head, casting a shadow over the land that contrasts with the ... Read more James Arthur O'Connor Lot 35 - 'View from Killiney Looking to Bray' Estimate: €15,000 - €25,000 This panoramic view of the Dublin and Wicklow coastline, with the Wicklow hills and Sugarloaf mountains in the distance, is an accomplished work by one of the leading early nineteenth century Romantic artists. Dark clouds gather over Bray Head, casting a shadow over the land that contrasts with the sunlit foreground. A rocky outcrop in the left foreground frames the composition. Also in the foreground is visible a circular stone, probably marking a triangulation point of the Ordnance Survey, which had begun its mapping work some years earlier. O'Connor's view does not include the eighteenth-century obelisk that still marks the summit of Killiney Hill, and was painted before the construction in 1852 of the small stepped pyramid by Robert Warren. Nor does the railway, which was extended from Kingstown to Bray in the early 1850's, appear in O'Connor's view. In the foreground, grass and bushes are rendered in detail, while in the distance, fields and mountains are delineated in carefully nuanced colours; browns, greens and greys, with touches of purple, capturing a typical day in Ireland, showers of rain alternating with brilliant sunshine. Born at Aston's Quay, Dublin, in 1792, O'Connor was the son of an engraver and print seller. A student at the Dublin Society's Drawing Schools, he first exhibited in 1809. Four years later, in company with fellow students George Petrie and Francis Danby he travelled to London. Returning to Ireland, O'Connor attempted to set up as an artist, but in 1822 decided to move permanently to England, where he exhibited regularly over the next two decades, while also undertaking tours of the Continent, where he enjoyed some success. However O'Connor was not financially successful, and in 1842 died in some poverty. His finest work, The Frightened Waggoner, is in the National Gallery of Ireland while an evocative and Romantic moonlit scene is in the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. Peter Murray, June 2021