Beschreibung:

LOADING AND UNLOADING TURF BOATS, CONNEMARA, c.1940s Seán Keating PRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977)
Signature: signed lower right; with Victor Waddington Galleries label on reverse Medium: oil on board Dimensions: 19 by 20.25in., 47.5 by 50.625cm. Provenance: Private collection since early 1940s This example of Seán Keating's work, which is known as Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara (c.1939-46) is one of a series of studies and paintings of the western seaboard of Ireland ... and the Aran Islands that the artist began in c.1939 and concluded in the late 1940s. There was no indigenous turf on the Aran Islands, so it was necessary to have the fuel brought over from the mainland on boats that looked like currachs, but were larger versions called bád iomartha. Keating's image shows the boats being loaded with turf in Connemara. There are three bád iomartha in the little harbour; two masts are visible and one is anchored in view in the shallow waters. In the background, another bád iomartha is at full sail and headed west across the North Atlantic sea towards one of the Aran Islands. Two older men sit and watch as the others work hard to load the rest of the turf onto the boats before night falls, or the brooding storm, evident in the dark clouds beyond, intensifies enough to put a halt to the day's work. In the background, the sun has parted the skies to illuminate the tiny whitewashed and thatched cottages that dotted the coastline between Spiddal and Carraroe. The arrangement of the pictorial elements in this study is demonstrative of the artist's concern with the use of photography and cine-film footage as a means to construct his compositions. Indeed, as a result of his interest in such technology Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemarahas a lot in common in terms of composition with another example by the artist, Loading the Turf Cart, The Quay, Kilmurvey (c. 1940), which was sold in Dublin in 2006. The two men in the red cart drawn by a white horse in the background, and the bád iomartha anchored in the shallow harbour, make an appearance in both images. Such repetition was not unusual for Keating at that time. His paintings of the western seaboard and the Aran Islands were enduringly popular. The re-use of certain vignettes and compositional elements helped to create a readily recognisable body of work on the topic, while at the same time, his artistic familiarity with the material allowed the artist time to complete several studies and commissioned paintings featuring the traditional ways of life which were then still evident. Furthermore, Keating's use of a camera and cine-camera to capture the habitual routines of the west of Ireland people, which he then transferred to canvas or paper, gave a sense of validity and authenticity to his work. As a result, images such as Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemara, although composed from individual vignettes, are studies of contemporary history, and as such, they are important visual documentary evidence of a traditional way of life now lost to modernity. Keating exhibited with the Victor Waddington Gallery in Dublin, and he also had his work framed there throughout the 1940s. It is of significance to note that Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemarais still in its original Victor Waddington frame. An uncommon find, the original frame and Waddington label are important and integral components of the work. Significantly, the frame is a little more decorative than the artist could have afforded to use. Hence, it seems reasonable to assume that the artist either sold or, as seems more likely, gifted the work to the owner, who then brought it, on Keating's advice, to Waddington to be suitably framed. The painting has remained in the same private collection since, a fact that explains the survival of the frame. The subject of Loading and Unloading the Turf Boats, Connemaraseems to be related to a painting by the artist titled Turf Boats, Connemara(1946) which entered a private collection at that time and has not been seen in public since. Dr É