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Artist: Frank McKelvey Title: Cattle Grazing Signature: signed lower left Medium: oil on board Size: 44½ x 60cm (17.5 x 23.6in) Framed Size: 61 x 75.4cm (24 x 29.7in) Provenance: William Mol & Son, Belfast (label verso); Private Collection a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} In this pastoral scene of cattle grazing in a field, with sea and mountains stretching away into the distance, McKelvey's skill as a landscape painter is seen at its best. The location is probably the Antrim coastline, and the painting is redolent of quiet summer days, far from the noise and bustle ... Read more Frank McKelvey Lot 30 - 'Cattle Grazing' Estimate: €5,000 - €7,000 In this pastoral scene of cattle grazing in a field, with sea and mountains stretching away into the distance, McKelvey's skill as a landscape painter is seen at its best. The location is probably the Antrim coastline, and the painting is redolent of quiet summer days, far from the noise and bustle of the city. The brushwork is confident, with McKelvey, as in many of his paintings, building up the composition in a series of alternating light and dark horizontal bands. The horizon line is low, allowing for a wide expanse of blue sky. A winding track through the field is flanked on either side by dark trees and hedges, while sunlight falling on the foliage intensifies the dark shadows. Nestling in the trees on the right is a small farm house. In the distance, the mountains are depicted in delicate tones of grey and blue. The assured handling of oil paint makes this canvas a quintessential image of life in rural Ireland. Although idyllic and timeless, there is a sense, as in many of McKelvey's paintings, that he is setting out to record a way of life that was passing, as farming in Ireland was becoming more mechanised in the twentieth century. Born in Belfast in 1895, McKelvey attended evening classes at the Belfast College of Art, while training as a poster designer for David Allen and Sons. In 1911 he became a full-time student at the College, winning many prizes, and seven years later won the Taylor art competition with his painting The Grandmother. Over the following years he painted views of farm workers in the vicinity of Bessborough, Co. Armagh, where his in-laws had a farm. While the Realism of his early work gradually gave way to a more Impressionist palette and approach, McKelvey never swayed from providing an authentic depiction of life in the Irish countryside and coastline. In addition to the rural areas around Belfast Lough and the Lagan river, he depicted coastal scenery in counties Antrim, Donegal and Mayo. A conservative and accomplished painter, his work is often idyllic, with cloud-filled skies, silver light reflected on water, cattle grazing, and people getting on with their everyday lives. McKelvey was not only a skilled landscape painter: early in his career, he was commissioned by Thomas McGowan to paint a series of views depicting Belfast city; these are now in the collection of the Ulster Museum. There are portraits by him in Queen's University, and thirteen of his portraits, of US presidents of Ulster extraction, are in the Ulster Museum. In New York, McKelvey showed at the Hackett Gallery, while in Dublin, in 1937, he had his first exhibition at the Waddington Gallery. He was a founder member of the Royal Ulster Academy in 1930, and exhibited with the RUA for almost four decades. Together with James Humbert Craig Paul Henry and Charles Lamb, McKelvey is credited with creating a 'national' school of Irish landscape painting in the twentieth century. Peter Murray, January 2022