Beschreibung:

Gerard Dillon RHA RUA (1916-1971) Tom Baker by the Black Lake Oil on board, 46 x 61cm (18 x 24'') Signed Exhibited: ''Gerard Dillon - Art and Friendships'' Exhibition, Adams, Dublin, July 2013 and The Ava Gallery, Clandeboye, August 2013, Cat. No. 47 Literature: ''Gerard Dillon, Art and Friendships'', illustrated p.51 Eager to follow George Campbell and Daniel O'Neill's success with their exhibitions in Victor Waddington's gallery, Dillon rented a cottage in Moyard in the West of Ireland to seek out subject matter in preparation for his first exhibition with Waddington towards the end of 1950. While staying at the cottage, Dillon became friendly with his neighbours the Bakers, who supplied him with milk, eggs and potatoes. The youngest of the Baker family, Tom befriended the artist and posed for several paintings while visiting the surrounding area, Tom Baker, Moyard (private collection), The Yellow Bungalow, (Ulster Museum), and this work, Tom Baker by The Black Lake. Executed near Roundstone, the location may be ''Lock Creig Dhubh'', (The Black Lake), which is west of the village. Known to the local fishermen, Dillon painted several works from this shoreline looking over to Inishlacken Island, where he rented another cottage adjacent to the ruined National schoolhouse for his second solo exhibition with Waddington in 1953. Living most of his life in the urban environments of London, Dublin and Belfast, Connemara's landscape enthralled the artist, who communicated his affinity with the daily lives of the locals and western landscape in personal idiosyncratic style that can appear whimsical but are often disguised as another narrative. Dillon incorporated pictorial devices to draw the viewer into his composition by distorting the space and presenting it from a bird's eye view or as in this case, the viewer is drawn into the composition by the sitter's foreground position and direct gaze. A rainbow in the distance highlights a fishing currach and white cottages in a patchwork of fields. The dark sky, complexion of the sitter, jacket and clenched hands indicate the time of year. The youngest of nine children from the Falls area of Belfast, Dillon's 1950's images of the West were not always favoured by art critics. Pigeon holed as painting Ireland through the eyes of a visitor, he responded in letter to his friend, John Hewitt ? ''I think they haven't thought it over or they'd realize that that part of Ireland that I've painted, is to me strange and I do see it as a visitor-for could your honestly call me an Aran Islander? Or am I a gawkey visitor? After all I was ''brung'' up looking at awful old dirty red bricks and cobbles or pavers and mill chimneys?seeing that all the days of my young life?so I am a visitor to the west ?'' Throughout the artist's changing styles in the late 1950's, and 1960's, his compositions continued to depict symbols of Connemara, reflecting his memories of the region where he claimed, ''One could live ?forever.'' Karen Reihill is currently researching Gerard Dillon & Friends Gerard Dillon RHA RUA (1916-1971) Tom Baker by the Black Lake Oil on board, 46 x 61cm (18 x 24'') Signed Exhibited: ''Gerard Dillon - Art and Friendships'' Exhibition, Adams, Dublin, July 2013 and The Ava Gallery, Clandeboye, August 2013, Cat. No. 47 Literature: ''Gerard Dillon, Art and Friendships'', illustrated p.51 Eager to follow George Campbell and Daniel O'Neill's success with their exhibitions in Victor Waddington's gallery, Dillon rented a cottage in Moyard in the West of Ireland to seek out subject matter in preparation for his first exhibition with Waddington towards the end of 1950. While staying at the cottage, Dillon became friendly with his neighbours the Bakers, who supplied him with milk, eggs and potatoes. The youngest of the Baker family, Tom befriended the artist and posed for several paintings while visiting the surrounding area, Tom Baker, Moyard (private collection), The Yellow Bungalow, (Ulster Museum), and