Seán Keating & 'The Men of the South'
An exploration of the artist and of his most famous and some lesser known works 1915-66
by Ruairí Lynch
Last updated: 28 February 2020
Seán Keating (born John Keating, Limerick, 28 September 1889 – Dublin, 21 December 1977) was an Irish romantic-realist painter who painted some iconic images of the Irish War of Independence, the Aran Islands and of the early industrialisation of Ireland.
Born in Limerick city as one of eleven children (four died in infancy), Keating liked to claim he had grown up in poverty, but the family home, No. 5, Newenham Street, was on a fine, large Georgian terrace, and while money was not abundant, there was enough to employ a maid, the house was full of books, and the children received private piano lessons.
The claim to a miserable Irish childhood and an ongoing love-hate relationship with the city would seem to be a Limerick tradition. Take Frank McCourt who elevated this relationship to a higher art-form with his recollections of the 1930's in 'Angela's Ashes":
Born in Limerick city as one of eleven children (four died in infancy), Keating liked to claim he had grown up in poverty, but the family home, No. 5, Newenham Street, was on a fine, large Georgian terrace, and while money was not abundant, there was enough to employ a maid, the house was full of books, and the children received private piano lessons.
The claim to a miserable Irish childhood and an ongoing love-hate relationship with the city would seem to be a Limerick tradition. Take Frank McCourt who elevated this relationship to a higher art-form with his recollections of the 1930's in 'Angela's Ashes":
Keating went to St Munchin’s, a respected school (presumably without the bullying schoolmasters) where he received a good education, in spite of not being academically inclined. Never a zealous pupil, Keating played truant from St Munchin’s and hung around the city waterside, learning French from the Breton fishermen whose boats were moored there.
Keating described his early years as he grew up... "always drawing and scribbling. At the age of sixteen I had proved myself incapable of doing anything else. I was a dreamer and idler. My mother decided to send me to the Technical School in Limerick for drawing"
There he discovered his life's calling and much to the surprise of his family, won a three year scholarship to the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (the precursor to the National College of Art & Design) in 1911 sponsored by William Orpen who was to become his teacher and later, mentor.
The Dublin Metropolitan School of Art was a hive of political activity and a heady environment at the time. Both Pearse brothers were there – Willie and Pádraig. Willie was teaching Irish, Countess Markievicz was also frequently present. Nationalism and the re-discovery of Gaelic culture were the primary influencers for many within the school. As regards an artistic education, Keating was a model student, motivated, productive and strongly influenced not only by the politics of the time but by Orpen but also by a fellow student, the stained glass artist, Harry Clarke.
Keating described his early years as he grew up... "always drawing and scribbling. At the age of sixteen I had proved myself incapable of doing anything else. I was a dreamer and idler. My mother decided to send me to the Technical School in Limerick for drawing"
There he discovered his life's calling and much to the surprise of his family, won a three year scholarship to the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (the precursor to the National College of Art & Design) in 1911 sponsored by William Orpen who was to become his teacher and later, mentor.
The Dublin Metropolitan School of Art was a hive of political activity and a heady environment at the time. Both Pearse brothers were there – Willie and Pádraig. Willie was teaching Irish, Countess Markievicz was also frequently present. Nationalism and the re-discovery of Gaelic culture were the primary influencers for many within the school. As regards an artistic education, Keating was a model student, motivated, productive and strongly influenced not only by the politics of the time but by Orpen but also by a fellow student, the stained glass artist, Harry Clarke.
Lifelong friends and with interests in common, Clarke introduced Keating to the Aran Islands which was to further influence his life artworks. These islands off the west coast of Ireland continued to have a profound effect on Keating's artistic identity, but as it turned out, Clarke made his final trip there in 1915, a few months after he began the commission for his series of eleven windows for University College Cork's Honan Chapel.
Diarmaid Ferriter writes that “Keating idolised Orpen and had frequently accompanied him on tours around Ireland, learning from him the importance of draughtsmanship. Although the two had little in common – Keating was a devout Irish-speaking Catholic, Orpen a middle-class anglicised Protestant who painted nudes which Keating found disconcerting..”
Both Keating and Clarke moved to London in 1914, Clarke working as a book illustrator and Keating as Orpen’s studio assistant and occasional model.
By early 1916, as the war in Europe reached stalemate and the threat of military conscription loomed in Britain, Keating & Clarke (like Michael Collins and many other Irish nationalists) returned to Ireland to avoid a military call up.
Keating returned to the island of Aran off the west coast of Ireland to attempt to capture what remained of a pure, Gaelic heritage with no British or wordly influences.
"Living in close communities, he considered the people of the west to be strong, hardworking and relatively untouched by political turmoil. He felt that these were the true Gaels, still in touch with the language and traditions of their Celtic past."
It was during this second visit to Aran that Keating completed work on his most significant early painting begun the previous year: 'Men of the West'.
Diarmaid Ferriter writes that “Keating idolised Orpen and had frequently accompanied him on tours around Ireland, learning from him the importance of draughtsmanship. Although the two had little in common – Keating was a devout Irish-speaking Catholic, Orpen a middle-class anglicised Protestant who painted nudes which Keating found disconcerting..”
Both Keating and Clarke moved to London in 1914, Clarke working as a book illustrator and Keating as Orpen’s studio assistant and occasional model.
By early 1916, as the war in Europe reached stalemate and the threat of military conscription loomed in Britain, Keating & Clarke (like Michael Collins and many other Irish nationalists) returned to Ireland to avoid a military call up.
Keating returned to the island of Aran off the west coast of Ireland to attempt to capture what remained of a pure, Gaelic heritage with no British or wordly influences.
"Living in close communities, he considered the people of the west to be strong, hardworking and relatively untouched by political turmoil. He felt that these were the true Gaels, still in touch with the language and traditions of their Celtic past."
It was during this second visit to Aran that Keating completed work on his most significant early painting begun the previous year: 'Men of the West'.
"Men of the West" 1915-16
"The painting illustrates three men dressed in Aran clothing, baggy woollen trousers and waistcoats with the colourful crios belt. Keating himself features on the left of the scene. His brother Joe Hannan Keating is painted twice in the work, once in the middle in profile and again on the right with his back turned. Joe was a member of the Irish Volunteers and possibly of the IRB. His face is partially obscured to conceal his identity as Joe was more politically active that his artist brother. Joe is portrayed holding a rifle while the artist depicts himself in the role of idealist, with the tricolour resting on his right shoulder. Keating’s choice of model in his brother and his role as a nationalist separatist contributes to the insurgent flavour of the work.
Although the reference to Aran stands, the title Men of the West harks also to Ireland’s contribution to the American Civil War and the men in the painting bear a resemblance to the cowboys from America’s Wild West. The painting speaks of the perceived need for violence with the men standing as revolutionary icons, unafraid to fight. Indeed their iconic status was potent as Keating produced limited edition prints of the work in 1919 in order to raise money for families affected by the political struggle. Within a year the authorities considered the distribution of the poster dissident and destroyed any remaining copies, thus bolstering its infamy."
Eimear O’Connor, Sean Keating Art, Politics and Building the Irish Nation, Irish Academic Press 2013
While "Men of the West" was begun just before Easter 1916, the Tricolour's inclusion indicates that Keating continued to work on the painting after the Rising, when the flag was used for the first time to symbolise the Irish republic. The painting was becoming a revolutionary art work.
Although the reference to Aran stands, the title Men of the West harks also to Ireland’s contribution to the American Civil War and the men in the painting bear a resemblance to the cowboys from America’s Wild West. The painting speaks of the perceived need for violence with the men standing as revolutionary icons, unafraid to fight. Indeed their iconic status was potent as Keating produced limited edition prints of the work in 1919 in order to raise money for families affected by the political struggle. Within a year the authorities considered the distribution of the poster dissident and destroyed any remaining copies, thus bolstering its infamy."
Eimear O’Connor, Sean Keating Art, Politics and Building the Irish Nation, Irish Academic Press 2013
While "Men of the West" was begun just before Easter 1916, the Tricolour's inclusion indicates that Keating continued to work on the painting after the Rising, when the flag was used for the first time to symbolise the Irish republic. The painting was becoming a revolutionary art work.
First Exhibition 1917
Keating's first art exhibition was in 1917 with “Men of the West”. Held in the RHA's temporary home (it's original premises on Abbey Street, Dublin was destroyed during the Rising), the inclusion of 'Men of the West' was considered a bold and provocative political statement.
WB Yeats, in his later poem "The Municipal Gallery Revisited", interpreted Keating's scene as the preparation for an ambush, which is perhaps to see it through the prism of later IRA tactics.
"Thinking Out Gobnait". 1917
Keating's next major work was "Thinking Out Gobnait" 1917 (below), a portrait of his good friend Harry Clarke.
The painting shows Clarke sitting on a grave slab within the ruins of Teampall Chaomháin (St Kevin’s church) on Inis Oírr, along with a holy water font at his feet, and a holy well to the bottom right of the image. The suggestion is that Clarke is finding inspiration for his series of eleven windows for the Honan Chapel, Cork, which include a fine representation of St Gobnet. The ‘healing’ symbolism of the holy water and well as well as his friend's evident ill health are deliberate references to Clarke’s ongoing battle with tuberculosis, the illness which ended his life at the age of 41.
Keating's next major work was "Thinking Out Gobnait" 1917 (below), a portrait of his good friend Harry Clarke.
The painting shows Clarke sitting on a grave slab within the ruins of Teampall Chaomháin (St Kevin’s church) on Inis Oírr, along with a holy water font at his feet, and a holy well to the bottom right of the image. The suggestion is that Clarke is finding inspiration for his series of eleven windows for the Honan Chapel, Cork, which include a fine representation of St Gobnet. The ‘healing’ symbolism of the holy water and well as well as his friend's evident ill health are deliberate references to Clarke’s ongoing battle with tuberculosis, the illness which ended his life at the age of 41.
"Thinking Out Gobnait" Seán Keating. Medium: oil on canvas. 30 x 30in. (76.20 x 76.20cm) Provenance: :A gift from the artist to Harry Clarke RHA (1889-1931). Thanks to James Adam & Bonhams,
Dr Éimear O'Connor HRHA, Research Associate, Humanities Institute, UCD comments: "As St Gobnait is traditionally associated with Ballyvourney in Co. Cork and with the Aran Islands, Keating's painting offers evidence of the friendship between the two men and their mutual interest in the islands at the time. The painting simultaneously acknowledges Clarke's extraordinary ingenuity evident in his tour de force portrayal of St Gobnait which was installed in the Honan Chapel in 1916, but possibly 'thought out' during that last trip to Aran in 1915 with Keating at his side. Yet Thinking out Gobnait is not simply an image of Clarke thinking about his work. It is an allegory drawn from a composite of the picturesque ruins of the ancient churches of Inis Oírr, and influenced in style by William Orpen's The Holy Well (1916: NGI). The painting shows Clarke sitting on a grave slab within the ruins of Teampall Chaomháin (St Kevin's church) on Inis Oírr, along with a holy water font at his feet, and a holy well to the bottom right of the image. The tree, known as the 'tree of Inisheer', had always been associated with St Gobnait and her church on the island Cill Ghobnait. Keating simply removed the tree from its original place and positioned it by Teampall Chaomháin, thereby introducing a simultaneous visual reference to Clarke's commission. But it is the depiction of Clarke on the grave slab in Teampall Chaomháin that denotes the crucial, though symbolic emphasis in Keating's portrayal of his friend. The church is traditionally associated with miraculous cures; those who lay on the grave slab were, apparently, healed. Clarke had not been well while 'thinking out Gobnait', and Keating suggests, perhaps, that all might be alright now that his friend had reclined on the miraculous grave slab. An inscription in old Irish and another in English on the reverse of the work, both in Keating's hand, reveal that he gifted the painting to Clarke in 1917. Anxious to be elected to the RHA, Keating borrowed the painting from Clarke to exhibit in the annual exhibition in 1918. He was elected an Associate of the Academy later that year." left: One of Harry Clarke's works - the stained glass image of St. Gobnait in the Honan Chapel, UCC. |
Through Conradh na Gaeilge he met May Walsh, "a young Kildare woman of independent temperament and left-wing socialist views, who was agnostic. They married in 1919. Working at the time as secretary to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, May remained politically active throughout her life and was an advocate for women’s rights. Though she later made a point of saying that she did not influence her husband’s work, it seems likely that there was some overlap of concerns."
Aidan Dunne. irish Times. April 27, 2013.
The Keatings produced two sons, including Justin (1930-2009), who later became a leading Irish Labour party politician and was Minister for Industry and Commerce (1973–77).
The same year, Keating was appointed as an assistant teacher in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art.
Throughout 1919, 1920 and up to the summer of 1921, bloody warfare between the British Forces and the guerilla fighters of the IRA brought widespread death and destruction throughout Ireland.
Aidan Dunne. irish Times. April 27, 2013.
The Keatings produced two sons, including Justin (1930-2009), who later became a leading Irish Labour party politician and was Minister for Industry and Commerce (1973–77).
The same year, Keating was appointed as an assistant teacher in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art.
Throughout 1919, 1920 and up to the summer of 1921, bloody warfare between the British Forces and the guerilla fighters of the IRA brought widespread death and destruction throughout Ireland.
"The Men of the South" 1921
The origin of 'The Men of the South' is largely due to a British barrister & Kings Counsel, Albert Ernest Wood (1873-1941). Born in Norfolk, Wood was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and 'called to the Bar' in Ireland in 1902. Specialising in defence, Wood was also a patron of the arts and supported both Harry Clarke & Sean Keating during their early careers.
In May 1921, at the height of the War of Independence, the Commander of Cork No.2 Brigade IRA, Sean Moylan was captured by British forces and charged before a military court with the capital offence of ‘possession of arms and levying war against the Crown’ Moylan's solicitor, Barry Sullivan from Mallow obtained the services of Albert Wood as the defence barrister. Despite a spirited defence, Moylan was found guilty & sentenced to death by the military tribunal. With the certainty of execution by firing squad within days, Wood now successfully petitioned and obtained a writ of habeas corpus. As behind-the-scenes negotiations on a potential truce between Irish and British forces were now underway, a political decision was made to commute Moylan's death penalty to fifteen years’ penal servitude.
The Truce was declared in July 1921 and the following month all Irish political prisoners were released. This was the begining of a lifelong friendship between Moylan and Wood.
As Moylan's grand-daughter recalled "Moylan remembered that his first impression of Wood was of a man of considerable presence, ‘beautifully dressed and groomed with an accent that seemed to be the quintessence of Oxford’.
Shortly after Moylan's release, Wood introduced him to Sean Keating. Moylan was certainly well known and Keating asked if he sit for his portrait wearing the clothes in which he stood trial. The resulting portrait, painted in August 1921, was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) the following year.
Sean Moylan's Grand-Daughter recalls:
The origin of 'The Men of the South' is largely due to a British barrister & Kings Counsel, Albert Ernest Wood (1873-1941). Born in Norfolk, Wood was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and 'called to the Bar' in Ireland in 1902. Specialising in defence, Wood was also a patron of the arts and supported both Harry Clarke & Sean Keating during their early careers.
In May 1921, at the height of the War of Independence, the Commander of Cork No.2 Brigade IRA, Sean Moylan was captured by British forces and charged before a military court with the capital offence of ‘possession of arms and levying war against the Crown’ Moylan's solicitor, Barry Sullivan from Mallow obtained the services of Albert Wood as the defence barrister. Despite a spirited defence, Moylan was found guilty & sentenced to death by the military tribunal. With the certainty of execution by firing squad within days, Wood now successfully petitioned and obtained a writ of habeas corpus. As behind-the-scenes negotiations on a potential truce between Irish and British forces were now underway, a political decision was made to commute Moylan's death penalty to fifteen years’ penal servitude.
The Truce was declared in July 1921 and the following month all Irish political prisoners were released. This was the begining of a lifelong friendship between Moylan and Wood.
As Moylan's grand-daughter recalled "Moylan remembered that his first impression of Wood was of a man of considerable presence, ‘beautifully dressed and groomed with an accent that seemed to be the quintessence of Oxford’.
Shortly after Moylan's release, Wood introduced him to Sean Keating. Moylan was certainly well known and Keating asked if he sit for his portrait wearing the clothes in which he stood trial. The resulting portrait, painted in August 1921, was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) the following year.
Sean Moylan's Grand-Daughter recalls:
"In conversation during these sittings, Keating became familiar with the background and attitude of the fighting men of North Cork. Wood was also a constant visitor to the studio, and the idea came to him that such men and their actions were the raw material for a painting that would capture for posterity the history and spirit of this troubled period. Thus it was in the autumn of 1921 that Moylan set about rounding up a number of his comrades from the IRA’s North Cork Brigade.
He arranged for them to travel to Dublin with their guns so that they could sit for Keating in his studio at the Metropolitan School of Art, Kildare Street.
Keating’s 1951 memoir of the event recalls that he was working in the college ‘when the porter rushed in breathless and pop-eyed to say the hall is full of men with guns and they’re looking for you!’ ‘Never before or since’, says Keating, ‘have I so impressed a porter as when I answered nonchalantly, all right bring them up.’
That wasn’t the end of it, however: ‘when the shock of the invasion . . . had worn off and the Department of Education had dried its pants’, he was ordered off the premises. He got permission to set up his studio in the Mansion House instead. This arrangement wasn’t very satisfactory, as the light was completely different, but in any case it didn’t last long and Keating found himself ejected again. He returned to Kildare Street and set about making a second version of Men of the South.
"The Men of the South" above was the second and final study made by Keating (known as 'Version Two'). Although recognisable, the six men in the painting – Jim Riordan, John Jones, James Cashman (standing), Denis (Denny) O’Mullane, Roger Kiely, and Dan Brown – are depicted as being older than their years at the time.
"Presented as a heroic frieze with strong nationalist themes, this painting depicts a ‘Flying Column’ of the Irish Republican Army poised in readiness for action. Set within the Irish landscape and based on the artist’s own sketches and photographs of several members of the North Cork Brigade, it is symbolic of courage, heroism, and the long wait for Irish independence. The landscape expresses subtle hints of the Irish tricolour as a nationalist backdrop to the assembled male group. United in purpose and direction, the men look towards the evergreen bay laurel, symbol of victory."
Thanks to http://www.millstreet.ie/blog/2017/11/19/roger-kiely-the-men-of-the-south
"Presented as a heroic frieze with strong nationalist themes, this painting depicts a ‘Flying Column’ of the Irish Republican Army poised in readiness for action. Set within the Irish landscape and based on the artist’s own sketches and photographs of several members of the North Cork Brigade, it is symbolic of courage, heroism, and the long wait for Irish independence. The landscape expresses subtle hints of the Irish tricolour as a nationalist backdrop to the assembled male group. United in purpose and direction, the men look towards the evergreen bay laurel, symbol of victory."
Thanks to http://www.millstreet.ie/blog/2017/11/19/roger-kiely-the-men-of-the-south
above - one of the photographic studies taken by Keating of members of the Cork No. 2 Brigade, IRA in his studio at the Metropolitan School of Art, Kildare Street, Dublin.
opposite - The preliminary sketch for "The Men of the South" (known as 'Version one'). Depicted are Jim Riordan, Denis Mullane, Jim Cashman, Seán Moylan. Mick Sullivan. John Jones, Roger Kiely and Dan Brown.This work prevously hung in the Hugh Lane Gallery, but now hangs in Áras an Uachtaráin. |
A new approach was required in any event, as Seán Moylan didn’t want to be included in this second picture as did Mick Sullivan. Moylan believed at the time that the Truce would not hold, and under such circumstances he felt it was unwise that his picture should be available to British military forces.
Keating devised a new composition and, to avoid attracting the attention of the college authorities, he had the men of North Cork come in one by one with their guns well hidden. Later, he observed critically that the new picture was not as coherent as the first because of the resulting piecemeal approach. Keating noted that the original
‘had a quality of verve and dash that would probably have been lost had I been permitted to carry it out in a calm atmosphere so perhaps from the point of view of a historical document it has the qualities more descriptive of the time and circumstances than had it been done out of a mood of reflection and deliberation’.
Keating devised a new composition and, to avoid attracting the attention of the college authorities, he had the men of North Cork come in one by one with their guns well hidden. Later, he observed critically that the new picture was not as coherent as the first because of the resulting piecemeal approach. Keating noted that the original
‘had a quality of verve and dash that would probably have been lost had I been permitted to carry it out in a calm atmosphere so perhaps from the point of view of a historical document it has the qualities more descriptive of the time and circumstances than had it been done out of a mood of reflection and deliberation’.
Keating first showed this painting in the Munster Art Exhibition in 1922, just at the conclusion of the War of Independence followed by a showing in the Royal Hibernian Academy.
The Irish Independent was suitably impressed by the work on display at the RHA:
‘How fine it is from across the room—breezy and alert and full of air. These are the “boys” surely. How dead and sawdust-stuffed would the average war picture appear beside this thing, so full of life! And it is for sale! I do hope the Cork County Council will join with the Cork Corporation in buying this historical monument; better monument to the “boys” they cannot buy or erect for six times the price. It is only £250* and half that to either of these bodies should be only a trifle.’
*£250 in 1922 is worth roughly £14,300/€16,600 in 2020.
In 1955, reflecting on his work ‘Men of the South’, Keating noted: ‘It has been said that art originates from emotion recollected in tranquillity…I had many intruding emotions, no need to recollect and no tranquillity . . . one too easily forgets what is too painful to remember’.
The Irish Independent was suitably impressed by the work on display at the RHA:
‘How fine it is from across the room—breezy and alert and full of air. These are the “boys” surely. How dead and sawdust-stuffed would the average war picture appear beside this thing, so full of life! And it is for sale! I do hope the Cork County Council will join with the Cork Corporation in buying this historical monument; better monument to the “boys” they cannot buy or erect for six times the price. It is only £250* and half that to either of these bodies should be only a trifle.’
*£250 in 1922 is worth roughly £14,300/€16,600 in 2020.
In 1955, reflecting on his work ‘Men of the South’, Keating noted: ‘It has been said that art originates from emotion recollected in tranquillity…I had many intruding emotions, no need to recollect and no tranquillity . . . one too easily forgets what is too painful to remember’.
(left)'Atlas of the Irish Revolution' Cork University Press, September 2017. Authors: John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil and Mike Murphy John Borgonovo
(right) Republic of Ireland Stamp and First Day Cover, "Men of the South". Issued 24 February, 2020.
(right) Republic of Ireland Stamp and First Day Cover, "Men of the South". Issued 24 February, 2020.
In 1921, Keating also staged his first one-man show at The Hall, Leinster Street and in 1923, he was elected to the Royal Hibernian Academy.
In 1924, Keating won the gold medal for his ‘Homage to Hugh Lane’ at the exhibition held in connection with Aonach Tailteann. Shortly afterwards, Keating applied to the Department of Education and the School of Art, for a leave of absence to paint a series of historical works. The Civil War had just concluded and the new state was fractured and impoverished. Keating's request was turned down, allegedly with the comment ” The sooner we forget all these things, the better”. Keating remained in the College, lecturing and instructing while producing a series of paintings reflecting the newly emergent nation.
"An Allegory" (1924)
In 1924, Keating won the gold medal for his ‘Homage to Hugh Lane’ at the exhibition held in connection with Aonach Tailteann. Shortly afterwards, Keating applied to the Department of Education and the School of Art, for a leave of absence to paint a series of historical works. The Civil War had just concluded and the new state was fractured and impoverished. Keating's request was turned down, allegedly with the comment ” The sooner we forget all these things, the better”. Keating remained in the College, lecturing and instructing while producing a series of paintings reflecting the newly emergent nation.
"An Allegory" (1924)
Painted in the wake of the Irish Civil War, An Allegory is one of several non-commissioned works in which Keating addressed social and political matters affecting contemporary Ireland. In the painting, the artist expresses dismay at the internecine character of the Civil War and communicates his suspicion of the clerical, political and business elite.
In the grounds of a burnt-out country house,(a reminder of Ireland's Ascendancy past as well as the fate of many properties furing 1920-23) a disparate group of characters clusters around a gnarled tree trunk - the heirs to Independence. On the left, a clergyman talks conspiratorially to a finely dressed businessman who turns his back to the figures behind him. Immediately beside them, a young mother (Mother Ireland) sits upright, nursing her baby (a symbol of future generations). Next to them, a dishevelled, bearded man (a self-portrait of the artist) slumps comatose against the base of the tree. In the middle ground, meanwhile, a uniformed soldier of the Free State Army and a member of the anti-Treaty forces, facing in opposite directions, dig a grave in which to bury the tricolour-draped coffin deposited unceremoniously beside them.
As well as registering the human and material cost of the Civil War, Keating’s painting points to the divisive nature of the conflict and its future consequences on Irish society. To the artist, the idealism associated with the struggle for independence has been replaced by indifference, disillusionment and personal interest.
First exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1925 and later in the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; St Louis.
Sir Alec Martin presented the work to the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland in 1952. Housed in the National Gallery of Ireland since 1952
On The Run (1924)
In the grounds of a burnt-out country house,(a reminder of Ireland's Ascendancy past as well as the fate of many properties furing 1920-23) a disparate group of characters clusters around a gnarled tree trunk - the heirs to Independence. On the left, a clergyman talks conspiratorially to a finely dressed businessman who turns his back to the figures behind him. Immediately beside them, a young mother (Mother Ireland) sits upright, nursing her baby (a symbol of future generations). Next to them, a dishevelled, bearded man (a self-portrait of the artist) slumps comatose against the base of the tree. In the middle ground, meanwhile, a uniformed soldier of the Free State Army and a member of the anti-Treaty forces, facing in opposite directions, dig a grave in which to bury the tricolour-draped coffin deposited unceremoniously beside them.
As well as registering the human and material cost of the Civil War, Keating’s painting points to the divisive nature of the conflict and its future consequences on Irish society. To the artist, the idealism associated with the struggle for independence has been replaced by indifference, disillusionment and personal interest.
First exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1925 and later in the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; St Louis.
Sir Alec Martin presented the work to the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland in 1952. Housed in the National Gallery of Ireland since 1952
On The Run (1924)
This painting shows three young men resting in a rural yard: one cleans his revolver, another reads a paper and the third seems to be daydreaming. The setting is one that gives us an insight into these three men, who are in hiding, with no real shelter but a shed that is falling apart in the background behind them. There are various domestic items suggesting the kindness of the people who are hiding them. Members of the IRA relied heavily on a network of safe houses across the country: places they could rest and be concealed from the authorities.
Men Of Arran (1925)
Men Of Arran (1925)
Keating's landscape painting Men of Aran (1925), inspired by visits to the West of Ireland, is one of Sean Keating's best works. The dynamic asymetry with the figures in the foreground all staring fixedly at a point out of our sight recalls his other great painting The Men of the South, which displayed similar types and stances. The foreground figures are impervious to the activity below them, and this gives the painting it's great energy. Unlike his fellow Irish artist Paul Henry, who focused on the landscape itself, Keating regards the landscape as subordinate to the figure and the action taking place.
Diarmaid Ferriter writes:
“In many ways Keating became the ‘official’ artist of the Irish Free State, and it could be argued that he helped to create in visual terms a corporate identity for independent Ireland, painting in an Orpenesque style. Given the often large, overstated rhetorical canvases of such subjects as freedom fighters, fishermen, and hurlers, Keating perhaps embodied the nationalist political aspirations of the day, mirroring in the eyes of some critics British official war art. This was reflected in such paintings as ‘Allegory’, making clear the conflicts of loyalty which followed the civil war period, though the durability of the art was questioned by some who doubted this art was ‘realism’, given the stilted posing and flowery costumes, untainted by the reality of a harsh living environment. Some went as far as to suggest that the paintings were heavy-handed artifice masked as folk realism, or ‘costumed regionalism substituted for genuine national character and racial vitality’ (Fallon, Irish art, 168), and that his work was cold, calculated, deliberate and lacked spontaneity. However, in immortalising the ‘faces of the west’, Keating succeeded Orpen as the major Irish draughtsman of the twentieth century, and was a man who, as well as arrogantly believing he was interpreting the minds of the Irish people, had rigid and independent views on painting methods. He had an exceptional talent for incisiveness and his work was widely regarded as having a particular purity and strength, with a haunting quality, influenced by the art of the renaissance and its descendants in Spain.”
Diarmaid Ferriter writes:
“In many ways Keating became the ‘official’ artist of the Irish Free State, and it could be argued that he helped to create in visual terms a corporate identity for independent Ireland, painting in an Orpenesque style. Given the often large, overstated rhetorical canvases of such subjects as freedom fighters, fishermen, and hurlers, Keating perhaps embodied the nationalist political aspirations of the day, mirroring in the eyes of some critics British official war art. This was reflected in such paintings as ‘Allegory’, making clear the conflicts of loyalty which followed the civil war period, though the durability of the art was questioned by some who doubted this art was ‘realism’, given the stilted posing and flowery costumes, untainted by the reality of a harsh living environment. Some went as far as to suggest that the paintings were heavy-handed artifice masked as folk realism, or ‘costumed regionalism substituted for genuine national character and racial vitality’ (Fallon, Irish art, 168), and that his work was cold, calculated, deliberate and lacked spontaneity. However, in immortalising the ‘faces of the west’, Keating succeeded Orpen as the major Irish draughtsman of the twentieth century, and was a man who, as well as arrogantly believing he was interpreting the minds of the Irish people, had rigid and independent views on painting methods. He had an exceptional talent for incisiveness and his work was widely regarded as having a particular purity and strength, with a haunting quality, influenced by the art of the renaissance and its descendants in Spain.”
Shannon Hydroelectric Scheme, Ardnacrusha.
"Scenes of conflict were replaced by works showing industrial development, such as Ireland’s largest ever civil engineering contract: harnessing the power potential of the State’s major waterway, the River Shannon. The construction of a dam and hydro-electric generating station at Ardnacrusha, County Clare, together with a country-wide electric distribution infrastructure, was a symbol of major importance to the nation’s fledgling government. Keating began recording the work in 1926, soon after inception. No-one had commissioned him – he saw the significance of making dramatic documentary work of this nature, but his vision was eventually recognised by the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) – which now owns the largest collection of Keating’s paintings in Ireland. "
Roaringwater Journal. February 9, 2020. https://roaringwaterjournal.com/tag/ardnacrusha/
Critics, including the Catholic Church, attacked the Shannon Hydroelectric Scheme as a gigantic waste of money, but while still a strictly loyal and dogmatic Catholic, Keating disagreed with the Church's stance and saw it as vital for national development.
"Never quite at ease as a landscape painter per se, he nonetheless did something exceptional in his Ardnacrusha and, later, Poulaphouca series, the latter dealing with the building of the hydroelectric generating facility on Blessington Lake in Co Wicklow. He meticulously and objectively detailed the large-scale industrial alteration of the landscape, concentrating on the engineering processes involved. In fact, it is striking that landscape is always invested with cultural meaning in his work, including his western seascapes. It is never simply an idealised vision of untouched nature.
True, his more contrived, allegorical pictures of the hydroelectric schemes are more awkward than the straightforwardly documentary images, but they don’t detract from his remarkable achievement. Both sets of work are in the collection of the ESB."
Night Candles are Burnt Out. (1928-29)
"Scenes of conflict were replaced by works showing industrial development, such as Ireland’s largest ever civil engineering contract: harnessing the power potential of the State’s major waterway, the River Shannon. The construction of a dam and hydro-electric generating station at Ardnacrusha, County Clare, together with a country-wide electric distribution infrastructure, was a symbol of major importance to the nation’s fledgling government. Keating began recording the work in 1926, soon after inception. No-one had commissioned him – he saw the significance of making dramatic documentary work of this nature, but his vision was eventually recognised by the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) – which now owns the largest collection of Keating’s paintings in Ireland. "
Roaringwater Journal. February 9, 2020. https://roaringwaterjournal.com/tag/ardnacrusha/
Critics, including the Catholic Church, attacked the Shannon Hydroelectric Scheme as a gigantic waste of money, but while still a strictly loyal and dogmatic Catholic, Keating disagreed with the Church's stance and saw it as vital for national development.
"Never quite at ease as a landscape painter per se, he nonetheless did something exceptional in his Ardnacrusha and, later, Poulaphouca series, the latter dealing with the building of the hydroelectric generating facility on Blessington Lake in Co Wicklow. He meticulously and objectively detailed the large-scale industrial alteration of the landscape, concentrating on the engineering processes involved. In fact, it is striking that landscape is always invested with cultural meaning in his work, including his western seascapes. It is never simply an idealised vision of untouched nature.
True, his more contrived, allegorical pictures of the hydroelectric schemes are more awkward than the straightforwardly documentary images, but they don’t detract from his remarkable achievement. Both sets of work are in the collection of the ESB."
Night Candles are Burnt Out. (1928-29)
Not unlike the Soviet Realism School of painting, these paintings of the industrialisation of ireland sought to promote the construction work as an achievement of heroic proportions.
Keating's works began to attract interest abroad. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and, in 1930, he held a one-man show at the Hackett Gallery, New York. In 1931 Keating's one-person exhibition was staged at the Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin. In 1934 he was made professor of the National College of Art in Dublin, and Professor of Painting, three years later. His 1937 exhibition at the Victor Waddington Galleries attracted considerable interest.
A frequent visitor and exhibitor in Canada and the United States, he produced the giant 54 panels for Ireland’s pavilion at the 1939 World Fair in New York.
Keating was dragged into the public dispute over the Hugh Lane Gallery’s 1942 refusal of Georges Rouault’s Christ and the Soldier . As a member of the gallery’s advisory committee, he said nothing publicly in the early stages of the controversy, O’Connor writes, until comments made in what he took to be a private phone conversation with either the then editor, Robert Smyllie, or deputy editor, Alec Newman, of The Irish Times appeared in print. The Rouault was, he was reported as saying, “not a work of art”; it was “naive, childish and unintelligible”. A lively correspondence ensued, Myles na gCopaleen chipped in and relations between Keating and Louis le Brocquy, previously friendly, cooled permanently.
O’Connor implies that there was something unwitting or ambivalent about Keating’s identification with the cause of artistic conservatism, which saw him lumped in with a broader, politically and religiously conservative camp, yet many of his statements tend to suggest otherwise. When he wrote approvingly of the artist as a rebel, he seemed to have himself specifically in mind as the rebel of choice, and to believe that others should conform to his ideas
By 1944, Sean Moylan suggested to Michael McDunphy, then director of the Bureau of Military History that Keating’s large preparatory work for ‘Men of the South’ should be acquired by the state. This was done and the work is now in the Douglas Hyde Collection.
Some years later, reflecting on the work, Keating noted: ‘It has been said that art originates from emotion recollected in tranquillity’. In painting this picture, he continued, ‘I had many intruding emotions, no need to recollect and no tranquillity . . . one too easily forgets what is too painful to remember’.
There was some contoversey in 1948 when he was awarded the freedom of the city from Limerick, referring to the city as ‘a medieval dung heap’.
Elected president of the RHA in 1949 which he held for twelve years, this period was a productive time in his church commissions. He produced the Stations of the Cross for Clongowes Wood College & St. Eunan’s Cathederal in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal.
In the 1966 Golden Jubilee of the Easter Rising Exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, Keating showed six portraits: those of John Devoy, Erskine Childers, Terence MacSwiney, Thomas MacCurtain, General Michael Brennan and Dr Ella Webb. (During his lifetime he painted about one hundred portraits.)
Seán Keating died 21 December 1977 in Dublin and was interred at Cruagh Cemetery, Rathfarnham.
Keating's works began to attract interest abroad. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and, in 1930, he held a one-man show at the Hackett Gallery, New York. In 1931 Keating's one-person exhibition was staged at the Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin. In 1934 he was made professor of the National College of Art in Dublin, and Professor of Painting, three years later. His 1937 exhibition at the Victor Waddington Galleries attracted considerable interest.
A frequent visitor and exhibitor in Canada and the United States, he produced the giant 54 panels for Ireland’s pavilion at the 1939 World Fair in New York.
Keating was dragged into the public dispute over the Hugh Lane Gallery’s 1942 refusal of Georges Rouault’s Christ and the Soldier . As a member of the gallery’s advisory committee, he said nothing publicly in the early stages of the controversy, O’Connor writes, until comments made in what he took to be a private phone conversation with either the then editor, Robert Smyllie, or deputy editor, Alec Newman, of The Irish Times appeared in print. The Rouault was, he was reported as saying, “not a work of art”; it was “naive, childish and unintelligible”. A lively correspondence ensued, Myles na gCopaleen chipped in and relations between Keating and Louis le Brocquy, previously friendly, cooled permanently.
O’Connor implies that there was something unwitting or ambivalent about Keating’s identification with the cause of artistic conservatism, which saw him lumped in with a broader, politically and religiously conservative camp, yet many of his statements tend to suggest otherwise. When he wrote approvingly of the artist as a rebel, he seemed to have himself specifically in mind as the rebel of choice, and to believe that others should conform to his ideas
By 1944, Sean Moylan suggested to Michael McDunphy, then director of the Bureau of Military History that Keating’s large preparatory work for ‘Men of the South’ should be acquired by the state. This was done and the work is now in the Douglas Hyde Collection.
Some years later, reflecting on the work, Keating noted: ‘It has been said that art originates from emotion recollected in tranquillity’. In painting this picture, he continued, ‘I had many intruding emotions, no need to recollect and no tranquillity . . . one too easily forgets what is too painful to remember’.
There was some contoversey in 1948 when he was awarded the freedom of the city from Limerick, referring to the city as ‘a medieval dung heap’.
Elected president of the RHA in 1949 which he held for twelve years, this period was a productive time in his church commissions. He produced the Stations of the Cross for Clongowes Wood College & St. Eunan’s Cathederal in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal.
In the 1966 Golden Jubilee of the Easter Rising Exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, Keating showed six portraits: those of John Devoy, Erskine Childers, Terence MacSwiney, Thomas MacCurtain, General Michael Brennan and Dr Ella Webb. (During his lifetime he painted about one hundred portraits.)
Seán Keating died 21 December 1977 in Dublin and was interred at Cruagh Cemetery, Rathfarnham.
A simple reading of Irish art history in the first half of the 20th century suggests a polarised opposition between conservative representation and modernist abstraction, with Keating firmly in the former camp. The demise of modernism allows us to revisit this history and reassess the virtues of Keating’s apparent stylistic conservatism in the light of his real, passionate concern for contemporary historical issues. Such is O’Connor’s case.
The problem with it is the inherent limitations of Keating’s work, even considered in purely representational terms. His pictorial allegories are interesting historical documents but they are not great art, and much of his work leans towards the propagandist simplicity of Soviet social realism. That certainly doesn’t take one whit from the core of his achievement, which is considerable: a substantial body of fine paintings that are outstanding in themselves, helped create the iconography of the emergent Irish nation, and are an essential part of our history.
Aidan Dunne. Irish Times. April 27, 2013.
Credits:
Adams, Dublin
http://www.millstreet.ie/blog/2017/11/19/roger-kiely-the-men-of-the-south
Adams, Dublin
http://www.millstreet.ie/blog/2017/11/19/roger-kiely-the-men-of-the-south