“The Development of Irish modernism in th e context of Eur opean

modernism (focusing on painting)”

Brendan Madden, Co re Studies, Febr uary 2007

Modernism is witho ut a doub t, the m ost controver sial and diver se

movement in Art History as well as the mo st difficult to define.

In this e ssay, I shall consider the de velop ment of Irish modernism in the

context of Eur opean modernism. I shall explain the meaning of the term

(from an art-historical per spective) and trace its development fr om its

inception as a de fined concept in mid-nineteenth ce ntur y Fran ce 1 up

until the establishme nt of the White Stag Group in Dublin 2 when it was

no longer a sep arate movem ent that rejected the past way of d oing

things, but h ad become absorbed into society and the arts. This essay

shall focus o n painting and p ainters. However in order to gain a better

understanding of Mod ernist ar t, espe cially Irish modernism, which was

strongly influe nced b y the Bloomsbur y mo vement in London, it is helpful

to consider ‘art’ in the br oader co ntext of the arts (including literature,

film, drama, etc).

1
It is around this t ime tha t Irish artist s be gan t o f ind their w ay into cont inental academie s of art,
particularly in Antwerp and Paris, the latter of which had su perseded Ro me a s the art centre of the
western world . (O’ Sull i van, 1 9 98 , p .2 6 3)
2
The Dict ionar y of Art , L ondon , Macm illan, 1996, pre scribe s m odernism a s commencin g circa 1890
and terminat ing c irca 1960. For the purpo se of this e ssa y, we sha ll
1
‘Modernism ’, as an art theor y, is clearly and comprehensi vely explained

here in this definition taken from the Tate Modern’s Glossary o f Art

Terms. 3

In the field of art the broad mo vement in Western art, arc hitecture
and design which self-consciously r ejecte d the past as a m odel
for the art of the pre sent. Hence the term modernist or mod ern
art. Modernism gather ed pace from abo ut 1850. Modernism
proposes n ew fo rms o f art on the gro unds that these are more
appropriate to the present time. It is thus characterized by
constant innovation. But modern art has often been driven too b y
various social and political agendas. These were o ften utopian,
and modernism was in general associated with ideal visions o f
human life and society and a belief in prog ress. The terms
modernism and mod ern art are generally used to describe the
succession of ar t movements that critics and historians have
identified since the Realism o f Courb et, cu lminating in abstract art
and its developments up to the 1960s. By that time modernism
had become a d ominant idea o f art, and a particularly narr ow
theory o f modernist painting had b een fo r mulated by the highly
influential American critic Clemen t Greenb erg. A reaction then
took place which was quickly identified as Postmodernism.
(Tate Art Glossar y, 2006)

It is important to have a clear definition o f modernism in an Art- Historical

context because witho ut a clear definition we run the risk o f developing

an anachr onistic hermeneutic. It is esp ecially crucial that we are able to

distinguish betwe en modernism and the other art mo vements that ran

concurrent to it, or that o verlap with it. For example, Toril Moi writes that

‘Realism, in short, is neither modernism's predecessor nor its negative

opposite.’ (Moi, 2006, p.24) The same can be said of impre ssionism,

3
The Tate Mo dern, est ablished in 2000, is Brit ain’s nationa l museum of international modern art .
2
which is really the last period o f realism 4. Although it had a profo und

impact on modernism and ran concurr ently, the two are to tally separate

artistic movements.

There are m any explanations as to why mo dernism happened when it

did 5, 6 and it is useful to explore this a little b efore going into furth er

depth on styles and artists involved in the movement. According to

Peter Childs, there are three principal reasons wh y European art

underwen t a serie s of up heavals from the mid-nineteenth century. Firstly

the Kodak camera h ad made it possible to do what the painter had

previously been asked to do , which was to give a lifelike repre sentation

of a cho sen object. Because o f this, Ar tists had to o ffer something new

and non-representational to set their wo rk apart from an image taken b y

a camera. Seco nd, the Industrial revolutio n and all the chemical

breakthro ughs that it brought meant that p ainting materials became

much cheaper and easier to ob tain. Painters no longer needed the

patronage o f a rich client, and so somebo dy like Van Gog h was able to

survive with very little income and witho ut having to part with his

4
Impres si oni sm, as di sp la yed b y M onet, Reno ir, Dega s , Ma net and S is ley, u sed the bru sh-s troke a s
the medium t o c onve y the e ssence of a view from a gi ven perspective with a stron g empha si s on
vi vi dl y representin g li ght and col our.
5
The start ing po int of M odernism i s the cr is is of belief that pervades twentieth century western
culture: l os s of fa ith, experience of frag mentati on and di sin tegrati on, and the shatterin g of cultura l
symb ol s and norm s. At the centre of thi s cri si s were the n ew technolo gie s of sc ience, the
epistem ol og y of log ical po s iti vi sm , and the relat i vi sm of fun ctiona li st th ought - in short, maj or
aspects of the phi lo soph ical perspecti ve s that Freud embo died ( Friedman, 19 8 1, p. 97 )(Ch ild s,
2000, p. 48)
6
From a Marxist viewpoint, Modernist art grew out of a European loss of communal identity, out of alienating capitalism and
constant industrial acceleration. The work of avant-garde artists was fuelled by the rise of urban living, the invention of the proletariat
and the bringing together of the human with the machine… According to Fredric Jameson (1984: 78), Modernism is the middle
part in a triad of cultural periods that begins with realism and ends with postmodernism and parallels social and economic
upheavals precipitated by technological innovations, such as the shift from steam to electric motors to electronic machines, and the
development of a mass commodity culture. (Childs, 2000, p.29)
3
paintings. The cheap accommodation and food now available in the

cities meant that the 'rom antic idea of a struggling artist could become a

commonplace reality.' In addition to all this, the French Revolution m eant

that the art masterpiece s of the rich were confiscated and put on

display in public galleries where it co uld be accessed by all and could

be studied by aspiring artists. (Childs, 2000, p.108)

Modernism was not a cohesive mo vement, but rather an assortme nt of

‘isms’ – such as Post-Impressionism 7, Fauvism, Cubism, and later

Dadaism, Futurism, and other s, -each with indistinct boundaries and a

shifting roster of followers. What united the modernists was their desire

to break away from conventional art.

It sho uld be noted that [p ost-impressionist] Manet is d escribed b y many

art historians as the ‘first Modernist painter .’(Harrison, 1997, p.22). It

should also be no ted that the five volumes of John Ruskin’s Modern

Painters, published between 1843 and 18 60 place the wor k of JMW

Turner as their principal focus. 8 This is evid ence that the g ap between

classical and modern form s of ar tistic prac tice is not so clearly defined.

In the Paris Salon of 1863, there was not yet any distinction be twee n

what were ac tually just bad attemp ts to cr eate realism and what was

7
The term, P os t-Im press ion ism wa s in vented b y Ro ger Fr y, a foundin g member of the Bl oom sbury
group and the or gani zer of the fir st maj or e xhibi ti ons of m o dern art in London . The P os t-
impress ion is ts , a lthough aware of each other’s w ork, were not an organ ized group .
8
I ha ve c opie s of s ome of Rusk in’s vo lumes on Modern Pa i nters. Because the y predate Moderni sm
as a concept but refer to their subject as modern I wa s init ially confused as t o the c orrect ‘art-
hist orical’ definit ion of moderni sm. Ru skin is a ver y i mporta nt and inf luentia l f igure in the conte xt of
the Arts and Craft s m o vement and Brit ish 1 9th Century art in general . I t wa s b ased his s tudy of
Ruskin that Wi ll iam Morri s (the m ost imp ortant figure in the Arts and Craft s M ovement ) decided to
work as a designer.
4
genuinely modernism but th e first o fficial exhibition devoted to artists

rejected by the established Academ y, the "Salon des Refusé s" occurred

and became famou s for the scandal it caused by showing Manet's Le

déjeuner sur l'herbe. (Levenson, 1999, p. 194) 9

Cézan ne is also credited as having a majo r impact on Moder nism, both

Matisse and Picasso cited him as influences.

The tradition of abstr act ar t begins mo st i mportantly with the p ost-

impressionist Cé zanne. ... He longed to cr eate an art that would "make

of impressionism something as solid and d urable as the art o f the

Museums." Retaining the impressionists' b roken brushstro kes and their

use of pure colour, Cézanne added weight and volume b y emphasising

the underlying geometric structure of objects. He advised painters to

"deal with nature in term s of the cylinder, the sphere, the cone." His

parallel strokes of colour called attention to is painterly technique and to

the flat surface of the canvas, as did the art of the Impre ssionists. But

his new method also, paradoxically, created a solid architecture of

interlocking planes, m aking possible a mo numentality be yond the reach

of impressionism. Ye t the m ethod co uld be applied as well to a teacup

as to a mo untain. (Levenson, 1999, p.195 )

9
...That painting's offence both against bourgeois morality (showing a nude woman with two fully clothed men at a picnic) and
against academic standards (the flatness of his technique, the lack of careful modelling) anticipates the uncompromising posture of
modernist paintings to come.(Levenson, 1999, p.194)

5
Matisse was th e one o f the lead ers o f the fauvist 10 movem ent. He

learned from e xperimenting with the post-i mpressionist styles of Van

Gogh, Gau gin and Cézanne, and the neo-i mpressionism of Seurat,

Cross, and Signac. He borro wed heavily fr om Cézanne's use of pur e

colour as a way of defining space, d evelo ping this in a more freely

expressive manner th an Cézanne had used which became a

characte ristic of fauvism.

Picasso, as with his friend Georg es Braque drew on Cézanne's interest

in geometric form and developed cubism, which many of the fauvists

later turned to. Both mo vements also drew inspiration from the post-

impressionist Gaugin and explored his treatment of so-called primitive,

or non-western ar t. Both Matisse and Picasso displayed p rimitivism in

their works at this time. Picasso’s les dem oiselles d’avigno n is a per fect

example of cubist primitivism. Picasso uses African masks and garish

colours as well as form al elements from no n-wester n art to create the

effect, or the myth, of primitivism. In Matisse’s Blue Nude (Souvenir fr om

Biskra), he uses ho rrid unnatural colours, a loose style of painting as

well as an unattractive model to put acr oss a sense of primitivism.

10
Les f auve s = The wi ld bea st s.
Henri M ati sse (French, 1869– 1954) and André Dera in (French, 1880– 1954) intr oduced
unnaturalist ic c ol or and vi vid brush stroke s into their pa intin gs in the summer of 19 0 5, workin g
together in the small f ish ing port of C ollioure on the Medite rranean coast (1975. 1.194;
19 8 2. 1 79 .2 9 ). When their p ictures were e xhib ited later tha t year at the Sa lon d'Automne in Pari s
(Mat is se, The Woman with a Hat ), they in spired the wit ty critic Loui s Vauxcel les to cal l them fauve s
("wi ld beast s" ) in hi s re view for the mag azine G il B las . Thi s term wa s l ater app lied to the art ist s
themsel ves. ( Rewa ld, 2 0 04b )
6
The explosion o f Cubism (the clearest of these sub- ‘isms to emerge so

far) fr om 1907 onwards had b een the first truly radical break with

realism.

Right up to Post-impressionism , the subject in a painting had always

been viewed from o ne viewpoint, but now with Cubism, the object was

broken up into m any different facets so that ever y par t of the object can

be seen b y the viewer as the artist wishes to show it, not ho w it is in

reality. ‘In 1948 the Am erican critic Clement Greenbe rg looked back to

Cublism as “th e epoch-making feat of twentieth-centur y art, a style that

has changed and de termined the complexi on of Wester n art as radically

as Renaissance naturalism once did.”(Greenberg, 1948 in Greenberg,

1986, p.212)’(Harrison, 1997, p.9 )

Cubism drew in fluence from fauvism and fr om post-impressionism and

led the way to ab strac t art through various phases o f Cubism and

Geometric Abstraction.

Several other ‘isms were in vogue in Eur op e at this time including

Dadaism, Surrealism and futurism, but these were totally ignored in

Ireland until the 1940 s. This is de spite the fact that they dominated the

European ar t scene for decades.

By the earl y 1920s, ho wever, when Irish artists began to show

Cubist wor ks in Ireland, Cubism, in European terms, was no
longer the dominant influence it had been before 1914, th at role
having passed to the Dadaists and the ear ly Surrealists. Yet, with
the exc eption of the Belfast painter Colin Middleton, in about
1936, Irish artists during the twenties and thirties ignored both
Dadaism and Surrealism despite the fact that the se movements,
7
 and Surrealism in particular, then dominated practically all forms
of European intellectual exp ression. Indeed, as we shall see late r,
it was not until the White Stag Group began to exhibit in Dublin in
1940 that Surrealism showed a presence there. (Kennedy, 1991,
p.34)

In order to consider Irish m odernism in the context of Eur opean

modernism, it is nece ssar y to step back fr om Cubism fo r the time b eing

and look to see wh at is happ ening in Ireland at the turn o f the centur y.

In 1890, the m ajority of the leading Irish ar tists wer e still painting in the

Romantic tradition with a few, such as Wal ter Osborne, painting in a

more impressionist style. The Arts and Cr aft move ment was very much

in vogue in England 11 at this time b ut not so much in Ireland , mainly

because the industrial revolution had not taken o ver Ireland (with the

exception o f Belfast) in the same way as it had England and there was

no need for a reactionary movem ent to ind ustrialization.

The 1890s wer e, however the years that saw a resurgence of n ational

feeling through out Ireland. The cultural revival was underway through the

National Literary Society, the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletic

Association. This c ultural nationalism was expressed str ongly through

the arts, but mainly through literature r ather than painting.

The Irish Modernists drew their inspiration almost exclusively from

Fauvism and Cubism, as tho se mo vements had evolved in France, They

turned hardl y at all to Post-Impre ssionism or Symbolism; only to wards

the end of our period did they take any no tice of Surrealism and the y

11
The Arts and Craft mo vement wa s a resp onse to the merg ing ro les of man and machine and an
attempt t o re vert t o simp le trad iti onal crafts mansh ip.
8
almost totally ignor ed contemporar y developments in Germ any 12 and

elsewhere, In Ireland Mod ernism was not associated with the Ar ts and

Crafts Movement o f the late nineteenth ce ntury as was the case in

England, The Irish Arts and Cr afts Move ment of the time rath er

concerned itself with the wider Celtic revi val crusade, Consequently

early Modernism in Ireland did no t have th e benefit o f an existing critical

apparatus, nor was it evangelistic in character, as it was in England, The

Irish painter s rather adopted the new ideas, they did not question them,

The turn o f the centur y was an exciting tim e for Irish Art. Th e recen tly

established National Gallery was planning an extension, the cultural

revival mo vement had broug ht about a ne w interest in Celtic art and a

lady artist c alled Sarah Purser was organizi ng an exhibition of the works

of John Butler Yeats 13 and Nathaniel Hone (the Younger ) 14.

Although she was an accomplished p ortrai t painter, having studied at

the Metropolitan Sch ool of Art in Dublin and at the Acad émie Julien in

Paris, for Irish twentieth-century painting, the life of Sarah Pur ser is mor e

important for the influen ce she had as a p atron, a ho stess, a collecto r

12
As is wel l known , Ad olf Hit ler, tha t fa iled arti st, hated m od ern art. He t ook re venge on m odernism
for al l the s li ghts he bel ieved he had suffered from an art w orld he c ould n ot be gin to comprehend
as a young man tr yin g t o make a li ving a s a pa inter of l ackl ustre scenes in V ienna and Munich. In
19 3 7, hi s war on m odern art wa s c onsumma ted when the Degenerate Art exh ibit ion opened in
Munich and expo sed art ist s fr om Munch t o K irchner to rid i cule as deranged pur veyors of n on-Ar yan
ugline ss . So modern art ist s were among Hit ler's vict im s (Ki rchner killed hi mself ). And yet , when you
see R iefenstahl' s f ilm you rea li se that Hit ler's ni ghtmare ver si on of the 20 th century d id n ot sim pl y
exclude m odernism . It pr opo sed an alternat ive moderni sm i n the arts , just a s i t p lanned a modern
societ y with autobahn s, missile s and extermination. (Jones, 2006)

13
Father t o Jack B Yeat s, William But ler Yeat s, Elizabeth an d Lily Yeat s.
14
Grand-nephew of Na thaniel Hone the E lder
9
and for he r found ation of An Túr Gloine (The Tower of Glass) than for

her paintings. ’ (McCarth y, 1985, p.95)

Even tho ugh he is now o verlooked in favour of his Exp ressionist son,

John Butler Yeats was probabl y the mo st skilled portrait painter in

Ireland at the time. He had a unique ability to capture the character of

the sitter and nearl y all his portraits have a unique intimate

conver sational quality that is quite rare.

‘Nathanial Hone had taken up painting only at the ag e of twenty-two . He

had independent m eans and so was free to develop his work as he

liked, not having to rely o n commissions fo r income.’ (O’ Sullivan, 1998,

p.263) This was reflected in his style of p ainting which was quite

influential in France.

This 1901 exhibition was a milestone in Iri sh Modern Ar t as it Introduced

Hugh Lane, a successful Lo ndon art d ealer to contemp orar y Irish art.

Lane had been in the countr y on a visit to his aunt, Lady Gr egory.

Both Lady Gregor y and Sarah Purser enco uraged his inter est in Irish art

and Lane went o n to beco me one o f the most important patrons of Ar t

in Ireland in the 20 t h Centur y. In 1904, Lan e put on a hugely successful

exhibition of con temporar y Irish Art in Lond on. Its success co nvinced

him of the need for a gallery in Dublin where modern classics could be

10
viewed b y all. This came ab out in 1908, when the Dublin Municipal

Gallery opened in temporar y premises in Harcourt Street. 15

The aim of all those involved in early twenti eth century co ntemporary

Irish art was to establish a unique Irish school of painting and indeed

many of them focused on this at the expense of actually cr eating ar t

work and it is for this reaso n that George Russell and Sarah Purser have

been forgo tten b y histor y.

Mainie Jellet and Evie Hone are seen as the two mo st important figures

in Irish Modernism but it is important to n o te that they were not the only

Irish Moder nists. Bo th Jel l e tt and Hone cam e fro m pro m i nant Ang lo- Ir i sh

fam i l i es. Je l l et's fir st pain ti n g les sons were fro m El i zabeth Yeats. The

two me t in London when they were both studyin g under Wal ter S i ckert

and in 1 9 2 1 they went to Par i s to g etehr to study at the Academ y of

André Lhote, where they learned the fundam ental s of cubi s m. In an

e ss ay, 'Defin i tion of My Art,' written in 1 9 4 3, Maini e Jel l ett wrote:

With Lhote I l earned to use natur al for m s as a star ti n g point towards the

creation of for m for its own sake; to use colour with the knowled ge of its

g r eat potenti al force and to produce work based on a knowled ge of

rhythm i cal for m and or g ani c colour, groping towards a conception of a

picture bein g a creati ve or g anic whole but sti l l based on a real i st for m. I

15
Another important , alth ough litt le remembered, e vent in th e early march of Modern ism in Ireland
was the E xhib iti on of Modern Pa intin gs held at the Municip al Art Ga ller y, Belf ast , durin g Apr il -Ma y
19 0 6. Referring to the e xhibi ti on of work s from the Staat s Forbes c ol lection , Belfa st's N orthern
Whi g in an ed itor ial su gges ted that Be lfas t, l ike Dublin , ought t o ha ve a ga ller y of m odem art ,
although perhaps on a smaller sca le.The paper sug gested that the be st wa y to in itia te such a
project w ould be to arrange an exh ibit ion of go od modem paintin gs which wou ld serve both to
stimu late interest in art and to impro ve public ta ste. (Kenn edy, 1 9 91 , p .2 2 )
11
worked on these l ines and developed a gr eat deal but felt i had not gone

as far as I wanted on the way to the ful l understandin g of extre m e for m s

of non-represen tation al art. (McCarthy, 1 9 8 5 , p. 9 8 )

In 1 9 2 1, Jel l ett and Hone approached Albert Glei zes and asked to work

under hi s g uidance i n learni n g to paint without subject. B y el i m i natin g

the i mportance of subject fro m the canvas they could explore the

rel ation ship between form and colour and create mo ve m ent and depth in

the picture. Every year unti l 1 9 3 0, Jel l ett and Hone would go back to

Par i s to work wi th Gl e i ze s.

The ir fir st jo int exhib ition took place in 1 9 2 4 and the reaction to it was

hosti l e but they continued to work unfazed. At thi s point Hone

concentrated on stai ned g l a s s where she developed a styl e that went

beyond cubi sm and that was widel y accl ai m ed. She was extre m e l y

rel i g i ou s and her art echoed thi s. She recei ved m any co m m i s s ions fro m

churches, the mo st famous of which i s the Eton Col le g e chapel window

where she replaced a window that had been dam a g ed in the war.

Je l l e tt meanwh i l e, continued wi th painti n g, but al so beg an to lecture

and beca m e a criti c. In 1 9 4 3, she was one of the founders of the Ir i sh

Exhibition of Li vin g Art.

The outbreak of war in 1 9 3 9 co mpel led sever al Ir i sh pai nter s to return

ho me fro m abroad. These incl uded included Norah McGuinnes s, R a lph

12
 Cu sack, Patr i ck Henne s sy and Loui s Ie B rocquy. With the m arr i ved a

nu mber of Eng l i sh arti st s, who fro m 1 9 4 0 exhibi ted to gether under the

na m e of 'The Whi te S ta g Group'. Their outsider status g ave the m the

freedo m to escape the soci al prejudices that their Ir i sh conte mporari e s

had to endure and so they brought a m u ch needed freshnes s of

approach both in their work and other acti v i ti es.

The two foundin g fi g ures i n the White S t a g Group were B as i l R akocz i

(1 9 0 8 - 7 9 ) and Kenneth Hal l (1 9 1 3 - 4 6 ) who for med its core. These two

had been in vo l ved in the extre m el y i nfluenti al B loo m sbury 16 g roup in

London. At the beg i nni n g the ir acti vi ti es were m ore concerned with

psyc holo g y. R akoczi worked as an anal ys t but earned very l i ttle money.

In the m id and l ate 1 9 3 0 s he tr avel l ed around Europe and E g ypt, often

acco mp an i ed by hi s son, Anthony and Kenneth Hal l. The two were

pacifi st s and in 1 9 3 9 , sens i n g the i ne vi tabi l i ty of war, they decided to

co me to Ire l and where they hoped to conti nue their work undi sturbed. In

Ire l and, they took up a cotta g e near Delphi in Co. Mayo. They cho se th i s

re mote and beautiful loc ation so as to be as far as poss ibl e away fro m

an y experience of war. They rem a i ned in Mayo unti l 1 9 4 0 when the y

be g an to m i s s the ci ty l ife they were u sed to. Al so R akoczi wanted h i s

son to g et a good education and he felt th at Dubl i n offered better

school s. And so they mo ved to Dubl in, establ i shi n g the m sel ves at

16
The Bloomsbury group wasf o u n d e d b y V a n e s s a B e l l , R o g e r F r y a n d C l i v e B e l l
13
nu mber 3 4 Lower B a g g ot S treet. The city fulfi l l ed their needs and they

soon g athered around them a s m al l circl e of friends who shared their

i ntere st s. 17

The fir st exhibition i n Irel and of painti n g s by the White Sta g Group
was held at nu mber 3 4 Lower B a g g o t S tr eet, Dubl in, durin g Apri l
1 9 4 0. Ten arti st s took part, narnel y B a si l R akoczi, Kenneth Hal l,
Ni ck Nicho l l s, Maini e Jel l ett, Geor g ette R ondel, Patr ici a Wal l ace,
B arbara B ayl ey, Anthony R eford, Eli zabeth Or m sby and Endre
R o s zda. Al so incl uded were sketches by R akoc zi 's son,
Anthony...The inclus ion of such a pro m i nent arti st as Maini e Jel l e tt,
who showed an abstract co mpo si tion and a Vir g i n and Chi ld, in thi s
ear l y exhib ition of the Group su g g e st s that R akoc zi and Hal l lo st
l i ttl e ti m e after their arri val in Dubl i n in see kin g -out kindred spir i ts in
the loc al art scene. (Kennedy, 1 9 9 1 , p. 9 3 )

No exhibition catalo g ue was prepared for the show so it i s i mpo ssib le to

know what exactl y was exh ibi ted. The work exhibi ted by Maini e Jel l ett,

however, i s known to have been in the styl e of her work, Achi l l Hor se s in

17
A s i n B l o o m s b u r y, t h e y a r r a n g e d l e c t u r e s a n d d i s c u s s i o n g r o u p s , w h i c h w e r e ope n t o a l l - c o m e r s ,
u n d e r t h e a u s p i c e s o f t h e S o c i e t y f o r C r e a t i v e P s y c h o l o g y , t h e f i r s t m e e t i n g o f w h i c h w a s h e l d o n 26
A p r i l 1940 a t n u m b e r 25 L ow e r B a g g o t S t r e e t i n a f l a t b e l o n g i n g t o a f r i e n d , R e n e B u h l e r . .. T h e
Engli sh e xpatr iate s wh o gath e r ed ar ou nd Ra k oc zi an d Hall in Dublin wer e Nic k Nic h oll s, a poe t an d
p a i n t e r o f a b s t r a c t w or k s ; G e o r g e t t e R o n d e l , a p a i n t e r ; S t e p h e n G i l b e r t , a p a i n t e r , a n d h i s C a n a d i a n
w i f e J o c e l y n C h e w e t t , a s c u l p t o r : a n d P h y l l i s H a yw a r d, a p a i n t e r a n d f o r m e r m e m b e r o f t h e S o c i e t y
f o r C r e a t i v e P s y c h o l o g y i n B l o o m s b u r y, w h o c a m e t o I r e l a n d i n 1940. H e r br a n d I n g o u v i l l e - W i l l i a m s
w a s a l s o i n D u b l i n by e a r l y 1940. T h e i r Ir i s h a s s o c i a t e s w e r e D o r o t h y B l a c k h a m ; R a l p h C u s a c k ;
B o bb y D aw s o n , a p a i n t e r a n d p h o t o g r ap h e r : P a u l E g e s t o r f f , a p a i n t e r ( h i s f a t h e r w a s G e r m a n , h i s
m o t h e r I r i s h ) : " Ev i e H o n e ; M a i n i e J e l l e t t ; N a n o R e i d ; P a t r i c k S c o t t : D o r e e n V a n s t o n , w h o f i r s t s h o w e d
w i t h t h e gr o u p a t t h e i n v i t a t i o n o f R a k o c z i i n 1942; a n d P a t r i c i a W a l l a c e . O t h e r s , w h o o c c a s i o n a l l y
e x h ib i t e d a t W h i t e S t a g e x h i b i t i o n s , w e r e B a r b a r a B a y l e y ; L e s l i e B i r k s : B r i a n B o y d e l l , a p a i n t e r a n d
m u s i c i a n ; T h u r l o e C o n o l l y : P h y l l i s E a s o n : H u m p h r e y G i l b e r t : M a y G u i n n e s s ; E u ge n e J u d g e ; E. A .
M c G u i r e ; A n n M i l l e r ; E l i z a b e t h O r m s b y: C o n o r P a d i l l a : C i c e ly P e e l ; N e l s o n P o l l a r d; A n t h o n y R e f o r d :
E n dr e R o s z d a ; H e n r i S i l v y a n d D on a l d T e a l e ( h u s b a n d o f P h y l l i s H a yw a r d ) . " S t i l l o t h e r s , n o t a l l a r t i s t s
a n d l a r g e l y on t h e f r i n g e o f t h i s c o m p a n y , w e r e R e n e B u h l e r ; N o e l Mo f f e t t , a D u b l i n a r c h i t e c t , a n d h i s
w i f e M a r g o t ; P a t r i c i a G r i f f i t h ; N i g e l H e s e l t i n e , s o n o f t h e c om p o s e r P e t e r W a r l o c k , h e t o o k t h e
p s e u d o n y m ' M i c h a e l W a l s h ' a n d pr od u c e d p l a y s a t t h e O l y m p i a T h e a t r e w i t h S h e l a h R i c h a r d s a s
' S h e l a h R i c h a r d s , M i c h a e l W a l s h P r o d u c t i o n s ' ;" R o n a l d M a c d on a l d D o u g l a s , a p l a yw r i g h t a n d s h o r t -
s tor y wr ite r : Vic tor Me ally, a Dublin math e matic i an , mu ch in te r e ste d in Ea ste r n ph ilosoph y and th e
w r i t e r O l i v i a M a n n i n g R o b e r t s o n . D u e t o t h e u n e a s i n e s s o f t h e t i m e s , o n e or tw o o f t h o s e m e n t i o n e d
wer e oc c a sion ally u n der su r ve illan c e by th e gardai Spe c ial Br an c h . On e c or r e sponden t, Vau gh an
B i s c o e , s a i d t h a t t h i s w a s ' . . . i f o n l y b e c a u s e o f t h e f a m o u s p a r t i e s i n n o . 25 L r . B a g g o t S t . I t w a s
n o t u n k n o w n f o r C a u v e t Du h a m e l , o f t h e F r e n c h Em b a s s y , a n d Dr . K a r l P e t e r s o n ( G e r m a n " P r e s s
A t t a c h e " ) t o b e pr e s e n t a t t h e s a m e t i m e t h o' a t d i f f e r e n t e n d s o f t h e r o o m , a n d t h i n g s g o t pr e t t y
h a i r y a t t i m e s . T h e r e w e r e , t o m y c e r t a i n k n ow l e d g e , a t l e a s t tw o " s p i e s " a l w a y s a r o u n d - r e a l l y n o t
m u c h m o r e t h a n p a i d a g e n t s p o s i n g a s s t u d e n t s a n d r e p or t i n g t o v a r i o u s E m b a s s i e s ' . " ( K e n n e d y ,
1991, p .95 )

14
the Nation al Gal l er y of Irel and.

De spi te the influence of Jel l ett, cubi s m was never ful l y embraced in

Ire l and. Arti st s such as May Gui nnes s who had ini tal l y pai nted in a

cubi st styl e went on to develop their own styles. The Ir i sh l and sc ape

becam e the bi g g e st i nfluence for the next g e ner ation of arti st s. Thi s i s

l ar g el y a resul t of the Iso l ation of Irel and durin g the se cond world war, or

'the e m er g enc y' as i t was ter m ed in neutral par l ance.

Norah McGui nnes s was an arti st who for m ed the l ink between Jel l ett' s

cubi s m and the next g ener ation's l and scapes. She was pri m ar i l y

concerned with colour and si mp l ifi ed for m s , the focus bein g on

decorati ve patterns r ather than representation al co mposi tion. She was

quite succes sful outside Irel and and her work was shown alon g s ide that

of Jack B Yeats and Nath aniel Hone. Nano R e id, born in Dro gheda in

1 9 0 5 i s another moderni st arti st concerned with l andscapes, but she

al so pai nted m any portrai ts. Her work attemp ts to be indicati ve rather

th an descr ipti ve. Her portrai ts were done in a styl e ful l of stren g th and

person al i ty but thi s wa s found by so m e si tter s to be rather unflatter in g

and they were unwi l l i n g to pay her. Thi s encoura g ed her to concentrate

on l andscape painti n g at which she was quite succes sful, al so

exh ibi ti n g with Yeat s, McGuinnes s and Hone. She and McGu i nne s s

represented Irel and at the 1 9 5 0 Ven ice B i ennale.

15
We see that fro m the be g i nni n g of the Se cond World War onwards, Ir i sh

Moderni s m broke away si g n ific antl y fro m European Moderni s m and

looked inwardly for the next th irty year s. Cubi s m was developed from its

European ori g i n s and placed fir m l y in the context of the Ir i sh l andscape.

Fau vi s m was popular with arti st s i n the fir st half of the twentieth centur y

but its unfl atter in g for m s were not wel l rece i ved by the conser vati ve

publi c and so gr adual l y a rever sion was m ade to the more poli shed

styl e s of I mpre ss ioni s m and post- i mpre ss i oni s m. No specific school of

art had been establ i shed to m irror the l iter ar y move m e nt as had been

desi red by Lady Greg or y, Maini e Je l l ett, Hu g h Lane and Geor g e

R u s se l l, better known as A.E. However the work of individual arti sts

eac h in their own adopted styl e reflected the posi tion of li ter ature. Jack

B Ye ats' s unique and particu l ar expressi on i s m i s seen as the voice and

face of twentieth-centur y Irel and and the refined pri m i ti vi s m of mo st of

the other moderni st ar ti st s speak accur atel y about both the hardship

and ro m ance of life in the west of Irel and.

16
Bibliography and Reading List for essay entitled
“The Development of Irish modernism in the context of European
modernism (focusing on painting”
by Brendan Madden.

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• Dabrowski, Magdalena (October 2004a)

"Geometric Abstraction". In Timeline of Art History. New York:
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• Dabrowski, Magdalena (October 2004b)

"Henri Matisse (1869–1954)". In Timeline of Art History. New
York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
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• Rewald, Sabine (Octobe r 2004a)

"Cubism". In Timeline of Art Histor y. New Y ork: The M etropolitan
Museum o f Art, 2000–.
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• Rewald, Sabine (October 2004b)

"Fauvism". In Timeline of Art History. New York: The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
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(Accessed 18.02.2007)

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“Tate | Glo ssar y | Mod ernism”
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174
(Accessed 18.02.2007)

• Tate Archive Journeys (2006)

“Bloomsbury”
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“Tate Archive Journeys: Group Pro files”
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(Accessed 18.02.2007)

• Victoria and Albert Museum (2006)

“V&A – Modernism: Designing a new world 1914-1939”
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e.html
(Accessed 18.02.2007)

• Voorhies, James (October 2004a)

"Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)". In Timeline of Art History. New
York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
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(Accessed 18.02.2007)

• Voorhies, Jam es (October 2004b)

"Post-Impressionism" In Timeline of Art History. New Yor k: The
Metropolitan Museum of A rt, 2000-.
http://www.metmu seum.org/to ah/hd/poim/hd_poim.htm
(Accessed 18.02.2007)

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in Ireland, New Haven, Yale Univer sity Press.

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Oxford, Blac kwell Publishers Ltd .

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and Painting in Europe, 1900-1916, Oxfor d, Oxford University
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Modernism, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

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London, Routledge.

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CA, University of California Press.

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Achievement, Dublin, Arlen House.
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Modernism, Post- Impressionism, and the Politics of the Visual,
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London, Tate Gallery Publishing.

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Routledge.

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Art: 1890-1917, London, Allen Lane

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Modernism, Cambridge, Cambrdige Univer sity Press.

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Waverley Book Compan y Ltd.

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• Flanders, Judith, (2001), ‘Modernism and the lessons of the

master ’, The Time s, 19.01.2001.

• Greenberg, Clement (1948) ‘The Decline of Cubism ’. Partisan

Review, March 1948 in O’Brian, John (ed .), (1986) The collected
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•* Jameson, Fredric, (1984), 'Postmodernism , Or the Cultural Logic

of Late Capitalism' New Left Review 146:5 3-93

• Jones, Jonathan, (2006), ‘Action’, The Guardian, 20.03.2006.

Chapter s in Books:

• McCarthy, Paula, (1985), ‘Women Artists’ i n Ní Chuilleanáin,

Eiléan (ed.), (1985) Irish Women: Image and Achievement, Dublin,
Arlen House. Pp.95-110

*Where a source is refer enced within a so urce that I reference but I

have no t had fir st-hand access to that sou rce, this is indicated b y an
asterix (*) next to the bullet point for the source in question.