Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901 - 1980) Days End on Dublin Bay Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 122 (35¾ x 48) Signed Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, label verso Norah McGuinness was one of a number of remarkable women who, in essence, transformed Irish art in the first half of the 20th century. They did so not only on the basis of gender, though they certainly did secure a central role for women in the Irish visual arts, but also their varied though unmistakable commitment to aspects of modernism - and modernity. Born in Derry, McGuinness was from early on a notably independent spirit (her family disapproved of her art studies, but she quickly became financially self-sufficient). A three-year scholarship brought her to the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, where Harry Clarke, who became a good friend, saw her potential and nudged her towards illustration. She proved to be a fine illustrator, but her sights were set on painting, and after enjoying a year studying in London, a year that opened her eyes to the possibilities of contemporary painting, she established herself in Wicklow; painting, illustrating and doing stage and costume designs for the Abbey and the Peacock. She also married the flighty literary figure Geoffrey Phibbs (later Geoffrey Taylor), hence finding herself an unwitting participant in the emotional melodrama of his involvement with the ménage à trios comprising Laura Riding, Robert Graves and Nancy Nicholson, initiating a scandal that inevitably ended their marriage in 1930 (when she rebuffed Phibbs’s attempt at reconciliation). Mainie Jellett had encouraged her to study Cubism with André Lhote, which she did. Technically adept, she easily accommodated elements of Cubism in her own work, warming to Braque particularly, but also to the Post-Impressionism of Raoul Dufy and the Fauvism of Maurice de Vlaminck. After time in Paris, London and New York she settled in Dublin. Productive as an artist, she also designed window displays for Brown Thomas and was a founder-member of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, serving as chair for many years. She and Nano Reid were the first Irish artists to represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale, in 1950. This audaciously spare work featuring a landmark location encapsulates her flair for pictorial design in a composition hinging on a dynamic arrangement of interlocking planes and forms, a beautifully engineered light-and-dark tonal scheme and a minimal palette of black and white plus mauve-greys and yellows (and steering clear of her customary greens and browns). She had, over the years, become expert at implying a wealth of detail with elegant economy of means. Aidan Dunne, August 2022