Frank McKelvey RUA RHA (1895 -1974)
A Donegal Farmyard
Oil on canvas, 40 x 50cm (15¾ x 19¾")
Signed, also inscribed with title on stretcher verso

 

Frank McKelvey studied at the Belfast School of...

Frank McKelvey RUA RHA (1895 -1974)
A Donegal Farmyard
Oil on canvas, 40 x 50cm (15¾ x 19¾")
Signed, also inscribed with title on stretcher verso

 

Frank McKelvey studied at the Belfast School of Art in his hometown, winning the prize for figure drawing in 1912. He exhibited at the RHA for the first time in 1918 and continued to do so annually for the following fifty years, being elected a full member of the academy in 1930. Between 1923 and 1935 McKelvey exhibited regularly at the Glasgow Institute of Fine Art and his first solo show was held at Locksley Hall, Belfast, in 1934 and again in 1936. His first solo show in Dublin was held at the Victor Waddington Galleries in 1937. 

Along with James Humbert Craig, Frank McKelvey was the leading landscapist of his time in Northern Ireland. He was a master of landscape employing just the right range of compositional elements, provoking a sense of quietude and harmony.

The setting for McKelvey’s paintings on the present subject is generally one of two locations : the Maze, County Down where McKelvey settled with his wife in 1924 or it could be the home of his wife’s parents in Bessbrook, County Armagh. Regardless of setting it is clear that the artist, as a city-dweller by birth and upbringing, has great affection for the country and sees this rural context as an idyllic subject for his painting. The farmyard featured regularly in McKelvey’s work for over forty years and during the twenties, the artist composed a number of scenes, within which a woman, often accompanied by a child, would scatter feed to waiting chickens. In the present work, there is a slight variation on this theme, two barefoot children are feeding the hens outside a simple thatched cottage. The elder girl is scattering the feed while the younger child watches on with her hands joined behind her back. The chickens are carefully detailed and there is a range of white, brown and black poultry. Some stand waiting, some stoop and some eat. McKelvey shows himself to be a master of his medium and subject. The painting’s definitive triumph is the play of light over the composition in its entirety. It is impressionistic in style, with the artist's characteristic level of detail. He has a measured, yet apt approach to representing a scene, clearly evident here. The palette is warm, bright, and summery. The sun highlights essential elements of the composition and pools strategically on the ground and bathes the children in golden light.

We acknowledge with thanks the writings of Marianne O’Kane Boal, upon which this piece is based.

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