Estella Solomons HRHA (1882-1968) Two Boys on a Height Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 45.7cm (20 x 18'') Exhibited: ''The Estella Solomons Retrospective'' The Crawford Gallery Cork 1986, Cat No. 14;...

Estella Solomons HRHA (1882-1968) Two Boys on a Height Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 45.7cm (20 x 18'') Exhibited: ''The Estella Solomons Retrospective'' The Crawford Gallery Cork 1986, Cat No. 14; ''Estella Solomons Retrospective'', The Frederick Gallery, Dublin, November 1999, Cat. No. 7; ''A Time and Place'', National Gallery of Ireland, Oct 2006-January 2007 Literature : ''Estella Solomon's'' retrospective Catalogue The Crawford Gallery 1996, illustrated on page 3 ''Estella Solomons'' 1999 Exhibition Catalogue, illustrated p7 'A Time and A Place', illustrated page 50; Also featured on documentary ''Estella'' by Paradox Film screened on RTE January 2003. Two Boys on a Height is an enigmatic picture that is at once disquieting and curious. It is unclear, for example, whether the expressions of the two boys are of anxiety, resignation or indecision. Also uncertain is their activity. One does not know if they are waiting, resting or perhaps, more dramatically, pondering their fate. Even the suggestion (Hilary Pyle) that one of them might be carrying a hurley stick is merely speculative and based on the minimum of pictorial evidence. Are they, as Hilary Pyle has proposed, young recruits of Countess Markievicz, 'probably as well acquainted with rifle' as with a hurley stick?' Solomons was a member of Cumann na mBan, through which she learnt signaling and prepared to administer first aid during the Easter Rising of 1916. Alternatively, are the boys simply children of poverty similar to those in Solomon's marginally more optimistic Street Urchins with Bird Cage (private collection)? Technically, the painting is quite unusual for an artist associated more readily with colour and light. Solomon's instinctive understanding of the dramatic potential of light and shade found full expression in her superlative etchings, many of which depict Dublin street scenes. She particularly favoured views into sunlit areas from places of shadow, such as alleyways, underneath bridges and archways. The manner in which the house on the right hand side of the Two Boys on a Height is picked out against a brooding sky is vaguely reminiscent of those etchings. We thank Dr. Brendan Rooney's for allowing us to reproduce this extract from ''A Time and Place'', the catalogue produced by The National Gallery of Ireland for the exhibition.

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