Harry Kernoff, RHA, (1900 - 1974) From the Customs House Steps Watercolour, 29 x 38cm, (11.5 x 15'') Signed and dated '33 Provenance : Purchased at an exhibition of works by Harry Kernoff in...

Harry Kernoff, RHA, (1900 - 1974) From the Customs House Steps Watercolour, 29 x 38cm, (11.5 x 15'') Signed and dated '33 Provenance : Purchased at an exhibition of works by Harry Kernoff in Dublin in the 1940's or 50's by the present owner who was a friend of the artist Kernoff has an almost unique capacity as an urban artist to convey, not just the factual information of a place specific view but the atmosphere in full measure. Looking across the Liffey from Custom House Dock to the Burgh Quay/Gloucester Street axis it is obviously some festival day as Papal & County GAA Flags are hanging on a windless day. The Lugger anchored is obviously ready for the draymen to be seen beside the full horse drawn dray. The old Dutch gabled houses and shops are in contrast to the side of Butt bridge which can be seen and an engine just coming into view from Tara Street Railway Station with the tall watch tower of Tara Street Fire Station standing up against the skyline. In the foreground a young man saunters towards the stevedore/buttonman who is resting,he's wearing the traditional cap with neck guard and as it's white we may infer that he's dealing with the grainships rather than coal. The Guinness ships used to berth on the other side of the river transporting their most precious liquid cargo to Britain and overseas ports. Kernoff always has the eye for the character,the chancer, the odd figure to be found in any city giving it its flavour and sense of time. The artist gives the scale of the buildings and city by the use of the foreground figure and with an oddly canted architectural schema, almost as if he was looking through the long end of a telescope, Kernoff achieves that sense of place with an air of timelessness uniquely his. It is undoubtedly that arrested timeframe and sheer charm which beguiles the eye in Kernoff's urban streetscapes. The artist's curious technique of shrinkage or reduction in the mass of buildings gives it that far away perspective of an almost idealised place trapped in amber and therein lies its appeal. Ciar?n MacGonigal 2005

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