Camille Souter, HRHA, (b. 1929) Mid-Winter Oil on board, 58 x 82cm, (23 x 32.25'') Signed, inscribed and dated 1963 Provenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin at which exhibition it was purchased by...

Camille Souter, HRHA, (b. 1929) Mid-Winter Oil on board, 58 x 82cm, (23 x 32.25'') Signed, inscribed and dated 1963 Provenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin at which exhibition it was purchased by Sir Basil Goulding - thence by family descent Exhibited: New York, Twelve Irish Painters 1963, organised by the Arts Council of Ireland Sir William Basil Goulding, Bart; 3rd Baronet Businessman; Modern Art Collector & Connoisseur When Basil, as he was known died in 1982 an extraordinary life force in Modernist Irish Art was extinguished. An unorthodox businessman and major collector of modern art and propagandist for modernism he along with others led the way to support structures for contemporary art practice. Amongst the happy band were numbered, David Hendriks, Gordon Lambert, Professor Anne Crookshank, Dorothy Walker, Norah McGuinness, Lesley McWeeney, Eric & Beatrice Baird, Louis LeBrocquy, Anne Madden, James White RR (Bobs) Figgis, Lady Dunsany, James Johnston Sweeney, Michael Scott, Ronnie Tallon, Cecil King, Oliver Dowling, Fr. Donal O'Sullivan, Fr. Cyril Barrett, W.H. Walsh and Professor George Dawson. He did much to promote the Contemporary Irish Arts Society and at every other available opportunity the promotion and distillation of a modernist agenda and aesthetic. The Goulding collection was, I suppose, the first of the corporate collections and as such it was highly influential in forming almost two generations of taste, and at the same time giving practical support by way of purchase to many younger and more adventurous Irish artists. Unlike perhaps many later public collections it was very much the personal aesthetic and taste of Sir Basil, and like the Gordon Lambert Collection it is personal, idiosyncratic, eclectic and a real flavour of it period and time. Whereas Gordon Lambert was steady, calm and controlled in his buying, Goulding was by contrast febrile and in many areas wider ranging in his tastes and patronage. He brought an intensity to everything he did, and in a city of characters he was certainly that, one was never in doubt when he entered a room, there was a whirlwind quality about his entrances and exits and indeed during his speeches one never quite knew what to expect from him by way of an opener??.. Memorably at an opening of a loan exhibition of his own collection at the Municipal Gallery in 1961 he stood on one leg and played a whistle to get the attention of the packed house; he did??..it was a devise which he was to use again in later years. At another Contemporary Irish Art Show he appeared in Bermuda shorts and danced and sang to open the exhibition. When asked after the opening by one Dublin Grande Dame why he'd done it that way????his answer was simple??.''because I could''. He supported at crucial stages of their careers artists such as Noel Sheridan, Brian Ferran, Camille Souter, Lesley McWeeney, Gerald Dillon, Arthur Armstrong, George Campbell, Patrick Scott, Oisin Kelly, and many another????? In his time he was a member of The Arts Council, Chairman of the Kilkenny Design Workshops, CIAS, The Friends of the National Collections, The ROSC Committees. He exerted great influence on the acquisition by many of modern art, and he supported modern architecture. The design by Ronnie Tallon of his Summer house at Dargle Glen where the memorable Summer dancing parties took place and his commissioning of the Fitzwilton House on Wilton Place were but two examples of his interest in and awareness of modernism in its many facets. Dargle Glen has had a somewhat chequered history since his death in 1982. And of course Wilton House has seen many new tenants since it's completion. As long as he was head of the family company he used artists as designers for the annual reports, and Sigma Design Company to do the designs using artists such as Oisin Kelly and Patrick Scott. Sir Basil never lost an opportunity to proselytise for modernism in all it's aspects. It is no surprise that his son Tim should have his own distinguished career as an artist. The son of a businessman, Goulding Fertilizers the family business was founded in Cork and he continued in the role of Chairman until it was absorbed into the Fitzwilton Group; he met and married his wife Valerie Hamilton Monckton, (daughter of 1st Viscount Monckton, a royal courtier, and he and his daughter played interesting not to say important roles in the Abdication Crisis) just as World War II broke out and he took his duties in the RAF seriously rising by War's end to the rank of Wing Commander, returning to Ireland in 1952 a young and vigorous man. He enabled so many exhibitions of modern masters, international and Irish to be shown in Ireland and abroad. He used his contacts to promote the arts and with those other Irish grandees of that time Michael, 6th Lord Rosse and Ann Countess of Rosse alongside Sheila, Lady Dunsany much was achieved. The dispersal of his collection enables another generation of collectors to see an enjoy what he saw and thoroughly enjoyed. Ciaran MacGonigal March 2005

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