Maurice MacGonigal PRHA (1900-1979) Council Workers, Early morning, Clifden, Connemara Oil on board, 65 x 21cm (25.5 x 8.25'') Signed, also signed, inscribed and dated 1970 verso The artist like...

Maurice MacGonigal PRHA (1900-1979) Council Workers, Early morning, Clifden, Connemara Oil on board, 65 x 21cm (25.5 x 8.25'') Signed, also signed, inscribed and dated 1970 verso The artist like a number of his contemporaries was struck by the physical types of mountainy men to be seen in Connemara, and so many of the builders were from the Maam Valley and upper Leenane Areas of Connemara, it was a standing joke in our home, which was in the townland of Faul, just outside Clifden, that my mother had gone through all the builders in Joyce country (true) and that she and Mrs.Lester were the making of a number of the builders with their constant house moves and builds and rebuilds.Their houses are littered all over North Connemara to this day. The figure in the foreground was a character known as ''Soldier'' owing to his having joined the British Army following an unsuccessful history as a fighter in the War of Independence on the Free State side. Using a long, pointillist technique for the figures, the painter flattens the background to throw the figures into silhouette and painting into their shapes and making a monochromatic scale in blues of the garments. The figure on the left is an old soldier or an old lag judging by the way he conceals the cigarette in his hand, and the figure on the right echoes the hand gestures of the foreground figure also in silhouette. The painter has chosen a Daumier like contre jour effect to represent the stance of the trio, two of whom seem more concerned with sloping off and only the figure of Soldier appears to move forward to the viewer, all against a long dusty street ready to attend their duties at the Social welfare office, it being a Friday.The shape of the work is typical of the painter's later approach to his subject, liking the fact that such a long shape afforded him an opportunity to paint long and diagonal strokes into the fatty oil pigment which he liked so much. It freed him to treat in more dramatic way the possible backgrounds for such compositions. Ciar?n MacGonigal November 2006

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