Gerard Dillon (1916-1971)
Pigeon on the Bay
Oil on board, 40 x 51cm (15¾ x 20'')
Signed; inscribed verso

Exhibited: Victor Waddington Galleries, 8 South Anne Street, Dublin, 1953, 'Gerard...

Gerard Dillon (1916-1971)
Pigeon on the Bay
Oil on board, 40 x 51cm (15¾ x 20'')
Signed; inscribed verso

Exhibited: Victor Waddington Galleries, 8 South Anne Street, Dublin, 1953, 'Gerard Dillon', Cat No. 17

 

 

On first glance the pigeon perched on the cliff face dominates our field of vision. Standing on top of a colourful bed of seaweed and kelp, Dillon has captured the curious look on the birds face, with one eye gazing out at the viewer. There is a great attention to detail, carefully rendering each of the feathers on the bird's body and tail with marks of grey and dark purple tones. Animals often appeared in Dillons paintings, especially his works made during his time spent in the West of Ireland. Although the location of this present example is not identified it bears striking resemblances to his Inishlacken paintings. The compressed composition and elevated viewpoint is characteristic of Dillons work of this time. He employs a very small horizon line, to give a sense of a contained landscape, an island cut off from the mainland rather than an open expansive environment. An island whose people were hardened by the physical labour, the toil of working off the land. In background two men in a currach are rowing away from the shoreline, heading out to a journey at sea, as the two women left behind, one raising a hand in farewell, while the other has already turned away and is disappearing into the thatched cottage. The swirling blues of the water surges upwards towards the house, which is perched like the bird, precariously on the cliffs edge.

 

Following the success of his solo exhibition in 1950, Victor Waddington encouraged Dillon to paint more works inspired by the west of Ireland. Dillon rented a cottage for a year in 1951 on the island of Inishlacken, close to the village of Roundstone. This present work was then exhibited In the Waddington Galleries in Dublin in 1953. As in so many of his paintings from this period, Dillon creates a vivid image of everyday life in the West of Ireland. The paintings act as a compendium of the world of the island, the rocks, cottages, currachs and animals. He often uses the stone walls as borders or outlines in his compositions, in the case of the Pigeon in the Bay, as the barrier between the mainland and the Atlantic ocean that stretches out into the distance beyond. The West of Ireland, as a place and people, had a significant impact on Dillon, he was drawn to this landscape, which facilitated his personal and idiosyncratic painting style.

 

Niamh Corcoran, August 2018

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