Colin Middleton RHA MBE (1910-1983) The Wilderness, Mother & Child III, 1941 Oil on canvas, 61 x 41cm (24 x 16'') Signed and dated 1941, signed with monogram and inscribed with title verso ...

Colin Middleton RHA MBE (1910-1983) The Wilderness, Mother & Child III, 1941 Oil on canvas, 61 x 41cm (24 x 16'') Signed and dated 1941, signed with monogram and inscribed with title verso Exhibited: ''Colin Middleton Exhibition'', IMMA, Jan 2001 - June 2001 Northern Artists from the McClelland Collection'', IMMA 2004-2005 Droichead Arts Centre 2005 Literature: ''The Hunter Gatherer'' Irish Museum of Modern Art, illustrated fig.76, p.82. Provenance: From the McClelland Collection and on loan to IMMA from 1999 - 2004 Colin Middleton took on the subject of the mother and child regularly throughout his career and indeed the present painting was part of a group of works on this subject in his 1943 exhibition. This is an unusual painting both in its treatment of the figures and in its dark mood; in general, Middleton treats the relationship more traditionally, depicting it as nurturing and often as an interlocking unit. Despite the mother's left arm holding the child, there is a clear gap between the two bodies, only making contact again at the head. The child almost seems to be clawing at its mother's eyes and her body seems contorted in a tight and anguished pose. Strong red notes running across her nails, nipples, throat, hips and eyes stand out against the cold tones of the skin and maintain a high emotional pitch. The strange, foetus-like child is ambiguous, either helpless or malevolent, its eyes staring at the mother's upturned face. The distorted and etiolated figures are unlike anything we expect from Middleton and if we can date this painting to around 1940, which seems probable from its placing within the 1943 catalogue, it might be read as expressing the traumatic grief Middleton suffered at the premature death of his first wife, Maye, in 1939 and perhaps also the fact that they had not had any children. It is a striking painting that one feels must have a particular meaning and significance. Dickon Hall

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