Aloysius O'Kelly RHA (1853-1936) Among the Poppies Oil on canvas, 52 x 39cm (20.5 x 15.4'') Signed A well-received painting by O'Kelly called ''Among the Poppies'' was exhibited at the Royal...

Aloysius O'Kelly RHA (1853-1936) Among the Poppies Oil on canvas, 52 x 39cm (20.5 x 15.4'') Signed A well-received painting by O'Kelly called ''Among the Poppies'' was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1889. The subject matter of this painting; the description in a contemporary newspaper; the torn label verso (with remnants of the words 'among' and 'poppies'); and the price of £10.0.0, would seem to corroborate this identification (although the legible inscription 'English children' does not occur in any known exhibit of O'Kelly). The plein-air treatment, the verticality and the high horizon have the effect of eliminating the traditional vanishing point and tilting the landscape parallel to the picture plane. O'Kelly was trained in the academic tradition by Jean-Léon Gérôme in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and he studied portraiture with Léon Bonnat. Following time spent in Pont-Aven in Brittany, O'Kelly adapted the naturalism of Jules Bastien-Lepage to the work of his masters, in effect blending academic, realist and plein-air elements into a beguiling rural naturalism. He lightened his palette considerably and broke up his brushstroke working, for a time, in an Impressionist idiom. In demonstrating his awareness of contemporary aesthetics, O'Kelly provided a model for other Irish artists who were looking for alternatives to the British artistic tradition. This painting shows O'Kelly at his most delicate. In noting the delightful children flower gathering in the richly coloured field, the ''Daily Express'' (25 February 1889) described the 'simple every day bit of landscape' as 'charming'. Dr Niamh O'Sullivan

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