Aloysius O'Kelly RHA (1853-1936) Head of a Vendean of Finistere Oil on canvas, 61 x 50.8cm (24 x 20'') Signed Exhibited: RHA, 1885, no. 49 as 'Head of a Breton of Finistère' costing 25.0.0;...

Aloysius O'Kelly RHA (1853-1936) Head of a Vendean of Finistere Oil on canvas, 61 x 50.8cm (24 x 20'') Signed Exhibited: RHA, 1885, no. 49 as 'Head of a Breton of Finistère' costing 25.0.0; ''Irish Artisan's Exhibition'', 1885, South City Markets, Dublin, Cat. No. 56, catalogued as ''Un Breton de Finistère'' priced at 25.0.0; The Royal Academy, London, 1886, cat. no. 17 as 'A Vendean of Finistere, Brittany'; ''The Irish Exhibition'', London, 1888 at Olympia, June-Oct. as 'Head of Vendean of Finistere'; ''The Summer Exhibition'' The Frederick Gallery, Dublin June 1998, cat. no. 2, illustrated.; ''Peintres Irlandais en Bretagne'' Museé de Pont-Aven, Summer 1999; ''Aloysius O'Kelly - Re-orientations'' Exhibition, High Lane Gallery Dublin, Nov 1999 - Jan 2000, Cat. No. 13 ''Irish Painters in Brittany'', Crawford Gallery, Cork, Summer June/July 2001. ''The French Connection'' The AVA Gallery Clandeboye, August/Sept 2010, The Hunt Museum Limerick, Sept/Oct 2010, Cat No 24 Literature: Dublin University Review, 1885. The Irish Arts Review,1996, p95, illustrated. Niamh O'Sullivan (1999), Aloysius O'Kelly Re-orientations Painting, Politics and Popular Culture, Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, full page illustration p54 Ireland Painters 1600-1940 By Anne Crookshank and The Knight of Glin, Illustrated page 260, No. 352 ''Aloysius O'Kelly: Art, Nation, Empire'' by Dr. Niamh O'Sullivan 2010, illustrated p26, Cat. No. 73 (page 294) ''The French Connection'' 2010 catalogue, full page illustration p35 In his studies of fishermen and farmers, the labourers of the western seaboards of France and Ireland, O'Kelly produced a range of rural genre paintings of considerable power. From a combination of his studies with Gérôme, where he learnt his academism, and Bonnat, where he learnt his naturalism, O'Kelly evolved a robust style, characterized by simplified, sculptural figures, portrayed with considerable psychological insight, and painted with vigorous fluidity. Mid-way between the academic and the modern, the linear and the painterly, he produced a body of commanding works, employing dramatic chiaroscuro, in which he avoided extraneous, distracting detail, - a focus adopted to considerable effect in ''Head of a Vendéan of Finistère''. Dressed in Pont-Aven costume (mode giz fouen), the Vendéan's clothes are loosely painted and considerably freer in handling than the face, which is academically treated. The Daily Express warmly welcomed it when it when exhibited at the RHA, declaring it to be 'an artistic and painterly work', while the ''Dublin University Review'' commended O'Kelly for this portrait as 'a truthful and careful study', declaring it '[t]he best work this artist has sent into Exhibition'.

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