Frank McKelvey, RHA, RUA (1895 - 1974) Children in the Park Oil on canvas, 51 x 68.5cm (20 x 27'') Signed Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by Mr Solomon and by descent within the...

Frank McKelvey, RHA, RUA (1895 - 1974) Children in the Park Oil on canvas, 51 x 68.5cm (20 x 27'') Signed Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by Mr Solomon and by descent within the Solomon family, from whom purchased privately by current owner, July 2000 Exhibited: The National Gallery of Ireland ''New Millennium Wing Opening Exhibition of 20th Century Irish Art'' January 2002 - December 2003; ''Collector's Eye'' Exhibition, The Model Arts and Niland Gallery Sligo, Jan/Feb 2004, Cat. No. 19; ''A Celebration of Irish Art and Modernism'', the Ava Gallery, June/September 2011, Cat. No. 32 Literature: ''Collector's Eye'' 2004, illustrated p11; ''A Celebration of Irish Art and Modernism'', illustrated p41 Painted a year after 'The Good Companions,' McKelvey has already rejected the intimacy of the classic genre study in favour of a composition that demonstrates a sense of place and features a larger study of society. While the former, in a detailed manner not unlike Walter Osbourne, focuses on the carefully composed study of two girls and the pet rabbits they watch, 'Children in the Park,' includes two younger girls in the left foreground, yet here they lack facial detail and are now more impressionist in execution rather than typical of a genre study. The intention of the inclusion of children here is as a starting point to communicate the atmosphere of a busy recreation ground, believed to be Belvoir Park in Belfast. S.B. Kennedy has described McKelvey's tendency to orchestrate his canvas - 'the clear division of the composition into distinct areas of recession - the foreground containing the narrative and darker in tone, contrasting with the sunlit middle distance.' He employs elegant chiaroscuro to gently lead the eye further into the middle ground. There is a familiarity of scene and apparent ease in execution that lends the entire an air of serenity and contentment. As Anne Crookshank has observed, 'he was a very prolific and somewhat slick practitioner...[who produces work of] great freshness and competence.' (Ireland's Painters, 2002, p290). While the overall tone is limited, there is an interesting range of colours employed. People are largely captured in browns, whites, blues with some highlighted elements in pink and green. The trees are delightfully rendered with their detail becoming looser as the eye roams further into the composition. The painting is unified through its even cast of light representing high summer. The painting shows the immediacy of plein air painting. McKelvey sketched directly before his subject, making notes on colours, light and effects, to enable an accurate representation in his studio. The artist achieves a similar quality in 'The Park' featured in the collection of Buxton Museum and Art Gallery. No doubt well known innovations of the late nineteenth century would have been known to the artist such as George Seurat's 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,' highlighting the peopled park as an aesthetically appealing subject. McKelvey was equally adept in landscape, portraiture and genre scenes. He depicted many parks - Ormeau, Woodvale, Belvoir as well as a number of paintings featuring children; feeding chickens, picking blackberries, playing by the riverbank, and sitting in the park. 'Children in the Park' is harmonious in its composition and technically fluent in its execution. Typically of McKelvey, detail is developed to create interest but never to the point of complication. Marianne O'Kane Boal

View more View less