William Conor RHA RUA (1884-1968) The Benediction Crayon, 45 x 35cm (17¾ x 13¾'') Signed. J.J. McGuigan, 34 Berry Street - Gallery stamp verso Provenance: Thought to have been acquired in the...

William Conor RHA RUA (1884-1968) The Benediction Crayon, 45 x 35cm (17¾ x 13¾'') Signed. J.J. McGuigan, 34 Berry Street - Gallery stamp verso Provenance: Thought to have been acquired in the 1940s; and thence by descent to current owners A nearly identical painting by Conor in oil to this work sold in these rooms 4th October 2006, lot 138, for ?38,000 Conor was born in Belfast in 1881 and attended the Belfast Government School of Art. In 1914 he became the official war artist in the Ulster Division and by 1918 he had work exhibited for the first time at the RHA. In 1923 he exhibited at The Goupil Gallery London and in 1924 and 1926 The Stephen's Green Gallery, Dublin. He had an exhibition with the Waddington Galleries, Dublin in 1948 and in 1957 there was a retrospective exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery, Belfast. He was a founder member of the Royal Ulster Academy of Art and became its President in 1957. He was elected ARHA in 1938 and in 1946 became a full member of The Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin and in all showed nearly 200 works at the RHA. He wrote ''All my life I have been completely absorbed with the activities of the Belfast people and the surrounding country. Being a Belfast man myself it has been my ambition to reveal the character of its people in all vigour, in all its senses of life, in all its variety, in all its passion, humanity and humour''. In this ambition he was successful being described as a ''sort of Belfast Dostoyevsky''. Although he was Presbyterian, this did not hinder him depicting Northern Catholics either ''Going to Mass'' in the countryside or praying in church as is shown here. In all of these church interiors he captures the different generations always focusing on the matriarchal grandmother in the foreground. Again he has successfully captured a way of life that is now but a memory in 'Modern Ireland'.

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