John Luke RUA (1906 -1975) Swans & Cygnets (1935) Tempera, 19 x 26.5cm (7½ x 10½'') Signed & inscribed verso, exhibition label on reverse Provenance: From the Collection of George and Maura...

John Luke RUA (1906 -1975) Swans & Cygnets (1935) Tempera, 19 x 26.5cm (7½ x 10½'') Signed & inscribed verso, exhibition label on reverse Provenance: From the Collection of George and Maura McClelland and on loan from them to IMMA from 1999 - 2004; Private Collection Dublin Exhibited: ''John Luke Exhibition'', Arts Council of Ireland 1978, Ulster Museum and Douglas Hyde Gallery, Cat. No. 26, where lent by George and Maura McClelland; and ''A Selection of works from the McClelland Collection'', IMMA, Sept 2000 - Jan 2001 Literature: ''The Hunter Gatherer'', IMMA 2004, illustrated Fig. 135 p.137 John Luke was born in Belfast and after a short period working in the city's shipyards and textile industry he entered Belfast School of Art where he won a major scholarship to the Slade School of Art in London. Here Luke studied under the prestigious Slade teacher Henry Tonks and was one of the last artists to emerge from an art school system that had produced major painters such as Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Edward Wadsworth and David Bomberg. Luke completed his Diploma at the Slade in the summer of 1930 and after a brief spell at the Westminster School of Art he returned to Belfast in 1931. During the early 1930s Luke painted a number of imaginative landscapes such as this. He often included small details of animals, such as birds, cats, dogs, horses and even foxes, in his compositions following the example of medieval and Renaissance art. However, the image of swans would recur in several important works from this period from the linocut of ''Shaw's Bridge'' (c.1933) to the major tempera painting ''Locks at Edenderry'' (1944). The cross-hatched brushwork and early use of tempera in this composition are evidence of Luke's increasing concern with issues of craftsmanship and technique that would come to be a defining feature of his subsequent work. Dr. Joseph McBrinn Belfast School of Art University of Ulster

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