Colin Middleton RHA RUA MBE (1910-1983) Lough Erne - March (1969) Oil on board, 90 x 90cm (36 x 36'') Signed Provenance: Viola, Duchess of Westminster, Ely Lodge, Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh ...

Colin Middleton RHA RUA MBE (1910-1983) Lough Erne - March (1969) Oil on board, 90 x 90cm (36 x 36'') Signed Provenance: Viola, Duchess of Westminster, Ely Lodge, Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh Exhibited: -Colin Middleton Exhibition, David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, October 1970, Cat. No. 32 -Colin Middleton Retrospective, The Ulster Museum, Belfast, Jan-Feb 1976 and The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, March-April 1976, Cat. No. 111 The Duchess had a number of works by Colin Middleton in her collection and donated ''An Ulster Landscape'' by him to the National Trust's property ''Florence Court'' nearby in Co. Fermanagh. This house has close associations with the Duchess as she is credited with saving the wonderful rococo plasterwork ceiling in the dining room and much of the houses contents when she organized a human chain to remove them during the fire there in 1955. It is appropriate that she is remembered there through a work by Middleton which hangs upstairs in the house. The 1960s were a period of re-building for Colin Middleton after the setbacks of the second part of the 1950s. He began again to exhibit regularly, moved back to Belfast and was by now regarded one of the leading painters working in Ireland. His work had also become increasingly concerned with landscape and even the paintings that have clear references to the figure, almost always female, usually relate it to forms associated with the landscape. Lough Erne was a favourite subject for Middleton at this time; he had a caravan at Castle Archdale and visited it for family holidays when he fished and painted. His Lough Erne paintings suggest recollections of the landscape built up over a long period of familiarity and the experience of changing light and weather conditions and indeed Middleton never actually painted outdoors, preferring to make small drawings and watercolours to record motifs and colour, before working on paintings in the caravan or at home. Lough Erne: March is on one of the largest formats on board on which Middleton painted. Like many of these square landscape paintings from the 1960s and 1970s a strong series of horizontals dominate and create a sense of space, while subtler repeated vertical strokes suggest gradations of light and texture within a more detailed exploration of the place. A strong shaft of sunlight draws the eye to the horizon where it illuminates a narrow blue line of hills, but it also adds a luminous sheen to the reedy edge of the lake in the foreground and middle distance. While clearly derived from the experience of specific places and moments, the present painting exemplifies how Middleton's landscapes of this period are also explorations of abstract forms and effects that interested the artist. Dickon Hall March 2014

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