Se?n Keating (1889-1977) PPRH, HRA HRSA Aran Woman (also known as The Matriarch) Pastel and cont? on paper, 46 x 37cm Signed Victor Waddington framing label verso Aran Woman, also known as The...

Se?n Keating (1889-1977) PPRH, HRA HRSA Aran Woman (also known as The Matriarch) Pastel and cont? on paper, 46 x 37cm Signed Victor Waddington framing label verso Aran Woman, also known as The Matriarch, is one of Se?n Keating's West of Ireland 'types' for which he became so well-renowned. Keating was an admirer of John Millington Synge's work, and there is an extraordinary forthrightness in the old woman's expression that is reminiscent of the playwright's theatrical and literary descriptions of the Aran Island women. Keating's facility with chalk pastel and charcoal was exceptional, and is unmistakable in the minute detail of the greying hair and the aged skin. It was William Orpen (1878-1931), Keating's mentor at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art between 1911 and 1914 that taught him the technical necessities essential to a first-class portrait. The most important of these skills is a tiny, but vital embellishment that gives life to the whole work; the white highlight in the sitter's eyes. Keating worked on three versions of The Matriarch during the early to mid-1950s. Given the immediacy and vitality evident in the drawing, which suggests that the artist may have been working with a live model on the Aran Islands, this example may be the first of the series. The second, a watercolour, was shown in the RHA in 1952 (whereabouts unknown). Another example, which dates to 1955, features the same old woman alongside a man with a pipe. It is in the collection of the Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane. Dr ?imear O'Connor TRIARC-Irish art research centre, TCD.

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