Gerard Dillon (1916-1971)
Sleeper in Spare Room
Oil on board, 38 x 40cm (15 x 15¾")
Signed

Provenance: With Tom Caldwell Galleries, Belfast

 

One of five Dillon’s on offer in this auction, and the...

Gerard Dillon (1916-1971)
Sleeper in Spare Room
Oil on board, 38 x 40cm (15 x 15¾")
Signed

Provenance: With Tom Caldwell Galleries, Belfast

 

One of five Dillon’s on offer in this auction, and the smallest, Sleeper in Spare Room is an intimate and peaceful work. Sleep or more accurately sleeping figures often appear in Dillon’s work, the landscape around them becoming visual representations of their dreaming worlds, which at times, can take on a more ominous atmosphere. In this example, the background is simple and restrained, with only a small section of the room visible to us. The composition is dominated by the colour combinations of the burnt red blanket, the cold black metal bedframe topped with bright yellow dabs of paint and the varying tonal blue background.

 

Using a tightly framed composition there is a strong interplay between the vertical and horizontal elements in the painting. The bed running parallel along the wall is countered by the uprights of its metal frame. Dillon uses strong linear aspects of block colour to differentiate the floor from the skirting board and wall behind. The softer features are beautifully captured by Dillon in the white sheet falling loosely over the edge of the bed, or the plump feathered pillows sagging slightly under the weight of the man’s head.

 

There is a certain sense of vulnerability to the work, we are at our most exposed while sleeping, unbeknownst that we are being observed. With the covers pulled up to the man’s chin and only his head and shock of black hair visible on the starched white pillows, he looks almost childlike. In the foreground lie his slippers, placed in opposing positions, as if cast off quickly before getting into bed.

 

With the Sleeper one thinks of course of the colour tones used in Van Gogh’s well-known work ‘The Bedroom’ painted in his yellow house in Arles in 1888 which also has a similar red woollen blanket and blue walls (although apparently these were purple originally but have become discoloured over time). Dillon uses the simplicity of the room and its furniture to create a sense of calm and repose, our attention solely focused on the man’s deep and restful slumber.

 

Niamh Corcoran, May 2023

 

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