Maurice MacGonigal RHA (1900-1979) Corr an Lochaig, Dingle Pennisula, Kerry Oil on board, 40 x 76cm (16 x 30'') Signed, also signed, initialed and dated 1972 verso The artist had made many...

Maurice MacGonigal RHA (1900-1979) Corr an Lochaig, Dingle Pennisula, Kerry Oil on board, 40 x 76cm (16 x 30'') Signed, also signed, initialed and dated 1972 verso The artist had made many painting visits to West Kerry over the decades of his painting life, and this work dates from the early 1970s when he was staying with his son's family and had rented a house at Feothanach for the summer months.The view is painted from An Charraig, (the Rock) looking towards Smerwick Harbour(Cuan Ard na Caithne) and the Three Sisters and Sybil Head (so called as by tradition she was kidnapped from Connaught by the Ferriters) and where the remains of the castle of Piaras Feirit?ar lies below Sybil Head. In the foreground the sheep farmer is moving his animals towards greener pastures, and the land which is characterised by a gently undulating coastal plain with levels that fall gradually from east to west from the foothills of the Slieve Mish Mountains in the Dingle Peninsula (Chorca Dhuibhne) down towards the sheltered bay of Smerwick Harbour. The local highpoint of Reenconnell, with peaks between 253 and 274 metres, lie 2-3 km from the bay. Small fields in pasture, bounded by stone walls and ditches dominate the lowland landscape. The area of Corca Duibhne takes its name from the pre Christian settlers who brought their goddess Duibhne with when they settled there and the name translates as ''the seed of Duibhne''.The immediate area has in excess of 2000 archaeological sites of importance. Settlement in the area is characterised by a series of small traditional clustered settlements as in Feothanach, An Cuinne, Ballydha, D?n Chaoin(which is the most westerly village in Europe) and Murreagh. They are typical small settlements in the area in that it consists of perhaps a dozen or so dwellings where the main road passes close to the harbour. A road, runs to the coast to the other tiny settlement of Baile na ng?l, (the village or town of the foreigner, so called as the Norsemen settled there in the 8th and 9th centuries) which has the local post office. Most of these are located on the coast, usually at piers or slips used by small fishing vessels, reflecting the past reliance of local people on a mix of fishing and smallholdings. Due to emigration the land deteriorated in the late 1920s and early 1930s and was much affected too by the Anglo Irish Economic Wars of the 1930s. It wasn't until the 1960s that the return of a younger population rescued the land from it's decay and became progressively a thriving rural community surviving on mariculture, agriculture, co-operative developments and tourism. The landscape is viewed by the painter on a sunny summer's day as being sunlit, fertile and inhabited, so that the houses are scaled against the great looming bulk of the headland. The cloud formations along the coast were a great source of fascination and interest to the painter, who on the principle of John Constable and the French Barbizon School of painters believed that the clouds gave scale and created an architectural balancing to the forms in the landscape as well as endowing the work with a particular colouration and brilliance. A number of works painted by the artist of the area have been sold in these salerooms in the last couple of years, and some very large works of the area can be seen in Kelly's Hotel Rosslare in the Dining room and the MacGonigal Room. Ciar?n MacGonigal November 2006

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