Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 12th November 2018

I rish & I nternational A rt M onday 12 th N ovember 2018 at 6.00 pm 83 69 Camille Souter HRHA (b.1929) Plaice (1976) signed lower right and dated 1976 oil on mulberry paper 36.70 x 49.5cm (14.5 x 19.5in) Provenance: Collection of the artist Derek Hill; Christie’s London, 17th May 2001, Lot 323; Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin 2001 (label verso); Private Collection Exhibited: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin (label verso); Some Irish Fish, 1977, number 1; Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin July 2001 Literature: Camille Souter: The Mirror in the Sea by Garrett Cormican; reference 336, page 290 & illustrated on page 292 €4,000-€6,000 (£3,571-£5,357) In Paris in the early 1970s, Camille Souter visited a slaughterhouse and was struck by the unsettling beauty of the butchered animals. Back in Ireland, the experience launched her into a series of paintings of meat. Thus primed, she noticed “a rather lovely display” in the window of a Bray fishmongers. Thereafter, she set up studio near the fish market - now gone - in Dublin city centre. This sensitive study of a plaice was number one in the catalogue of her 1977 exhibition at the Dawson Gallery, Some Irish Fish. The painter Derek Hill thought highly enough of it to acquire it. Souter’s approach is tender, but also pragmatic, in musing on the mystery of life and death. As she noted, she fished herself, and she loved to eat fish.