Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 21st October 2019

I rish & I nternational A rt M onday 21 st O ctober 2019 at 6.00 pm 21 12 Elizabeth Rivers RHA (1903-1964) Bearded Man Holding a Portfolio signed lower left oil on canvas laid on board 46 x 37.5cm (18 x 14.75in) Provenance: The Bell Gallery, Belfast (label verso); Private Collection €1,500-2,500 (£1,327-2,212) A harmony in greens, browns and greys, this semi-abstract painting appears to represent the figure of an artist, holding a portfolio. The sitter’s green jacket is enlivened with horizontal angular dagger-like shapes, orange and brown. The sitter’s face is a greenish hue, crowned with black hair, and surrounded by angular, triangular shapes in yellow and orange. The gender of the sitter is unknown, but a long triangular extension of the face—a goatee beard?— suggests it is a male figure. After studying at Goldsmiths College, London, Elizabeth Rivers won a scholarship in 1926 to the Royal Academy schools, where her tutor was Walter Sickert. Five years later, she moved to Paris, enrolling in the art school run by André Lhôte. In the early 1930’s, she was part of the progressive ‘Twenties Group’, showing at the Wertheim Gallery in London, while in the latter half of that decade she moved to Ireland. Living on the Aran Islands, she exhibited at the RHA; her book Stranger in Aran was published in 1946. Six years later, Waddington Galleries published a portfolio of wood engravings by Rivers, depicting everyday life on the Aran Islands. During and after World War II, Rivers lived in London, exhibiting at the New English Art Club and the Royal Academy. Returning to Ireland, she assisted Evie Hone with designs for stained-glass windows and in the 1950s she exhibited wood carvings, wood engravings, and paintings, Her painting Noah’s Ark is the in the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

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