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I
rish
& I
nternational
A
rt
A
uction
M
onday
5
th
D
ecember
2016
at
6.00
pm
15
9 James Humbert Craig RHA RUA (1878-1944) Preparing the Boatsigned lower left
oil on board
38.5 x 51cm (15 x 20in)
Provenance:
Private Collection
€5,000-7,000 (£4,347-6,086)
The Irish landscape painter James Craig was born in Belfast but spent his youth in the countryside of County Down. Craig briefly
attended Belfast College of Art where he studied drawing and fine art painting. He took all his inspiration from the scenery, people
and culture of Ireland - above all, from what he saw with his two eyes. He never attempted to embellish or distort nature. His job,
as a landscape painter was to reflect nature as it was. Despite this fidelity to nature, Craig was not above dramatising his landscape
painting in the style of Paul Henry. Also, despite his indifference to Barbizon landscape art, Craig’s plein air painting method was
similar to that of the Impressionists, as he was at his happiest out-of-doors either painting or fishing. Many of his colour schemes
are consciously sober and the raw beauty of the landscape is expressed in rugged paintwork. He painted in many different locations,
including the Glens of County Antrim, as well as the more inhospitable coastal landscapes of Donegal and Galway. A successful
painter of his day, Craig exhibited regularly at the Royal HibernianAcademy from 1915 and was elected to both the Royal Hibernian
Academy (RHA) and the Royal Ulster Academy (RUA).