Aloysius O’Kelly RHA (1856-1936) Interior with Two Girls Oil on canvas 91 x 73cm (35¾ x 28¾”) Signed Literature: Niamh O’Sullivan, Aloysius O’Kelly: Art, Nation, Empire, Dublin, Field Day, 2010. Throughout his life, O’Kelly returned to a series of paintings of young girls in which there is a sense of continuity, indeed a familial resemblance, as if of the same girl growing a little older. In Blowing Bubbles, A Hearty Breakfast and Seated Girl with Hydrangea Blossoms, the generic smocks connect the sitters, and the light red hair would suggest a common Celtic ethnic origin that could be Irish, Breton or American. Moreover, the informality of the portraits intimate perhaps a relationship with the artist. The paintings are undated (probably around 1910-15) and placeless – studies in childhood charm rather than location. The fourth painting in this series, however, depicts two girls, one of whom we recognize from the other paintings. The scale here is such that one would normally associate with a commission of significance – girls from a wealthy family – if it were not for the simplicity of their dress and setting. O’Kelly is not interested in the social status of these girls – there is no attempt to contextualise them – the subject is their mood and intimacy. The melancholy is affecting; an older girl comforting a younger, tenderly, suggests a backstory. The children seem to speak eloquently of loss. An rumour concerned with O’Kelly’s private life alleged a relationship with a French nurse in New York, but neither that nor the additional speculation that O’Kelly had a daughter have been confirmed, indeed he is recorded in the US censuses as unmarried (although that is not necessarily proof that he was not a father). Aloysius was very close to his militant republican brother James J. O’Kelly whose political activities – in which he embroiled Aloysius – necessitated extreme secrecy, and many aliases. Additionally, amid the many personal scandals James occasioned was a series of women and, at least, one bigamous marriage in which Aloysius was decoy, one of the wives living as Mrs A. O’Kelly in Paris This wife died tragically young having given birth to her second child (and in these annals, there is mention of third child). After moving to the US in 1895, Aloysius was closely involved in the life of a nephew, James Herbert, probably a son of his brother James. And in this family, in 1900 there occurred the mysterious death of two babies and their mother. The 1910 census then records Herbert living with his (second) wife Jeanie, and daughter Jessie. Given the recurrence of the sitter, consistent with Jessie’s age over a four or five year period, it is likely she is one of his sitters in this series of paintings. In the interstices between academic painting and Impressionism resided naturalism and O’Kelly was at his best in this space. In his early summers in Brittany, he was taken with the work of Jules Bastien-Lepage who spent some time there in the early 1880s. Bastien-Lepage’s dictum – to remain true to nature – was core to O’Kelly’s work. Evolving from the Realist tradition of Millet and Courbet, both Bastien-Lepage and O’Kelly shared a commitment to naturalistic landscapes peopled with honest workers who are depicted with authenticity and dignity. And under the French artist’s influence, O’Kelly lightened his palette and broke his brushstroke. As we see here, both artists worked close to his model, and on the same level, creating a marked intimacy between himself and his sitter, an intimacy that is extended to the viewer. The verticality, the closeness of the painter to the subject and the high horizon, have the effect of eliminating the traditional vanishing point and tilting the sitters parallel to the picture plane. O’Kelly clearly assimilated both stylistic and technical features of Bastien-Lepage, in effect, blending academic, realist and plein-air elements into a beguiling rural naturalism. Niamh O'Sullivan, October 2024
Aloysius O'Kelly RHA (1853 - 1936) The Christening Party (1908) Oil on canvas, 68.6 x 91.4cm (27 x 36'') Signed and dated 1908 (lower right) Provenance: The Artist's family; With Gorry Gallery, Dublin 1981; Collection of Francis D. Murnaghan Jr., thence by descent Exhibition: Dublin, Gorry Gallery, February 1981, No. 13; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, The Irish Impressionists, 1984, No. 25. Literature: Niamh O’Sullivan, Gorry Gallery, An Exhibition and Sale of 18th - 21st Century Irish Paintings, 2024; O’Sullivan, Gorry Gallery, An Exhibition of 18th - 21st Century Irish Paintings & Sculpture, 2011; O’Sullivan, Aloysius O’Kelly: Art, Nation, Empire, Field Day, 2010; O’Sullivan Re-orientations: Aloysius O'Kelly: painting politics and popular culture, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 1999; Julian Campbell, The Irish Impressionists, National Gallery of Ireland,1984. In 1874, O’Kelly became one of the first Irish artists to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he was admitted to the prestigious studio of Jean-Léon Gérome; separately he studied portraiture with Léon Bonnat; in addition, his early experiments in plein-air painting in Brittany were the foundations on which his work evolved. There is a striking stylistic cohesion between O’Kelly’s paintings set in Brittany in two phases, the late nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century, but these converge in two almost identical paintings dated 1908 and 1909 called The Christening Party and L’auberge. By coincidence, both have come up for sale within a few months of each other. O’Kelly tended to date paintings destined for major exhibition venues such as the Royal Academy, the Royal Hibernian Academy and the Paris Salon. And indeed he did exhibit a painting in the Salon in 1909 called L’auberge. The Christening Party thus predates the all-but-identical L’auberge. One surmises that he intended this painting for the Salon, but found an early buyer, and so painted a second version for Paris the following year. The painting features a group of adults joyously holding their glasses of cider aloft. This version was given the title The Christening Party when it was exhibited in the Irish Impressionists exhibition in the National Gallery in 1984, although it not clear that it is indeed a christening, as the child must be about two-years of age, and the focus is more widely dispersed: the oval disposition is designed to lead the eye around the painting in an inclusive way. O’Kelly was the first Irish artist to discover Brittany in the 1870s and was influential in drawing other Irish artists such as Thomas Hovenden and Augustus Burke there. Moreover, in recognizing the historical, cultural and ethnic connections between Ireland and Brittany, O’Kelly was at pains to counter the negative stereotyping of marginalized people. The American critic, E.L. Wakeman noted that '[t]hrough the grime and slime of their hard cold lives a few things must stand luminously revealed …. the people of Ireland and those of Brittany are the closest of kin and from one common Celtic stock, the affection and family ties, and to neighbourhood and communal yearnings, find here universal expression to a degree that almost approaches pathos'. (Wakeman's Wanderings, Weekly Inter Ocean, 7 January 1890). Wakeman went on to cite their respective ‘love of and reverence for babies’, as shines through here. O’Kelly’s paintings of both Irish and Breton people insistently reflect a hard-working, healthy and dignified people, as projected here. O’Kelly moved around Brittany over more than a fifty-year period. From the distinctive clothes, the setting in this painting can be identified as the pays de Rosporden (around Concarneau and the Fôret de Fouesnant): the women wear white linen coiffes and wide collars, dark skirts, fitted bodices, embroidered waistcoats, and heavy wooden sabots; the men woollen jackets, waistcoats, bragoù-bras, black gaiters and felt broad-rimmed hats. The table and the rush-woven Breton chairs are timeless, but other aspects identify the painting as early twentieth century, notably the visible hair of the women (previously, no self-respecting girl would have herself painted with her hair even partially uncovered). Over time, O’Kelly’s Breton landscapes and seascapes became increasingly and iridescently impressionistic, while his interior scenes retained their structure and hark back to Dutch seventeenth-century interiors and, more contemporaneously, the work of American artist, Robert Wylie. Executed towards the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, the dark interior of The Christening Party, connects these paintings to a considerably earlier form of genre painting, characterized by academic draughtsmanship and conventional painting skills. Notwithstanding their archaism, the compression of so many figures in The Christening Party into such a confined space demanded considerable skill, in addition to which he countered the apparent informality of the figures by granting to each an individualised physiognomy. The loose yet controlled brushwork, broad values, and strong contrasts evident in the portraits are a testament to Bonnat's realist teaching. The treatment of the still life on the upper shelf verges on the semi abstract and contrast with the narrative details that include the man pouring the drink with his left hand on his companion's shoulder, the young girl wiping the bowl, the man lighting his pipe, the shadowy figure in the background squatting low to tap the cider. The painting is full of gesture and expression. Notwithstanding the dark interior, the play of light on form, on the bottles and glasses, on the rugged furniture, on the animated faces of the figures, is typical of O'Kelly, an artist who painted sometimes separately, sometimes coterminously tightly and precisely, and loosely and freely. Prof. Niamh O'Sullivan, October 2024
19th Century Impressionist Oil on Canvas by Aloysius O'Kelly (1853-1936). Depicting Forrest with Stream. Signed Lower Right. Has minor tear upper left. Has paint loss with indentation lower right - Approx. 2" long. Needs a cleaning. Framed. Measures 34.25" tall x 28.5" wide. Irish artist Aloysius O’Kelly was an enigmatic figure, who travelled extensively throughout his career. He was among the first Irish artists to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1874, and would establish his reputation in the salons of France with realist genre scenes such as Mass in a Connemara Cabin, exhibited in the 1884 Paris Salon. In the early 1880s, he worked in a journalistic capacity as a ‘Special Artist’ for British publications, covering the anti-colonial campaigns of the Irish Land Wars and the Sudanese nationalist movement. The extent of O’Kelly’s interest or involvement in politics is unclear. He had a close relationship with his brother James, an Irish nationalist politician and member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and in 1897 the artist put himself forward for election in South Roscommon, without success. However, O’Kelly was absent during the turbulent years of the Irish revolutionary period, living primarily in Brittany and New York. In 1926 he returned to Ireland at 73 years of age, with the intention of creating a new series of paintings of Irish national monuments. His letters to his nephew in New York, James Herbert, provide a first-hand account of life in the newly independent Free State of Ireland. In particular, his descriptions of ruined public, military and residential buildings record the aftermath of the Irish Civil War and the War of Independence. All invoices must be paid within 24 hours of the sale. We offer multiple shipping options, please read the terms as they have changed. We also offer Pick-Ups Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday immediately following the sale. BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. PLEASE READ THE NEW TERMS!!!
Aloysius O'Kelly (Irish/New York, 1851-1928), "Breton Interior", oil on canvas, signed lower left, 29 in. x 36 1/4 in., framed, overall 36 3/8 in. x 43 5/8 in. x 1 1/4 in. Provenance: "Estates Auction American and European Paintings", Morton's Auction Exchange, New Orleans, LA, Mar. 28, 1978.
Aloysius O'Kelly (Irish/New York, 1851-1928), "Harbor", oil on panel, signed lower right, 8 7/8 in. x 12 3/4 in., framed, overall 10 1/4 in. x 14 1/4 in. x 5/8 in.
Aloysius C. O'Kelly (1851 - 1928) Oil on canvas, board, signed lower right, measures (14 x 20) and (16 x 22) inches w/ frame. Born in Dublin, studying in Paris, painting in Brittany and traveling widely, exhibiting regularly in Dublin and London, Aloysius O'Kelly was virtually forgotten in Ireland until recently, because he emigrated to America. He was born in Dublin in 1851. In about 1875, he went to Paris and became a student of Leon Bonnat and Jean Leon Gerome at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. O'Kelly was one of the first Irish artists in Brittany, exhibiting Breton scenes in Dublin and in London in the late 1870's, and again in the mid 1880's.
19th Century Impressionist Oil on Canvas by Aloysius O'Kelly (1853-1936). Depicting Forrest with Stream. Signed Lower Right. Has minor tear upper left. Needs a cleaning. Framed. Measures 34.25" tall x 28.5" wide. All invoices must be paid within 24 hours of the sale. We offer multiple shipping options, please read the terms as they have changed. We also offer Pick-Ups Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday immediately following the sale. BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. PLEASE READ THE NEW TERMS!!!
Aloysius O'Kelly RHA (1853-1936) Inside the Chapel (The Chapel of Locmaria-an-Hent, Brittany) Oil on canvas, 92 x 73cm (36¼ x 28¾) Signed and dated 1905 Provenance: Sale, William Doyle Auctioneers, New York, 5 May 1994, lot no. 109; With Cynthia O'Connor Gallery, Dublin, July/August 1994 as Stained Glass Window, Brittany; Sale, Mealy's Auctioneers, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, 30 October 2010, lot no. 609 Exhibited: Possibly New York Watercolour Club, no. 3 as Devotion; Corcoran Biennial Exhibition, Washington, 1907, no. 178; Cynthia O'Connor Gallery, Dublin, 1994; Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, November 1999, no. 24 Illustrated Literature: Niamh O'Sullivan, Aloysius O'Kelly, Art, Nation, Empire, Field Day Publication, University of Notre Dame, Dublin, 2010 Few artists match the Irish painter, illustrator and political activist Aloysius OKelly for intrigue. His involvement in republican politics secret addresses, false identities, dangerous liaisons began in Paris when he was a student at the École des Beaux-Arts. His admission to the prestigious studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme, as well as the private studio of Joseph-Florentin Bonnat added to his pedigree as an young artist of note in the 1870s. In turn, he brought Irish interests to bear on French cultural life. His chef doeuvre, Mass in a Connemara Cabin, was the first painting of an Irish subject ever exhibited in the Paris Salon when it was shown there in 1884. Summer holidays were spent in Brittany, away from the academic strictures of the École. There, artists from all nationalities immersed themselves in more naturalistic modes of representation. In Brittany, OKelly reconciled a range of styles derived from both traditional and avant-garde art, in effect blending academic, realist and plein-air elements into an innovative mode of rural naturalism. This painting, and a number of others representing religious devotion are set in the pilgrimage chapel of Locmaria-an-hent in the commune of Saint Yvi, between Pont-Aven and Quimper. Renowned for its stained glass, the church was built in the sixteenth century and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. OKelly imbues the stained glass with a vibrant prismatic quality (an earlier version, Interior of a Church in Brittany (National Gallery of Ireland), painted in the late 1870s, is more ethnographic in character). In paintings of religious subjects what were considered superstitious rituals and strange religious customs contemporary right-wing critics perceived the profound piety of the people, while left-wing critics saw nothing more than a display of the picturesque. But all agreed, the soul of the race was visible in the features of Breton worshippers. OKellys 1905 painting, would have appealed to those who gave religious piety primacy. According to critic Henry Blackburn, Bretons had only three vices (avarice, contempt for women and drunkenness) in contrast to five virtues (love of country, resignation to the will of God, loyalty, perseverance and hospitality). Nowhere are there finer peasantry; nowhere do we see more dignity of aspect in field labour; nowhere more picturesque ruins, he argued. But, he equivocated, Bretons are behindhand in civilization, nowhere does one find such primitive habitations and such dirt. Such aspersions compare with those ascribed to the peasants of the west of Ireland at the time. Over time, jaundiced accounts of Breton stupidity, savagery and superstition were transformed into sociological studies of Breton poverty, primitivism and piety. But an artist less dependent on the popular stereotype, such as OKelly, would have been attuned to the realities of communities in transition, and been aware of the need for subtle correction in the representation of people afflicted by acute poverty. He thus paints the peasants of Brittany with the same respect and integrity he accorded their Irish counterparts. Indeed, he relished the Celtic historical, cultural and ethnic connections between Ireland and Brittany. OKelly shows himself to have been an observer of the variety and elaborations of Breton dress. The women wear distinctive white linen coiffes and wide collars, dark skirts, fitted bodices, embroidered waistcoats, and heavy wooden sabots. The men wore woolen jackets, waistcoats, bragoù-bras, black gaiters and felt broad-rimmed hats The artist and ethnographer, René-Yves Creston has identified sixty-six principal styles of Breton dress and over 1,200 different kinds of coiffe revealing the rich typography of Breton dress in which almost infinitesimal variations identify the locality and status of the individual, and which articulated relationships of wealth, kinship and ethnicity. Dr. Niamh O'Sullivan, November 2023
ARTIST: Aloysius Kelly (New York, Ireland, 1851 - 1928) TITLE: Autumn Landscape MEDIUM: oil on board CONDITION: Few minor paint losses. No visible inpaint under UV light. ART SIZE: 10 x 13 inches / 25 x 33 cm FRAME SIZE: 11 x 15 inches / 27 x 38 cm SIGNATURE: lower right NAME VARIANTS: Aloysius Kelly CATEGORY: old antique vintage painting for auction sale online AD: ART CONSIGNMENTS WANTED. CONTACT US SKU#: 127649 US Shipping $49 + insurance. BIOGRAPHY: O'Kelly traveled to Paris in order to enroll at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1874, where he studied under Bonnat and Gerome. To enter the Gerome's atelier was a great honour, however, the master was exceedingly strict and merciless in his criticism; such that a number of students could not last the distance. It is uncertain whether O'Kelly ever matriculated.From Gerome, O'Kelly developed an interest in Oriental scenes. He traveled to Brittany in 1876 painting its aesthetic coastlines, fishing ports and villages.In October 1881, Charles Stewart Parnell, a member of Parliament and leader of the Irish Party, was arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham. Two days following his arrest, Aloysius' brother, James J. O'Kelly, along with some other Party members, including John Dillon, were imprisoned where they remained until May 1882. A number of Aloysius' drawings during this period portrayed the political situation dealing with his brother's incarceration.Aloysius inevitably became embroiled in the murky and often secretive life of his brother. He began to paint and sketch political activists including members of the Land League.O'Kelly lived in Concarneau, Connemara and eventually the United States, painting rural scenes in the prior and city life in New York City. He knew Mark Twain, and painted a depiction of Huckleberry Finn, which the author inspected and commented on.He died on 12 January 1936 in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Lot 23 Aloysius O'Kelly Irish (1853-1936) Time Square (1913) oil on canvas signed lower right 18 x 14 inches Provenance: Property from the Estate of Eleanor Jacobs
Aloysius C. O'Kelly (American/Irish 1851-1928) oil on panel depicting two ladies meeting beneath a crescent moon, titled verso "Confidences" housed in a custom giltwood frame, 9 1/4" x 13" panel, 15 1/8" x 18 7/8" framed.
Aloysius C O'Kelly Interior Church Scene Oil Painting. Oil painting on canvas, signed. Interior church scene in carved gilt wood frame, a scene of Breton France. Aloysius C. O'Kelly 1851 - 1928) lived and worked in in Ireland, France and New York. Measures 40 x 29 inches. Private Collection, Greenwich Connecticut, this painting has been in the family collection since the 1920s.
ALOYSIUS O'KELLY (AMERICAN, 1851-1928) FISHERWOMEN ON THE COAST Oil on canvas: 20 x 34 in. Framed; lower right signed: Aloysius O'Kelly; possibly the coast of Ireland
Oil on panel depicting boats in harbor with colorful sails casting their reflections on the bay waters. The boats are clustered tightly together against the background of a clouded sky. Presented in an ornate relief gilt frame with shell and floral motif. Signed lower right A. O'Kelly. Dimensions: Sight: 12 1/2" x 8 3/4" Frame: 21" x 17 1/4" Few insignificant spots of in-painting that can be seen on our web-site at: www.blackrockgalleries.com with black light.
Signed Lower Left: A. O'kelly. 12.5" X 9.5" Oil On Board. Written On Reverse: The Arrival At The Metropolitan Opera. The Opening Of The Opera Season. 27 - The Arrival At The Opera. Opening Night. Aloysius O'kelly (1851-1928) Died In Brooklyn, N. Y. 1928. Framed: 21" X 18".
Aloysius O'Kelly (1850-1929)Portrait of a Young Breton GirlOil on canvas, 91.5 x 63.5cm (36 x 25'')Signed and dated 1905Exhibited: Re-orientations, Aloysius OKelly: Painting, Politics and Popular Culture, Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 1999-2000, no 25.Literature: Niamh OSullivan, Re-orientations, Aloysius OKelly: Painting, Politics and Popular Culture, Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 1999-2000; and Aloysius OKelly: Art, Nation, Empire, Field Day, 2010.In the late nineteenth century, OKelly embraced increasingly naturalistic concerns, but this iridescent painting is more modernist than usual from OKelly. The young girl is treated as an integrated element in the landscape, saturated with hot colour. Nineteenth-century paintings of Bretons show women wearing distinctive white linen coiffes and wide collars, dark skirts, waisted bodices, embroidered waistcoats, and heavy wooden sabots, but this modern Mademoiselle is informal in her bare feet, and modern in her dress, showing the evolution of peasant life in Brittany at the turn of the twentieth century. Niamh OSullivan May 2017
Beautiful Portrait of a woman. Oil on canvas, signed lower left. Approximate Measurements: Framed - 29" T x 22" W. Condition: Painting has not been cleaned.
ALOYSIUS O’KELLY (1850-1929) Portrait of a young Breton Girl signed and dated ‘Aloysius O’Kelly/1905’ (lower right) oil on canvas 36 x 25 in. (91.5 x 63.5 cm.)
ALOYSIUS C. O'KELLY (irish/american 1850-1928) HORSE CART ALONG THE SHORE Signed 'Aloysius O'Kelly' bottom right, oil on canvas 20 x 32 in. (50.8 x 81.3cm) provenance: Louis Antoville, New York. Private Collection, Massachusetts.
ALOYSIUS C. O’KELLY (IRISH/AMERICAN, 1850-1928) Ave Maria - procession religieuse en Bretagne signed and dated ‘Aloysius O’Kelly/ 1909’ (lower right) oil on canvas 49 3/4 x 64in (124.5 x 162.5cm) | Provenance Sale, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 20 February 1969, lot 90, as Religious Procession. with Gene Roddenberry, Los Angeles.
ALOYSIUS C. O’KELLY (IRISH/AMERICAN, 1850-1928) A street in Cairo signed and inscribed ‘Aloys. O’Kelly/ Cairo’ (lower right) oil on panel 14 3/4 x 10 1/2in (37.5 x 26.7cm) | Provenance with Mathaf Gallery, Ltd., London.
ALOYSIUS C. O'KELLY (american/irish 1850-1928)/span HORSE CART ALONG THE SHORE Signed 'Aloysius O'Kelly' bottom right, oil on canvas 20 x 32 in. (50.8 x 81.3cm) provenance: /spanLouis Antoville, New York. Private Collection, Massachusetts.
ALOYSIUS O'KELLY Irish/American (1851-1928) Harbor View, possibly view from Englewood Cliffs oil on panel, signed lower right, inscribed on reverse: Englewood Cliffs. 9 1/4 x 13 Provenance: A New York Estate.
Aloysius OKelly RHA (1850 - 1929)A Question for the Sultan & The Sultans ReplyA pair, oil on panel, each 18.5 x 13cm (7¼ x 5)Signed (2)Literature: Aloysius O'Kelly. Art, Nation, Empire by Niamh O'Sullivan, Catalogue Numbers 39 and 40, p.285
Aloysius C. O'Kelly (1853-1936) FISHING BOATS AT CONCARNEAU, FRANCE oil on canvas signed lower right h:17 w:21.75 in. Provenance: Family of the artist The most prolific subject of O'Kelly's career was Brittany. This painting was set in Concarneau, the most important fishing village of Cornouaille, just outside the fortified walls of the Ville Close, to which O'Kelly returned over and over from the 1880s to the 1920s. He was drawn time and again to the working harbour, and his paintings of Breton peasants display empathy with the hardworking fishermen and sardine factory workers of the region, just like his paintings of Irish peasants of the west of Ireland. This painting exudes spontaneity, especially in the handling of the blue and madder sails, and the reflections in the translucent water; it is nonetheless carefully structured on the axis of the foreshortened fishing boats. Professor Niamh O'Sullivan, Dublin, October 2014 Inaugural Curator, Great Hunger Museum, Hamden, Connecticut (USA) and Professor Emeritus of Visual Culture, National College of Art and Design, Dublin, author of Aloysius O'Kelly: Art, Nation, Empire, Field Day Publications, 2010.
Aloysius C. O'Kelly (1853-1936) CASHEL, 1923 oil on canvas signed and titled lower right h:18 w:24 in. O'Kelly emigrated to New York in 1895, where he had impressive connections and his work was highly regarded. Yet his late work betrays a nostalgic relationship with his political and artistic past. He returned to Ireland in 1926, at the age of 73, still pressing his case for the establishment of a national school of painting. During this time, he wrote regularly to his nephew, James Herbert, back in New York. In this correspondence, he describes how, in Ireland, he first established himself in Cashel, which he described as 'a very ancient place with much interest but the sleepiest, quietest place you can imagine'. Here he lived a life of 'simplicity itself'. He went on to say: 'my two subjects are the ancient ecclesiastical buildings on the Rock of Cashel (of which he executed seven paintings), and Holycross Abbey. In an effort to secure commissions, O'Kelly called on the Archbishop of Cashel. When the Archbishop - 'a very well fed looking man with little inclination for art'- declined to purchase, O'Kelly pronounced 'a very low opinion of His Grace.' The Dean of Cashel, on the other hand, responded positively, commissioning a Rock of Cashel - possibly this painting. This sojourn culminated in an exhibition in Dublin, in Combridge's, Grafton Street, before he left Ireland for his final visit to Brittany, before returning to America. Professor Niamh O'Sullivan
Aloysius C. O'Kelly (1853-1936) THE DESERT CHARGE oil on canvas h:18 w:30 in. Provenance: Family of the artist Indicative of a broader plan to destabilise Britain in Ireland, in 1883 Aloysius O'Kelly and his brother James went to Sudan to report on the British campaign against the Mahdi, James as correspondent for the Daily News and Aloysius as illustrator for the Pictorial World. With them were a number of French revolutionaries and socialists who had forged alliances with Irish militant and cultural nationalists during O'Kelly's sojourn in Paris in the 1870s. British involvement in the region was ostensibly to end the slave trade but, in reality, to extend Anglo-Egyptian influence further south. In 1881, Muhammad Ahmad ibn Abdallah declared himself the prophesied Mahdi and called for a jihad to purge Islam of the infidel and rout the foreign forces from Sudan. His fearsome reputation as a violent anti-colonialist grew over the next three years. The jihad had strong resonance for Fenian opponents of the British regime in Ireland. If 'England is engaged in a great war that will strain her resources to the utmost', wrote James O'Kelly to Michael Davitt, 'seizing some critical moment [if we] attack her with all our power... we help ourselves by promoting the long wished for "opportunity".' There was much at stake; according to the Victorian domino theory, Irish demands for Home Rule constituted the beginning of the disintegration of the empire. The mantra, that Britain's pain was Ireland's gain, was given powerful visual expression by O'Kelly. This work is part of a unique series of paintings and illustrations of these events. Most war artists acted, in effect, as public relations personnel for Britain's colonial projects overseas. O'Kelly's decision to cover the colonial war from behind the battle lines of Britain's enemy was thus an act of remarkable audacity. O'Kelly painted many scenes in the Orientalist manner of his master, Jean-Léon Gérôme. But desert skirmishes, such as this, full of colour and movement, gave rise to several virtuoso paintings by O'Kelly that are unusual in that they demonstrate an early application of Impressionist technique to an Orientalist subject, a further indication of O'Kelly's originality. O'Kelly was at his best when adapting an aesthetic subversion to a political one. Professor Niamh O'Sullivan, Dublin, October 2014 Inaugural Curator, Great Hunger Museum, Hamden, Connecticut (USA) and Professor Emeritus of Visual Culture, National College of Art and Design, Dublin, author of Aloysius O'Kelly: Art, Nation, Empire, Field Day Publications, 2010.
Aloysius C. O'Kelly (1853-1936) MOTHER AND CHILD oil on canvas h:16 w:12 in. Provenance: Family of the artist O'Kelly loved painting children and did so throughout his artistic career. Charming Irish, English, French, North African and American children recur in his work. There are thus examples in all phases and styles of his long career, executed in a Realist mode in Ireland and England, Naturalist in France and America and Orientalist in North Africa. Many include a maternal figure, sitting by a window and engrossed in sewing, knitting or tatting. This painting would appear to be an early work, before he came under the influence of Jules Bastien-Lepage in Brittany in the early 1880s. Professor Niamh O'Sullivan, Dublin, October 2014 Inaugural Curator, Great Hunger Museum, Hamden, Connecticut (USA) and Professor Emeritus of Visual Culture, National College of Art and Design, Dublin, author of Aloysius O'Kelly: Art, Nation, Empire, Field Day Publications, 2010.
ALOYSIUS O'KELLY Irish/American (1851-1928) Boats in a Harbor oil on panel, signed lower right, inscribed and dated 1914 on the reverse. 9 1/2 x 12 1/4 Provenance: Private collection, Boston, Massachusetts.
ALOYSIUS O'KELLY Irish/American (1851-1928) Activities at the Docks oil on panel, signed lower right, inscribed and dated 1914 on the reverse. 9 1/2 x 12 1/4 Provenance: Private collection, Boston, Massachusetts.
Aloysius O'Kelly (1853-1936) On the Sheepscott River, Maine Oil on canvas, 38 x 53.4cm (15 x 21'') Signed Provenance: John P. Reihill, Deepwell, Blackrock, Co. Dublin Although originally thought to be a work from Brittany this work is likely to be a view on the Sheepscott River Maine. A number of O'Kelly characteristics may be discerned, most notably sinuous, almost stylised dark shadows as they appear beneath the tree in the foreground and the use of pale blue to describe the hazy distance.
Aloysius O'Kelly (1853-1936) The Market Place, Tangier Oil on canvas, 32 x 37cm (12½ x 14½'') Signed and indistinctly inscribed 'Tangier' Provenance: Previously in the collection of John Duggan Exhibited: • Museum of Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (detail; untraced); ' • Aloysius O'Kelly - Re-Orientations: Paintings, Politics and Popular Culture', Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 25 November 1999 - 30 January 2000, catalogue no. 35 Aloysius O'Kelly studied with the quintessential orientalist, Jean-Leon Gerome, in the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in the mid 1870's. Although O'Kelly's ethnographic realism bears a close resemblance to that of his master, the concept of an Irish orientalist, especially one so militantly republican as O'Kelly, makes very interesting viewing. By representing oriental societies as backward or 'other', many orientalist painters became the spindoctors of the imperial project. But no such patronisation is evident in the work of O'Kelly. This painting is concerned with the daily lives of the citizens of Tangier. The informality of poses and the style of painting is looser and more expressionistic than that normally associated with orientalist art. France, recognising its strategic importance and economic potential, penetrated Morocco in 1844. Although ultimately obliged to accept the territorial integrity of the country, and agree to equal trade for all, France continued to press her own advantage. One of the areas where it encountered most resistance was from the tribesmen of the Riff Mountains in the north. In so far as Market Place Tangier is stylistically close to O'Kelly's critically well-received painting, ''The Musician'', set in the Riff Mountains, it is clear from these, and other titles, that he spent a considerable period of time in Morocco in the late nineteenth century. Dr Niamh O'Sullivan
Aloysius O'Kelly (1853-1936) Boats at Concarneau Oil on board, 24 x 33cm (9½ x 13'') Signed Provenance: John P. Reihill, Deepwell, Blackrock, Co. Dublin
Aloysius C. O'Kelly, 1851-1928, Ireland/NY, important oil on canvas painting , "The East River," NY, depicting tug boats and sailboats working their trade with the Queensborough, Bridge in the background, looking north after 1908 when the bridge was completed, 22" x 29", set in an old molded gold frame. Comes with an illustrated catalog of his works, which includes this painting, page 66. Also a copy of the Irish Arts Review, where this painting was featured. Provenance: A private New York collection. This painting was exhibited in the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin Ireland in 1999.
