Frank O'Meara (1853-1888) A Knitting Shepherdess (1880) Oil on canvas, 40 x 29cm (15_ x 11_) Signed Provenance; The O'Meara Family Collection; Anna Frances Spring, nee, O'Meara 1847-1931, no.138, Rathgar Road, Dublin (Frank O'Meara's eldest sister). Inherited by Madeline Mary O'Meara, of 6 Burrin St., Carlow, in Feb 1931, sold in 1957; Private Irish Collection. Literature: Referred to 'as a small study of a young French girl crafting in a gold frame', by David Smithers O'Meara, the artist's nephew in 1978. Further information on O'Meara's work on the theme of a Grez Shepherdess may be found in 'The Irresistible Frank O'Meara, An Irish Artist in France', by Mary Stratton Ryan. P 78-79 The subject of a young Shepherdess spinning and knitting, using wool from her own flock, is a theme first brought into prominence by French artist Jean ÐFrancois Millet 1814-1875 when painting in Barbizon in the 1850s. Millet is known primarily for his sympathetic images of rural workers in the French countryside. One of his favourite subjects was of a young shepherdess who concentrates on her knitting while her flock grazes nearby. Millet sketched, etched and painted several versions of this subject in pastel, and oils. Some of his most admired studies are The Knitting Shepherdess (1857) a pastel painting held in the Saint Louis Art Museum, Forest Park, Missouri, USA. A fine etching entitled The Grand Shepherdess, Knitting is held in the Scottish National Gallery. A more highly finished oil painting entitled Shepherdess with Her Flock 1863 is on display in Musee dÕOrsay, Paris. Two Irish Artists who painted in Barbizon and who greatly admired MilletÕs work were Dublin born Nathaniel Hone, the younger 1831-1917 and Carlow born Frank OÕMeara 1853-1888. Hone lived in Barbizon and later in Bourron Marlotte for 17 years and he knew Millet. One of HoneÕs earliest extant paintings, is a rare Ôfigure studyÕ by him, of a Shepherdess, titled Girl in a White Shawl (1857) (National Gallery of Ireland no 1479). This picture has been the subject of a fascinating and ingenius article by Dr Campbell, in which the author by a strange twist of fate brings together HoneÕs Shepherdess with that of Bohemian [ Prague] artist Sobeslay PinkasÕ Shepherdess, both paintings are of the same model in an interior setting, painted at exactly the same time in Bourron Marrlotte in1857. Having studied together in the Paris atelier of Couture c.1854-57, the artists show CoutureÕs influence in subject and technique, as well as that of Corot and Millet with the naturalistic approach of French painting.[1] Twenty-three years later Carlow artist Frank OÕMeara, who had painted in Barbizon, while Millet was still painting there, was settled in the artistÕs colony of Grez sur Loing. OÕMeara, a pioneer artist, and a highly respected painter and Art Master, was central to the artistic life in the village. He was an early founder of the Grez School of painting, in 1875. In late 1878 and early 80s he was beginning to focus on single figure studies, with a lighter tonalist palette which was a major development in his work moving away from his earlier figureless landscapes and deeper toned palette. Amongst this fellow painters was Louis Welden Hawkins, (1849-1910) who had shared accommodation in Paris with Irish writer George Moore, during his student years at the atelier Julian. ÔIt was only after Hawkins arrival at Grez-sur-Loing, and his work carried out alongside OÕMeara, that HawkinsÕ tonalist style emerged and he had his meteoric success at the Salon of 1881 with Les Orphelins. [The Orphans was originally entitled Love Rises from the Ashes] [2] [1] Dr Julian Campbell, The Shepherdess of Marlotte, Irish Arts Review, vol.,19, no1. Summer 2002 pp91-94.] [2] [Anne Koval, Shades of Grey Louis Welden Hawkins, Owens Art Gallery, Canada, 2010, p22. ÔThere is a photograph in the Hawkins Collection In Grez we find OÕMeara and Hawkins painting together and occasionally painting the same model. One particular model was employed by OÕMeara to pose for his picture A Knitting Shepherdess, and Hawkins painted her as well, in three works, Hide and Seek, News from Home, and The Departure. This young model painted by OÕMeara and at the same time by Hawkins and other artists, became a favourite model, her name was Mme Licette from the village of Grez.[3] This charming small scale painting by Frank OÕMeara is a key work, in a transitional period in his oeuvre. There has been up to date a void in his transitionary work from his earlier deeper toned palette as viewed in, for example, Autumnal Sorrows (1878) to his highly skilled tonalist paintings for example Reverie (1882), Girl with a Distaff (1886). The present rediscovery of A Knitting Shepherdess is a wonderful link, and would indicate that there are further Grez works from this period 1878-81 still to be located. A Knitting Shepherdess painted in Grez presents us with a work by OÕMeara which exemplifies his earliest exploration of a new emerging tonalist approach to his work which is the essence of the Grez style of painting and this he shared with Hawkins, William Stott of Oldham, Blair Bruce, Frank Chadwick and others who painted beside him in the late 1870s and early1880s. The tonality of this painting A Knitting Shepherdess is central to the colour palette of the Grez style and is a perfect example. ÔTonality is a term that art historians borrowed from musicology. Tonality describes how colours used in a painting are based on a key tone, such that an overall scheme of all colours and tones in a painting is achieved, as in the same way as tones in a musical systemÕ.[4] OÕMeara paints Mme Licette, in a frontal pose with her head turned to her right, watching her flock which although not depicted in the composition, we may imagine share the field in which she stands.The heavy sheepskin cloak, crafted from a black fleece, which Mme Licette wears is also the product of her flock. It is worn with the fleece side close to her body for warmth and the suede side outwards, oiled to make it rain proof, it is fastened in front with buttoned clasps. It has a hood which is folded behind her head. The unity of interdependance between the Shepherdess and her flock is a harmonious one. Besides pasturing her flock, watering and watching them and protecting her sheep from predators, the shepherdess tended minor injuries, illnesses and sheltered them at night. As well as these tasks a sheperdess also had the responsibility of spinning and knitting. Equipped with her drop spindle and her bundle of carded wool, she could spin yarn during her long hours in the fields. OÕMearaÕs Shepherdess Mme Licette, is knitting using four needles, traditionally used for knitting socks, the wool she uses is black in colour, so we may imagine that she has a mixed flock of black and white fleeced sheep. She carries the wool in her pocket and we note that the strand of yarn is carefully positioned by OÕMeara to visually join it to the hem of her cloak, symbolic of the closness of the wool to its source and its wearer. Unlike MilletÕs interpretation of his Shepherdess, OÕMeara does not portray his figure focused on her knitting, she is instead gazing intently at her flock Ð out of our view, and is knitting skillfully but automatically. She wears a traditional Grez village hand woven linen dress with a weighted woven woolen hem. The painting is beautifully composed in its simplicity. The head of the model is set in a triangular shape which is emphasised by her dark hair and the folded back blackhood of the cape. It is painted in late August or early September, as the field has grass which is scorched by the sun, and is turning into patches of gold, but still has swathes of green grass and it is dappled with dried wild cow parsely in the foreground. In the background we see a row of polular trees, so the field is close to the Bourron Marlotte road. The picture was carried out in a field next to the ancient cemetry of Grez, at Place Jollivet. The cemetry was the location where Hawkins painted The Orphans (1880), exhibited in 1881. (Coll. Musee dÕOrsay). This painting, A Knitting Shepherdess is executed in keeping with OÕMeara usual approach, first he sketched both setting and model. He usually painted the outdoor landscape first and then added a studio study of the figure. We observe in his Grez sketchbook several pages of studies of a Shepherdess. Although OÕMeara carried out this work in 1880, it was never exhibited, and he worked on it again many years later in July 1887, when he added the fine white headress to the model.[5] On close study one notes the later brushwork in the painting of the headress over Mme LicetteÕs dark hair. This is verified by a letter from Belle Bowes dated 3 July 1887 to her father, asking him to post to her a light white lace peasants capheadress which OÕMeara wanted to paint, and which were now hard to find in the village. OÕMeara put the finishing touches to over a dozen small canvases before leaving Grez in August 1887. [Nathan BoweÕs Archive] In 1886, OÕMeara painted a large scale work Girl with a Distaff, the model was most likley a Shepherdess too, without her cloak, wearing a white woven shawl. OÕMeara painted another work entitled Shepherdess at the Mill of Fosse,1886, on this occasion the Shepherdess is not engaged in knitting, as in his first picture, of 1880 depicting a shepherdess. Although the painting is almost complete it would seem that OÕMeara had planned to include some of her flock in the composition and to finish her cape in more detail. A sketch for this work, features in his Grez sketchbook includes a drawing of a ewe on the models left side and and of several more just barely indicated with circular strokes, infront of the Shepherdess. Since OÕMeara generally painted several versions of his major works, before being satisfied, there is every possibility that another completed canvas of this composition Shepherdess at the Mill of Fosse exists, just waiting to be found. Mary Stratton Ryan.
Frank O'Meara (1853-1888) Man on a Bridge with Castle in the distance Pencil, 17.5 x 24.5cm (7 x 9¾) Signed with monogram Provenance: With Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin, where purchased by the present owner
FRANK O'MEARA, RHA (1853-1888) Driving sheep by Lord Leycester's Hospital, Warwick, Oil on canvas Signed with initials Provenance: Christie's auction of Fine Irish Paintings and Drawings, Held at the RHA, Friday 26th May 1989, Lot 328 20.5 x 16 inches;52 x 41 cm
West Brittany- A coastal inlet, Oil on canvas. Unlined, Signed and dated 1882. Inscribed with title on the stretcher rail. The canvas maker s stencil on the reverse-Alfred Binan (1822-1904). 7 rue de Clery, Paris.8
