Lot 131: Ann Griffin-Bernstorff (20th/21st Century) CATTLE IN A FIELD, 1986

signed and dated lower right

h:26.50 w:27.50in.

oil on canvas

Ann Griffin-Bernstorff is a native of Co. Limerick. Having trained as a horticulturist in France, she won the Taylor Art Scholarship in 1963, which saw her move to Paris to study at the Atelier Yves Brayer and Ecole des Beaux Arts. She then came to Dublin where she spent five years training and working as a picture restorer. In 1957 she married a Danish aristocrat, Count Gunnar Bernstorff, and they settled in Berkely Forest, an historic house near New Ross.
Ann Griffin-Bernstorff's art is encouraged by a number of influences. Having amassed a fine collection of antique dolls and costumes, her work conveys playful, almost storybook scenarios. She looks to Botticelli as well as early Dutch and Flemish artists. Even at a glance, the influence of the Old Masters is evident, but at the same time Ann’s work inspires an element of fun, drawn straight from her own imagination. The figures depicted in her paintings are plump and pale faced, their attire plucked from a stage costume wardrobe. Each scene is whimsical, often portraying brightly painted images of mythical creatures before a theatrical backdrop.
The on-going Ros Tapestry Project is a momentous community scheme based on art and history within the town of New Ross, County Wexford. The project has produced a tapestry comprised of fifteen large panels, each telling the story of the Normans coming to Ireland in the twelfth century. Ann acted as historian for the venture as well as painting the cartoons for each panel, while an assembly of volunteers workedon the stitching of each section.
Griffin-Bernstorf's work is to be found in the following Irish public collections: the Office of Public Works, National Self Portrait Collection, University of Limerick and the Lambert Modern Art Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham, Dublin. She has exhibited widely in Dublin, Wexford and Derry and internationally in London, Chicago, New York and Miami.