Lot 52: EDWARD MCGUIRE RHA 1932-1986 DEAD BIRD Oil on

EDWARD MCGUIRE RHA 1932-1986 DEAD BIRD Oil on canvas, 14" x 12" (36 x 30.5cm), signed; dated 1959 label verso. Provenance: Dawson Gallery (label verso). Edward McGuire, former member of Aosdána, was the son of Edward McGuire senior, a senator and amateur artist. For this reason McGuire signed his name Edward Augustine initially but quickly found acclaim and dropped his middle name in his sig4nature. He underwent training in Florence, Rome and the Slade School in London and spent time living in France, as well as the Aran Islands off the coast of Galway. McGuire was a wellknown portraitist but the greatest section of his work was dedicated to his paintings of dead birds such as this one. On his colour, Dorothy Walker notes that he takes no specific pleasure in the use of colour and was influenced by Rene Magritte. This painting is typical of this restraint in colour with its narrow range of dull blues and greens. Upon being asked why he painted dead birds McGuire wittily replied "becausethey do not move" However, success in McGuire's paintings is, in part, due to the artist making these dead birds appear alive. (See Sailing to Byzantium: The Portraits of Edward McGuire by Dorothy Walker in Irish Arts Review Winter 1987)