Howard Helmick 1840-1907
The Village Schoolmaster
Oil on canvas, 59.2 x 48 cm.
Signed and dated ‘H. Helmick, 1881’, lower left
Exhibited: probably, ‘The Village Schoolmaster’, Irish Exhibition in London, 1888; Gorry Gallery, 17th-20th Century Irish Paintings, December 5th-18th 2010, catalogue no. 22, where purchased by the present owner
In addition to complex compositions such as Cottage Interior with a Family Gathered Around a Hearth, or narratives, for example Presents for the Priest, Helmick enjoyed painting single figures, often professionals such as this schoolmaster, engaged with marked concentration in a humdrum task, here sharpening a quill pen. A lawyer, or clerk, engaged in the same task is the subject of A Faulty Quill of 1882. Presumably the teacher is awaiting his class or has completed his duties for the day. On a surprisingly elegant table sit the books of his profession while hanging on a roughly rendered wall behind him is an alphabet chart. In Ireland, its Scenery and Character, Samuel and Anna Maria Hall gave a jaundiced account of the profession: ‘The high estimate in which the people, generally, hold “learning”…induce them not only to tolerate his evil habits, but tacitly to allow him a very perilous influence over their principles and conduct’. It is made clear, however, that the reason for the suspicion that the teacher attracted was political: ‘there is abundant evidence [that] the origin of nearly every illegal association may be traced to the cabin of a village schoolmaster’ (1841, ed 1860, p. 363). Indeed, many Irish revolutionaries, Éamon de Valera and, most famously, Patrick Pearse were schoolteachers.