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17. Erskine Nicol R.S.A., A.R.A. 1825-1904
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‘River Landscape with Figures in a Boat, near Derravaragh, County Westmeath’
Oil on Canvas, 32 x 53cm
Signed ‘E.Nicol A.R.S.A.’ and dated (18)57
The children of Lir were condemned to live out their curse on Derravaragh Lake, depicted here by Scottish painter Erskine Nicol (1825-1904). Nicol represented this legendary spot with realistic reeds, bulrushes and willows. He also illustrated the mirror-like effect of its water, as he painted the reflection of his characters on the lake, as if these peasants’ identity could not be separated from it. This was a meaningful message just after the Famine, when two million Irish emigrated. Nicol first came to Ireland during these hard times, in 1846. Throughout the 1850s, he sketched rustic life and met the Dublin elite, like the father of Oscar Wilde, William, who knew Derravaragh, and might have encouraged Nicol to visit it.
Nicol often painted the bustling life around the lake (see Amélie Dochy, A Scot in Victorian Ireland, forthcoming). This scene from 1857 documents how Clonava inhabitants lived on the cutting and rearing of turf, that they carried along the lake on a ‘cot’ - a boat with flat bottom - and then on the old bog road. To do so, turf was transported on a ‘kish’, a large wicker basket sometimes mounted on a cart, and pulled by a donkey, as painted by Nicol. Above the kish, an old woman looks at figures who are digging turf in the distance. The golden light falling on her shawl reveals the thick impasto bringing life to her garments, and the red colour of her skirt is vibrant. To her right, another peasant smokes a pipe, a signifier of Irishness, and his neighbour is busy rowing, while the eldest is sitting at the helm. The other rower has also taken off his jacket, revealing his bright shirt as well as his efforts at moving the load. Further left, a couple looks down, finishing the triangular composition suggesting rural unity.
This unity was necessary to survive difficult conditions, in particular when Sir Percy Nugent asked his tenants to pay for the use of the new road and canal constructed in 1844. This was the reality faced by the Kellys, Blakes, Mulloys, Farrells, Nallys, Meehans or Coxes, potentially portrayed here. Despite the physical difficulties of rural work, added to the economic pressures exerted by landlords, the picture conveys hope. The small cottages huddled together in the background suggest solidarity, and the smoke coming out of their chimneys conveys homeliness, while the gesture of the man pointing at the horizon expresses a sense of destiny. These symbols indicate that the solidarity and unity of these tenants will defeat adversity, so that the oil glimmers with hope for a better future and, just as in the painting, a new dawn is breaking.
Dr A. Dochy
Price: Enquire
‘River Landscape with Figures in a Boat, near Derravaragh, County Westmeath’
Oil on Canvas, 32 x 53cm
Signed ‘E.Nicol A.R.S.A.’ and dated (18)57
The children of Lir were condemned to live out their curse on Derravaragh Lake, depicted here by Scottish painter Erskine Nicol (1825-1904). Nicol represented this legendary spot with realistic reeds, bulrushes and willows. He also illustrated the mirror-like effect of its water, as he painted the reflection of his characters on the lake, as if these peasants’ identity could not be separated from it. This was a meaningful message just after the Famine, when two million Irish emigrated. Nicol first came to Ireland during these hard times, in 1846. Throughout the 1850s, he sketched rustic life and met the Dublin elite, like the father of Oscar Wilde, William, who knew Derravaragh, and might have encouraged Nicol to visit it.
Nicol often painted the bustling life around the lake (see Amélie Dochy, A Scot in Victorian Ireland, forthcoming). This scene from 1857 documents how Clonava inhabitants lived on the cutting and rearing of turf, that they carried along the lake on a ‘cot’ - a boat with flat bottom - and then on the old bog road. To do so, turf was transported on a ‘kish’, a large wicker basket sometimes mounted on a cart, and pulled by a donkey, as painted by Nicol. Above the kish, an old woman looks at figures who are digging turf in the distance. The golden light falling on her shawl reveals the thick impasto bringing life to her garments, and the red colour of her skirt is vibrant. To her right, another peasant smokes a pipe, a signifier of Irishness, and his neighbour is busy rowing, while the eldest is sitting at the helm. The other rower has also taken off his jacket, revealing his bright shirt as well as his efforts at moving the load. Further left, a couple looks down, finishing the triangular composition suggesting rural unity.
This unity was necessary to survive difficult conditions, in particular when Sir Percy Nugent asked his tenants to pay for the use of the new road and canal constructed in 1844. This was the reality faced by the Kellys, Blakes, Mulloys, Farrells, Nallys, Meehans or Coxes, potentially portrayed here. Despite the physical difficulties of rural work, added to the economic pressures exerted by landlords, the picture conveys hope. The small cottages huddled together in the background suggest solidarity, and the smoke coming out of their chimneys conveys homeliness, while the gesture of the man pointing at the horizon expresses a sense of destiny. These symbols indicate that the solidarity and unity of these tenants will defeat adversity, so that the oil glimmers with hope for a better future and, just as in the painting, a new dawn is breaking.
Dr A. Dochy