Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 29th April 2019

46 38 Richard Thomas Moynan RHA (1856-1906) Hulk of awooden boat at clontarf (1889) signed ‘Moynan 1889’ lower left oil on canvas 35.25 x 53cm (14 x 21in) Provenance: Private Collection €8,000-€12,000 ($8,988-$13,483) (£6,779-£10,169) Depicting the hull of a wooden boat, resting on the beach at Clontarf, this painting fits in with Richard Thomas Moynan’s interest in depicting everyday scenes. The derelict boat, probably a yacht or lugger, is silhouetted against the sky, its ribs dark outlines against the blue sky and white clouds. In the background can be seen the Dublin mountains. A jetty leads down the water’s edge; beside the jetty a man stands, looking out to sea. A tall flagpole, with a flag flying from a crosstree, suggests that the hulk is beside a yacht club. Perhaps the most outstanding visual chronicler of life in Dublin in the later nineteenth century. Moynan’s work is Realist in style, his genre paintings portraying both middle-class and working-class people. He seems not to have been greatly interested in a career as a society portraitist, although he did a number of such portraits. There is a modern feel to his work, an awareness of social divisions and of personal narratives. There is also a Proustian quality to his desire to capture the flavor of a moment, one that at the time might seem transitory or inconsequential. Many of his paintings, while large in scale and highly finished, are almost like snapshot views of an event. Born on the South Circular Road, Moynan studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons, before enrolling at the Metropolitan School of Art (now NCAD), where he was a fellow student of Roderick O’Conor. Moynan’s depiction of a famous scene in the Zulu wars, The Last Stand of the 24 th at Isandula, painted when he was twenty-seven years old, shows his alertness to news and world events, and won him a scholarship. Continuing his studies in Antwerp in 1884, he gained more awards, his skill in figure painting resulting in personal tuition by Charles Verlat. After a spell in Paris, at the Academie Julian, Moynan returned to Dublin in 1886, setting up a studio in Harold’s Cross. This is the large room that appears in his 1888 We Hope We Don’t Intrude , looking every bit a Parisian atelier, down to the skylights and cast-iron stove. Another painting, What Does it Want? (1887) depicts the interior of an art college, the title suggesting a query posed, as to how a painting might be completed. The artist’s sister Marguerite was the model for Moynan’s 1889 painting Afternoon Tea , while his wife Suzanna, and their children, Eileen Nora and Richard Francis also appeared in his paintings—Susanna (who was also the artist’s cousin) being the model for What Does it Want? . Politically a Conservative, Moynan worked also as a newspaper illustrator, working under the name ‘Lex’. He was a popular artist and in 1889 was elected President of the Dublin Sketching Club. Exhibiting regularly at the RHA between 1880 and 1905, in 1890 he was elected a member of the Academy. The following year his most popular painting, Military Manoeuvres (NGI), depicting children playing at being a military band, was shown at the RHA. Moynan’s work with the Masonic Orphan Schools resulted in other paintings depicting scenes of childhood; including Tug of War , Ball in the Cap (1893) and The Travelling Show, depicting a Punch and Judy show in a small country village, exhibited at the RHA in 1892. Ultimately, a combination of ill-health and heavy drinking resulted in his death, aged just fifty, in 1906. Peter Murray, March 2019