Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 30th April 2018 at 6pm

70 Barrie Cooke HRHA ( - ) woMAn unDer slieVe nA gluisADh oil on canvas on board 146 x 129cm (57.48 x 50.79in) Provenance: Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin; Purchased by Alan Tate Esq, April 1965; James Wray Gallery, Belfast; Private Collection Through the first half of the 1960s, Barrie Cooke created a series of Sheela-na-Gigs, paintings usually incorporating modelled ceramic figures based on the mysterious rock carvings of female figures in several parts of Ireland. Spending time in Holland in 1964, he was struck by the related thought that the figure of a woman might reside within those rock mounds in the Burren - a vital presence in an enclosing, nutritive space - and made a series of paintings, collectively titled Woman in the Burren, based on the idea. Here he locates the figure more precisely, but it’s likely that Slieve na Gluisadh is a misspelling. He may well have had in mind Slieve na Glaisé near Kilnaboy, the home of a mythical, magical cow called Glas Ghoibhneach. €4,000-6,000 (£3,478-5,217)