‘One could live here forever but being neither a fisherman nor a farmer but only a painter, I’m forced to come back to city life to sell work – and hope to save enough to come back to Connemara.’
Like many Irish artists of the 20th century, Dillon fell under the spell of the West of Ireland, enchanted by the beauty of the landscape, the people and the simplicity of the way of life. Few rendered that magical enchantment as poetically as Gerard Dillon in his paintings of the West. Dillon had the ability to weave the landscape and the people integrally together, as vital parts of one another. This was in part realised through his unacademic approach to painting - he didn’t let principles restrict his vision; rather in employing a direct, child-like and rhythmical approach he was able capture the essence of life on this edge of Western Europe far more powerfully, and poignantly. The Fisherman’s Cottage exemplifies this - a significant rediscovery emerging in public for the first time.
It is set on Inishlacken, a small rugged island off Roundstone, visible in the distance. Despite its isolation, it is a bustle of activity - two fishermen stand in front of a thatched roof cottage with peat stacked against it, one holds a pair of oars; sprawled among them are chickens, a duck, a cat, cattle in the distance and various tools of their trade, most essentially fishing nets laid out to dry. Their very existence depended on such nets to sustain their livelihoods, families and communities. Visible to the edges of the net in the painting are pieces of cork - this allowed the nets to float on the surface and entangle unsuspecting fish. The fisherman’s boats in which the nets would be taken are resting on land, awaiting their next journey. How long such lives could continue, and how they had altered already, is evoked in the derelict cottages visible in the background.
Full of life and rhythm, the painting is testament to the joy Dillon experienced here, a world removed from his upbringing in the terraced houses of Belfast. Viewed from the 21st century, it also stands as an important record of what was then already a vanishing way of life. These works, especially of the quality of The Fisherman’s Cottage, capture the distinct spirit of the West in a manner unique to Dillon, and are deservedly recognised as some of the most celebrated paintings in the canon of 20th century Irish art.