Mainie Jellett 1897-1944

The Hon. Robert Fermor-Hesketh

Bruce Arnold, Mainie Jellett and the Modern Movement in Ireland, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1991, p.101, pl.140, illustrated.

As Bruce Arnold points out in Mainie Jellett and the Modern Movement in Ireland (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1991, p.82) Jellett was ten years clear of Ben Nicholson in consistently producing pure abstract compositions. By 1925 her work was on view alongside that of Picasso and Robert Delauney at the Versailles exhibition L'Art d'Aujourd'hui. Jellett's work stood as a beacon of Modernism in Ireland; her example acted both as a powerful spur to young artists such as Gerard Dillon and a persistent thorn to traditionalist critics such as AE. In 1926, the year in which this work was painted, she began a long series of lectures on modern art (the first of which was entitled 'Cubism and Subsequent Movements in Painting') which underlined her position as an important modernist figure, not just in Ireland but of international standing. As Jellett's most perceptive critic, Bruce Arnold has written, 'I make no secret of the fact that I regard her, not just as an interesting person, or as an interesting historical or artistic phenomenon but, quite simply, an outstanding creative figure in twentieth century art, as a dominating influence in Irish art of her time.' (op.cit., p.viii).