Roderic O'Conor 1860-1940

The Artist's Studio
Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente O'Conor, 7th February 1956
(Possibly) Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London
Grant Fine Art, Newcastle

Painted circa 1911. Between 1909 and 1911 O’Conor painted a series of nudes in interiors for which an attractive, slimly built model with short dark hair was asked to pose in a variety of languid attitudes. The most famous of these is the Reclining Nude before a Mirror in the National Gallery of Ireland, showing the model posed horizontally and viewed from behind. Nude on a Couch belongs to this series, sharing with its companions a colour range centred on blue, mauve and pink. Another characteristic of this group is a tendency to suggest forms rather than to describe them literally. Hence in this painting the features of the model are not delineated.

The artist’s aim in painting this series was to evoke an atmosphere of relaxed domesticity, of intimacy, equivalent to that found in the intimiste works of Bonnard and Vuillard which he so admired. The identity and personality of the model were therefore of little importance to O’Conor, who sought instead to focus attention on the quality of light falling on the model, and also the balance of colours afforded by the inclusion of rich draperies.

Although the eyes of the model are not featured in this painting, the frontal pose of the figure and the positioning of the head convey a strong sense that she is looking at the viewer. The face has a distinctly ovoid shape, reminiscent of the type favoured by Modigliani in his studies of female models. The similarity may well have been intended rather than accidental, for O’Conor had been quick to spot the talent of his Montparnassian neighbour, acquiring an oil painting, a drawing and a gouache by him.

Jonathan Benington, 2004