Harry Kernoff, R.H.A. 1900-1974

Part of the Dublin drinking scene since 1889, Davy Byrne's pub was a regular haunt of Harry Kernoff who used it as his theme for a number of canvases and colourful watercolours during the mid-1930s. The present work, a study for the large oil of the same subject (sold in these rooms, 18th May 2001, lot 220), shows Kernoff himself seated at the bar in characteristic trilby and glasses, alongside Davy Byrne and the set designer Martin Murphy. The pub counted amongst its regulars numerous artists and writers (including James Joyce who mentions Davy Byrne's in both Dubliners and Ulysses) as well as various thespians from the nearby Gate Theatre where Murphy and Kernoff worked together on a number of avant-garde set designs.