Gerard Dillon, R.H.A., R.U.A. 1916-1971

Alongside the lyrical landscapes of the West of Ireland, Dillon’s favourite painting location in the 1940s and early 50s, it was the local people of Connemara that particularly intrigued the artist; ‘these people are a race apart, very friendly and polite, they never intrude. They carry this politeness to a degree unbelievable to me…’ (Dillon, ‘Connemara is Ireland to me’, quoted in James White, Gerard Dillon, Dublin 1994, p.72).  In the present work, the two women stare out directly at the viewer, immediately engaging us within the composition.  The bare-footed protagonist is clearly wearing the characteristic West of Ireland shawl and head scarf in contrast to her brightly coloured skirt. In the distance, another woman wearing the traditional shawl stands silhouetted by the characteristic Connemara lough and mountain landscape.  Dillon’s fascination with the enigmatic nature of the local people is further highlighted by the simple title of the present work, Mystery.  

The stone wall across the centre of the composition is particularly significant as it was the traditional walls which break up the West of Ireland landscape creating distinctive patterns of enclosed spaces that especially appealed to Dillon’s sense of design.  They clearly inspired the organisation of compositions such as his seminal West of Ireland Landscape (fig.1, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin) and in the present work, rather than merely providing the motif by which to divide different parts of the composition, the ‘lace like stone wall’ (Dillon, ibid., p.71) features at the centre of the composition, highlighting its importance to Dillon.

The Celtic-inspired naïve yet stylised forms of the composition mark a particular period in Dillon’s oeuvre before he embarked on a more abstract idiom in the late 1950s. The specific focus in Mystery on the people of Connemara, as well as the cat in the foreground, one of Dillon’s favourite motifs, also celebrates his affinity with the West of Ireland and his vision of it as an ideal Ireland.