Roderic O'Conor

Roland, Browse & Delbanco, London;
Dr. H. Mayer, 1958;
Browse & Darby, London, 1991;
Private Collection

London, Roland, Browse & Delbanco, Christmas present exhibition, 1961, no. 78;
London, Roland, Browse & Delbanco, Roderic O'Conor, Norman Adams, 1964, no. 16;
Sydney, David Jones' Art Gallery, Matthew Smith, Roderic O'Conor, 1965, no. 26;
London, Browse & Darby, Roderic O'Conor 1860-1940, 1994, no. 5, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue.

Jonathan Benington, Roderic O'Conor, a biography with a catalogue of his work, Dublin 1992, p.193, no. 35, illustrated pl.16.

The colours are richer and more vibrant and the surface more textured than the illustration suggests. The board is very slightly bowed along the upper edge. There is some very minor paint separation to the background and there is an old sensitive repair to a fine hairline split to the board across the upper left corner, visible in the catalogue illustration, otherwise in good overall condition with strong passages of toothpaste impasto throughout, notably to the fruit. Under ultraviolet light, there are a few areas which flouresce around the fruit however these appear to be dark pigments reacting under the light. There are some very sensitive retouchings corresponding to the aforementioned split and some further very minor flecks of retouching scattered in the background. Held in a painted wood frame.
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Strangely, no still lifes by O'Conor survive that pre-date his 1891 arrival in Pont-Aven. Although this does not necessarily mean he avoided the subject prior to that date (the pictures being lost or destroyed), he must subsequently have been inspired by the fact that most of his Pont-Aven School colleagues were regular still life practitioners, taking a leaf from Gauguin's book, who in turn looked to Cézanne, the doyenne of modern still life painting. Before assuming too much of O'Conor's followership, however, it is worth noting that Gauguin's penchant for imbuing his still lifes with symbolic or personal meaning was of no interest to the young Irishman.

Apples and pear is one of just six 'striped' still lifes by O'Conor that are extant  from the years 1892-94. All six depict unsophisticated objects that came readily to hand in the Breton market town and port of Pont-Aven, ranging from hand-painted pottery jugs and bowls to fruit, flowers, cider bottles and even a glass fishing float. He clearly saw his still lifes as celebrations of regional distinctiveness, of Brittany's earthy peasant values and the fertility of the harvest. The fact did not escape Marie-Jeanne Gloanec, owner of the bohemian Pension Gloanec in Pont-Aven, who acquired from her guest another of his still lifes of apples to use as decoration for her inn (Benington, op. cit., cat. no. 36).

Apples and pear is unusual in that the objects are placed directly on a tabletop or ledge, devoid of receptacles, with sunlight streaming down from a window located above and just behind the four fruits. They are thus viewed contrejour, thrown into stark relief by the intense raking light. At the base of each fruit is a vestigial shadow, its darkness contrasting with the adjacent underside that has been warmed by the reflected light from the white cloth. Such telling observation is, of necessity, tempered with the need to create a picture surface that functions as a harmonious entity in its own right. Hence red is contrasted with vivid green, bright orange with sky blue - like Van Gogh, O'Conor not only exaggerates local colours but also juxtaposes complimentary hues in order to heighten the impact of his composition. The effect is to make the fruit appear to come out of the picture towards us, aided immeasurably by pushing the pear into the foreground, with its stem pointed tantalisingly towards the viewer.

Jonathan Benington