Patrick Swift

The Estate of the Artist

Original canvas. It has a slightly uneven surface otherwise appears in good original condition. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be no signs of retouching. Held in a cream moulded plaster frame.
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'The use of muted colours - so quiet at times that the paintings could almost be called monochromes; the elimination of any attempt to reproduce effects of light and shade, beyond the minimum of shading necessary to clarify the shapes; and the smooth, flat paint all contribute towards the atmosphere of heightened realism which, though reminiscent at times of Lucian Freud, is intensely personal and strangely disturbing.' (Tony Gray, The Irish Times, Review of Patrick Swift Exhibition, Waddington Galleries, 3 October 1952). 

In 1952 Swift had a studio in Hatch Street, which he shared with Lucian Freud who was then a frequent visitor to Dublin, coinciding with his courtship of Lady Caroline Blackwood. They shared a similar approach to painting at this time, employing a strange realism and pictorial perspective which had the ability to instill the everyday with a feeling of tension and otherness. A large personality and energetic, insightful critic (he co-edited the short-lived but influential X magazine which championed the likes of David Bomberg and Frank Auerbach), he was a one of the most significant Irish artists of his generation. At the time of his first show at Victor Waddington Galleries in 1952, a contemporary critic wrote: 'The appearance of Swift on the Irish scene is refreshing and should stimulate his contemporaries and those of us who were beginning to despair of anything new happening in this particular field' (John Ryan, Envoy: A Review of Literature and Art, July 1952, vol.5/20)