Mary Swanzy, H.R.H.A.

Pyms Gallery, London;
Whyte's, Dublin, 28 November 2006, lot 77, where purchased by the present owner

Dublin, Oireachtas Art Exhibition, 1977;
London, Pyms Gallery, Mary Swanzy HRHA, 30 September - 25 October 1986, no.4

Original canvas. Undulates slightly in the upper left corner. Some isolated spots of surface dirt and a few minor flecks of paint loss near the centre of the very lower edge (below the boat). Overall, the work appears in good overall condition. Under ultraviolet light, there is possibly a small area of retouching near upper right edge and a fleck to the right side of the far red bridge in the distance, but may also be a result of the pigment used by the artist. Held in a gilt composite frame.
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Throughout her career, Mary Swanzy’s art defied easy categorisation. Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism and Expressionism have all been applied to her work at one stage or another as she transcended artistic styles, freely and effortlessly. What this does reveal is a confident self-belief and a pioneering spirit that can be considered the defining character of her work, and this is perhaps no more felt than in her Cubist-inspired paintings, embodied in the present Cubist Landscape with Red Pagoda and Bridge.

It is hard to imagine now how radical an image such as the present would have been in conservative 1920s Dublin. Here was a woman artist bringing a revolutionary new art to a visual culture largely steeped in academic tradition. Yet Swanzy had escaped such confines as a young student, travelling to Paris in 1905 where she encountered French modernism directly. That year the Fauves caused a scandal at the Salon d’Automne and Swanzy would have seen the avant-garde art adorning the walls of Gertrude Stein’s apartment where she attended one of Stein’s famous soirées. She had encountered the work of Picasso and Braque and in 1914 exhibited at the Salon des Independants in the company of Robert Delaunay and other Cubists.  There is no doubt experiencing the bravura of these works  inspired her feeling for colour and bold execution, aligning with her own independent nature.  

In Cubist Landscape with Red Pagoda and Bridge, the overlapping planes, lines and arcs demonstrate Swanzy’s keen understanding of how geometric construction could bring a new visual language to painting. Her sense of colour, and skilful application of it, synthesise with the geometric shapes to create a lively and rhythmical surface that seduces the eye. In this manner, the work reveals the influence of the exciting modernist developments in France, echoing Cubism and the influence of Delaunay’s Orphism; the red pagoda finds parallels with his celebrated Eiffel Tower series that the artist painted between 1909-12 and 1920-30, showing a similar concern for form evoked through planes and contrasting colours.  With this bold approach Swanzy put herself at the forefront of a new avant-garde in Ireland, anticipating the likes of Mainie Jellet and Evie Hone. Cubist Landscape with Red Pagoda and Bridge sings with modernity, and emphasises beyond doubt Swanzy’s integral place within Irish 20^th century art - a truly original and inventive artist.