Patrick Swift

In early the 1950s Patrick Swift produced a series of compelling works featuring figures and foliage; as the decade progressed the figure gave way and Swift devoted his attention to foliage only. Two such works were exhibited at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1956 where the Irish Times reviewed remarked on the 'intensity of their scrutiny' - equally apt for the present example. 

Swift's forensic, psychological and arresting visual imagery marked the emergence of an exciting new talent on the contemporary art scene in Dublin in the 1950s. The paintings produced in this period, and in works such as Verdant Ash Trees, reveal his shared interests with that of Lucian Freud, who visited Swift's studio on his visits to Dublin.