Gerard Dillon (1916-1971) "Belfast after the Blitz, c. 1941...

Hammer

€9,500

Gerard Dillon (1916-1971)

"Belfast after the Blitz, c. 1941-42," O.O.B., approx.  48cms x 62cms (19" x 24"), signed l.l. ‘Dillon’

Bears label, verso: ‘Arts Council of Ireland: Gerard Dillon Retrospective, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art. 5th Jan – 4th February 1973, Catalogue No. 16, ‘Belfast after the Blitz’, Owner Mr. Thomas Teevan’.

Exhibited:
Gerard Dillon Retrospective, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, Jan-Feb 1973, Cat. No. 16.

Dillon’s paintings often reflect the angst that had been a part of his life since his childhood in Belfast. Born in 1916, he grew up near the Falls Road, not far from Daniel O’Neill’s family home. Leaving school at the age of fourteen, Dillon moved to London, where he worked as a house painter. Later, while making his name as a full-time artist, he again worked on building sites to earn a living. On the outbreak of WWII, Dillon returned to Belfast, and in April 1941 witnessed the destruction of Belfast’s inner city and docklands by the Luftwaffe. Belfast after the Blitz records this traumatic and tragic event in the city’s history, when over one thousand houses were destroyed and almost one thousand people killed. The painting depicts not only bombed-out houses, but also, in the foreground, those made homeless by the blitz. The painting is marked with diagonal lines, scored into the paint surface by the artist, as a visual expression of his revulsion at what had happened.

Although he did not attend art college as a full-time student, from early on in his career Dillon’s work was championed, particularly by fellow-artist Mainie Jellett. He spent some of the war years in Dublin where, in 1942, Jellett opened his first exhibition. Dillon’s friendships with artists such as Daniel O’Neill, George Campbell, Noreen Rice and Nano Reid were important to him, and in the 1950s he enjoyed a considerable degree of success, exhibiting at the Waddington and Leicester galleries and in 1963 having a one-person show at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. In London, Dillon lived in his sister Molly’s house in Abbey Road, St. John’s Wood, in an artistic household. He represented Ireland at the Guggenheim International in 1958 and that same year, notwithstanding his Irish nationalist sympathies, represented Great Britain at the Pittsburgh International. Dillon travelled in Europe and taught for brief periods in London. In 1968 he was in Dublin, designing sets and costumes for Sean O’Casey’s play Juno and the Paycock. He died prematurely three years later, of the congenital heart condition that had already claimed the life of his three brothers. Belfast After the Blitz was in the collection of Thomas Teevan, a distinguished lawyer who in 1953-54 served as Attorney-General of Ireland. The judge, in a celebrated court case where Patrick Kavanagh sued a newspaper for libel in a celebrated court case where Patrick Kavanagh sued a newspaper for libel.


Provenance: Collection of Thomas Teevan, Dublin. A distinguished lawyer and judge, Thomas Teevan served as Attorney General of Ireland in 1953-54.

Peter Murray 2024