Gary Trimble, A.R.HA. (1928-1979) "Sean Keating," bronze, m...

Hammer

€1,500

Gary Trimble, A.R.HA. (1928-1979)

"Sean Keating," bronze, mounted on white marble, signed  in initials on back, approx. 51cms (20") high overall. (1)

With its robust and vigorous modelling, Trimble’s portrait bust of Sean Keating captures perfectly the individualistic personality of the sitter. Keating is portrayed as weather-beaten and bearded. His quizzical expression is reminiscent of an Aran fisherman. A renowned figurative painter, Sean Keating held the people of the Aran Islands in high regard, seeing in them an honesty and grace that was rapidly being lost in Ireland as the twentieth century advanced. Trimble shared Keating’s vision, and many of his bronze portrait busts are of remarkable individuals who contributed to a sense of nation; artists, actors and writers. He sculpted portrait busts of writers James Joyce and James Plunkett, the jockey Lester Piggott, political leaders Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera, artist Christy Brown and the actor Cyril Cusack. He also sculpted animals, as with his 1978 bronze Panther and his 1973 King of the Burren. Trimble’s bronzes were generally cast in the Dublin Art Foundry.
 
Born in 1928, Gary Trimble trained as an architect, qualifying from UCD in 1952. He exhibited with the RHA from 1959 onwards. While working with the Office of Public Works, he also made sculptures, often for new schools being built by the State. His War of Independence memorial, representing three figures on a tall stone base, was unveiled in 1963, at Elphin in Co. Roscommon. Ten years later Trimble retired from the OPW, to concentrate on his sculpture. His first one-person exhibition was held in Dublin in 1971, but his career was tragically cut short when he died in a road accident eight years later.

Peter Murray 2024

 Provenance: The Bell Gallery, the Personal Collection of Nelson Bell.