Beschreibung:

Gerard Dillon (1916 - 1971)
Couple on a Cart
Oil on board, 33 x 42.5cm (13 x 16¾")
Signed
 
Gerard Dillon’s Couple on a Cart is a beautifully rendered painting featuring a couple seated upon a cart that is just out of view of the composition, in a moody west of Ireland landscape. A particularly intimate scene, there is an intensity and undeniable tension between the couple. Although we don’t know for certain the couple’s relationship, we could infer from Dillon’s title that they may be romantic partners. There is an intensiveness to their gazes, one of weariness and tiredness. With the moody sky in the background, Dillon may be depicting the couple’s journey home after a long day working. The blue-grey sky he has painted gives an ominous feeling to the composition, further adding to the overall tension in this painting. 
 
The west of Ireland held a special place in Dillon’s life, becoming a constant motif within his oeuvre, a concept he often revisited time and time again. The west of Ireland had a magnetic pull upon artists, writers and travellers, having its own history, mythology and even its own sense of dress. It’s natural beauty inspired countless artists, who, like Dillon, often spent time painting and depicting the landscape for the rest of Ireland, and the world, to appreciate. Born into a large working class family in West Belfast, Dillon moved to London at the age of 18 to escape the societal restrictions placed upon him in Belfast. Although he spent most of his time between Belfast, Dublin and London, Dillon often returned to the west of Ireland, lured back by its incredible beauty that could not be found within these urban cities. Dillon often depicted snapshots into the way of life in the west of Ireland, from domestic scenes in The Yellow Bungalow (1954) and Kitchen Interior (1957), to workers working in the fields in Potato Pickers (1944) to depictions of the ethereal landscapes, as seen in West of Ireland Landscape (c. 1945) and The Black Pond (1957). 
 
Dillon’s application of paint in Couple on a Cart shows us how strong and competent a painter he was. His rendering of the background, from the cottages to the stone walls, both often found throughout the west of Ireland, have been done with quick, confident and deliberate marks which have then been built up further to give the appearance of stone work. His brushstrokes also give a sense of depth to the painting, allowing us to feel as if we ourselves are experiencing the rolling hills the couple have just travelled over. There is a Madonna-esque quality to the pose of the female figure, her head tilted as she gazes upon her companion. Dillon often included religious iconography in his paintings as reference to his Catholic upbringing. Both figures in the painting wear traditional west of Ireland clothing. The female figure, with a lightweight shawl draped over her head, with her male companion dressed in traditional fisherman garb, with his waistcoat over his Aran jumper, named after the islands off the coast of Galway, which have been beautifully rendered by Dillon. Interestingly, Dillon’s colour choice helps us understand the relationship between the two figures, with the red of the shawl and the green of the Aran jumper. In colour theory, red and green are complimentary colours, opposite on the colour wheel. In depicting both figures in these complimentary colours, Dillon is not only creating a sense of unity and visual harmony for the viewer but a sense of unity amongst the figures. 
 
Patrick Hickey August 2023