Beschreibung:

SANDCASTLES George Russell "AE" (1867-1935)
Signature: signed with monogram lower right Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 41 by 53cm., 16 by 21in. This painting is most likely to have been inspired and painted at Marble Hill in Co. Donegal. Æ spent many of his summer holidays from about 1904 until his last visit in 1934 in the area, either as a ... guest of the Law family - whom he knew well - or as a paying guest in cottages nearby. The ‘river in the sand’ which appears in many of his Donegal paintings, is a feature of Marble Hill strand, although what was once a considerable flow of water is now little more than a trickle. Æ dedicated a copy of his book Enchantment and Other Poems to a friend with one of his characteristic drawings and the following words: “…this is the ‘fawn-coloured shore’ where many of my verses were written. It is at Marble Hill strand, Dunfanaghy and it is my Earthly Paradise”. Enchantment is the title of a poem Æ wrote about Marble Hill. In this painting, Æ has depicted a fawn coloured shore where three children are just completing an elaborate sand castle. The girl on the right holds a flag high in the air with both hands – possibly about to place the flag in triumph on the top of the sandcastle. Or has she, perhaps, mischievously whisked the flag from the top of the castle? Æ loved to paint children at play and is well known to have included in many of his paintings the children of Hugh Law, Nationalist MP for West Donegal and his artist wife, Lota. Æ often painted with Lota Law during his visits to Donegal. Anecdotes tell of Æ holding informal exhibitions at the end of his holidays in Donegal and inviting friends and local people to look at, and purchase, his paintings to supplement his income. Diana Beale, August 2003 (who is preparing a book on Æ as a painter more