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Artist: William Conor RHA RUA ROI (1881-1968) Title: The Donkey - Cart (1923) Signature: signed lower right, titled and dated verso Medium: oil on canvas Size: 61 x 51cm (24 x 20.1in) Framed Size: 86.7 x 76.5cm (34.1 x 30.1in) Provenance: Ross's, Belfast; Private Collection a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} In this everyday scene, painted in 1923, a family on a donkey cart pass a man walking along the road. The location is not identified, nor is there information about the people depicted. Seated on the cart, a shawled woman with a baby in her arms smiles at the passing walker. Holding the donkey's rei... Read more In this everyday scene, painted in 1923, a family on a donkey cart pass a man walking along the road. The location is not identified, nor is there information about the people depicted. Seated on the cart, a shawled woman with a baby in her arms smiles at the passing walker. Holding the donkey's reins, her partner, his face partly shadowed by a grey hat, is less forthcoming. Conor captures a fleeting moment. The man on the road, heading to an unknown destination, carries a box under his arm - judging by its design, it may contain a comb for carding flax. Neither is there a clue as to the destination of the family on the cart. Similarly, there is no detail of trees, fields or sky. A rough stone boundary wall appears only as a diagonal line in the lower left corner, while the shadows cast by the figures form simple outlines on the grey road. Yet the encounter, on a quiet country road, invites speculation. By eliminating nearly all background and foreground detail, Conor focuses attention on the group of people, and on their chance encounter. While a visual record of one particular everyday incident, the painting is also a quiet homage to the lives of many. Born in Belfast in 1881 and trained at the Government School of Design (now the Belfast College of Art), William Conor remains one of Ireland's best-loved artists of the twentieth century. After working initially as a commercial artist and lithographer, during World War I he received a significant commission, to paint portraits of solders and others involved in the war effort. By 1920, he had moved to London, where his work was promoted by fellow-Belfast artist, the portrait painter John Lavery In 1922, Conor was recommended by Lavery for another prestigious commission, to record on canvas the ceremonial opening of Parliament in Northern Ireland, and over the following decades, he received regular commissions to paint portraits of judges, politicians, aristocrats and army officers. However, today Conor is better known for his depictions of the ordinary working people of Belfast and its surroundings; the shipbuilders, labourers, street musicians and washerwomen who struggled to maintain a livelihood, often in conditions of adversity. He painted shoppers in Belfast, their umbrellas raised to protect against driving rain, itinerant workers trudging along the road, and children playing in the street. Yet in spite of the hardships they faced, these people are depicted by Conor as resolute, smiling and cheerful, and the perennial popularity of his art is based largely on the respect he showed for people from all walks of life. Peter Murray, October 2020