Gerard Dillon

Purchased by the father of the present owner in the early 1960s and thence by descent

Dublin, Victor Waddington Galleries, Summer Exhibition, Contemporary Irish Painting and Sculpture, July-August 1953, no.10;
New York, JFK Airport, Aer Lingus Exhibition, 1963

The board appears to be sound and the work in good original condition. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be no signs of retouching. Held in a dark stained wood composite frame.
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‘You don’t know the wonderful holiday in store for you, over here. Why don’t you come over and give your eyes a thrill?’ (Dillon in a letter quoted from James White, Gerard Dillon, An Illustrated Biography, Dublin, 1994, p.72)

For Gerard Dillon, the summer of 1939 changed everything. Exhausted by urban life in Belfast and London, it was time for a holiday. With his close friend, Ernie Atkins, Dillon set off on a cycling tour of Ireland, chasing the simplicity and light of the Irish countryside. It was here that Dillon discovered the magic of Connemara, the setting of Potato Patch. Deliberately naïve, effortlessly poetic, the present work captures a landscape of pastoral bliss, where emerald grasslands and sapphire waters infuse the work with a sense of colour and joy, a peaceful innocence which offered relief from urban claustrophobia and unrest. Yet, more than the beauty of the land, was the beauty of the people. Indeed, the occupants of this untouched idyll captivated the young artist: ‘the changes of costumes, speaking voices and general easy pace of the life of the people… caught him unawares’ (White, op.cit., p.34). They were, in essence, ‘the visible symbols of the country he had dimly dreamt of and idyllically desired to belong to’ (ibid). For Dillon, Connemara was home. His muse, his magic, Connemara’s raw, picturesque beauty held him like no other, inspiring some of Dillon’s most celebrated works.

The present work was exhibited in New York in October 1963 in conjunction with an expedition of over 130 representatives of industrial designers and artists (Dillon included) from Ireland. They were flown out to America with the Irish Trade and Culture delegation following the visit of President Kennedy to Ireland in June that year. 

We are grateful to Karen Reihill for her kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.