Kieran O'Boyle
Head of Ireland & Northen Ireland
Lot 3*
Colin Middleton R.H.A.(Irish, 1910-1983)Landscape with bridge and chimney 51 x 61 cm. (20 x 24 in.)
17 – 28 November 2023, 14:00 GMT
Dublin€15,000 - €20,000
Looking for a similar item?
Our specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Kevin Gaines
Senior Client Liaison
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
Colin Middleton R.H.A. (Irish, 1910-1983)
Landscape with bridge and chimney
signed 'Colin M' (lower right)
oil on canvas
51 x 61 cm. (20 x 24 in.)
Painted circa 1943-4
signed 'Colin M' (lower right)
oil on canvas
51 x 61 cm. (20 x 24 in.)
Painted circa 1943-4
Footnotes
Provenance
Purchased by the father of the present owner in Belfast, circa 1960-64
Thence by family descent
Private Collection, U.K.
In the early 1940s, Middleton's job as a damask designer allowed him only the evenings and weekends to paint, yet the range and invention of his work is remarkable. Although there is apparent diversity, connections run between the various groups of his paintings, and much of Middleton's work in the early 1940s explores themes around the war and the industrial city in which he lived, often referencing his own work as a designer.
Despite the almost primitive feel to the landscape, the outline of the terraced houses implies that this is an interpretation of a modern city. Middleton often used elements of the city around him in a deconstructed form and placed in an unfamiliar landscape, perhaps to suggest the chaos of war, a broader political or social collapse, or his own psychological terrain at that time.
The track in the foreground peters out, much as the road across the bridge appears to lead nowhere. The brooding landscape and fragmented sky are lit by flames from the chimney and the factory beside it. As well as a vision of the wartime world, there is perhaps some ambiguity here, as one could also read this work as a comment on the industrial city and its relationship to the human life that surrounds it.
There is enormous precision in the placing of passages of colour around the canvas, and in the independent patterns of tracks, hills or shadows that run almost unnoticed across the painting. Despite its deceptively simple handling, this is a highly sophisticated painting that reveals Middleton's immense technical skill as well as some of the lessons he learned as a damask designer. It is also a painting of controlled emotion, and a complex comment on Belfast and the international situation at the end of the war.
We are grateful to Dickon Hall for compiling this catalogue entry.
