Roderic O'Conor

(Irish, 1860-1940)

Seated Nude with Red Hair (La Toilette) 82 x 65 cm. (32 1/4 x 25 1/2 in.)

Footnotes

Provenance
Sale; Christie's, London, 12 June 1987, lot 324
With David Messum Gallery, London
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
Paris, Salon d'Automne, 1930, no.1571

Literature
Jonathan Benington, Roderic O'Conor, A Biography with a Catalogue of his Work, Irish Academic Press Ltd., Dublin, 1992, cat.no.266, plate 68 (col.ill.)

In the aftermath of the First World War, still based in his Montparnasse studio at 102 rue du Cherche-Midi, O'Conor was in tune with the artistic zeitgeist. Artists such as Picasso and Derain, who had survived the hostilities, took the opportunity to return to a more traditional, if not classical idiom in their work. For O'Conor, the prevalence of female figure studies, both clothed and unclothed, saw an increase in his work that coincided with the ready availability of models, who flocked to Paris at this time to find work. Indeed, this was how the Irishman met his future wife, Henriette (Renée) Honta. Throughout the 'twenties, his preference was for more generously proportioned, Rubensian-type models, and he was not averse to featuring discrete fashion references, such as the bobbed hairstyle and beaded necklace seen here. There would inevitably be frustrations, as when the model failed to turn up at the appointed time, but for the most part he pursued a regular working regime, beginning with studies in different poses as he got to know his subject's abilities and limitations. From these rapid sketches he would eventually settle on a pose that worked well for a picture, at which point a sympathetic background and lighting arrangement were determined. It was a method that harked back to the artist's solid grounding in the European art academies of the late 1870s and early 1880s. What was new, however, was O'Conor's use of a palette knife to build up the paint, especially in the highlighted areas where the layerings and scrapings were often given a rough texture. A good friend of the artist, Alden Brooks, referred to this style as "expressive realism."

The present work is an accomplished and fully resolved example of this later phase. The pensive young model is seated on the edge of a crimson armchair, her arms holding a white towel as if drying herself after a bath. Most of her head and figure are in shadow, with daylight entering the picture from the tall studio windows that were out of view to the right. Just visible in the background are the three steps that led up from the cavernous studio to a small kitchen and bedroom, which are still there to this day. The relaxed figure fills the composition, but despite the close viewpoint, the artist has avoided excessive detail, indulging instead in several highly painterly passages, such as the towel where it drapes over the woman's right knee, also the highlights on her lower legs. The arrangement of the figure and its sculptural rendition are highly reminiscent of Auguste Renoir's 1882 painting, Baigneuse blonde (Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin), albeit with the differences that O'Conor has reversed the composition and moved his model indoors. Like Picasso, the Irishman was a great admirer of Renoir's late phase of work, and even owned an etched version of the Turin painting.

That O'Conor was pleased with how Toilette turned out is demonstrated by his inclusion of the painting in his submission to the 1930 Salon d'Automne, where it was his sole exhibit.

We are grateful to Jonathan Benington for compiling this catalogue entry.