Echoes of the Belle Epoque

The artists who open the present exhibition must be seen as transitional figures, looking outside of Ireland (and often to the past) for their artistic influences or their patrons. Walter Frederick Osborne, for example, began his artistic training in Dublin, at the Royal Hibernian Academy—the customary guardian of Ireland's visual arts traditions—while the more consequential influences on his style came from the Continent. His exposure in France to plein air painting, or painting out of doors, was something he could not have had in Dublin and overturned his stylistic development. The earliest work by Osborne in the exhibition, Tea in the Garden from 1902, is a beautifully painted throwback to French Impressionism as articulated in the 1870s by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and others. But its subject is Irish. This was a pattern repeated in various permutations by most Irish painters of this generation. Sir William Orpen looked to England rather than to France, allying himself to a group of English artists even while his best painting participated in the experimentation of avant-garde European painting, including that of Edgar Degas.Sir John Lavery was perhaps the most internationally successful Irish artist of this generation, and like Orpen was rewarded with a British knighthood. Born in Belfast, Lavery was trained first in Glasgow and then in France, where he was most influenced by William Adolphe Bouguereau and Jules Bastien-Lepage, two of the most fashionable artists of the time. Lavery, too, developed an interest in painting out of doors. Unlike Orpen, Lavery maintained close ties with Ireland for the rest of his life, returning frequently and exhibiting at home, even if he resided primarily abroad. As the independence movement grew in Ireland, Lavery painted the golden moments of a nostalgic Edwardian idyll even in the face of the horrors of the First World War. Other artists showed an early interest in the cause of an independent Irish state. Beatrice Elvery's Éire of 1907 is a landmark achievement, merging European influences with Ireland's Celtic past to create a call to arms.