Micheal Farrell, Irish, 1940-2000
Title: Miss O'Murphy d'après Boucher
Date: 1976
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions:
48 x 64 cm
Signed: lower right: Micheal Farrell/ à la Ruche./ 11.9.76
Credit Line: Purchased, 2009
Object Number: NGI.2009.18
DescriptionIn the 1960s Micheal Farrell was a prominent figure in the New York art scene and in 1967 represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale. The violent events in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s caused Farrell’s work to change radically from formalist abstract paintings to political works with strong metaphorical and symbolist aspects. This bold and energetically drawn work is inspired by Boucher’s erotic painting The Blond Odalisque (1752; Alte Pinakothek, Munich). Boucher’s painting inspired Farrell to paint Madonna Irlanda (1975; Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane), provocatively subtitled ‘The very first real Irish political picture’. He subsequently created a series of witty and irreverent paintings, drawings and prints which drew attention to, and condemned, what he saw as the complacency of the Irish political establishment. In total the completed Madonna Irlanda series consisted of three paintings, eight lithographs, an etching and a small number of preparatory pencil sketches. He intended the works to be controversial and somewhat blasphemous. While Boucher, favourite of King Louis XV, created an image of a naked young woman simply for the titillation of viewers, Farrell aimed to use the image of Miss O’Murphy as a metaphor in order to attack the Irish political system.
March 2016
March 2016
ProvenancePurchased, Whyte's Fine Art, Dublin, 28th of September 2009, Irish and British Art Sale, lot 131
Exhibition HistoryThe Art of Michael Farrell, Solstice Arts Centre, Meath, 22 August - 19 October 2013; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 7 November 2013 - 4 January 2014
InscriptionInscribed along the top of the drawing above the figure: MADONNA IRLANDA SERIE
Boucherie à la Irlandaise, Brown
Inscribed along the left hand side of the drawing: Cologne Virson. I # Miss O Murphy d'après Boucher
Inscribed on the figure in the drawing: Fourquaters/ Rump Steak/ Gigot/ The Knee Cap
Inscribed bottom left of drawing in the table: Brown
Boucherie à la Irlandaise, Brown
Inscribed along the left hand side of the drawing: Cologne Virson. I # Miss O Murphy d'après Boucher
Inscribed on the figure in the drawing: Fourquaters/ Rump Steak/ Gigot/ The Knee Cap
Inscribed bottom left of drawing in the table: Brown