Joseph Malachy Kavanagh, Irish, 1856-1918
Title: Carting Seaweed on Sutton Sands
Date: 1895
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
71 x 92 cm
Signed: lower left: J-M Kavanagh. RHA. 1895
Credit Line: Purchased, 2000
Object Number: NGI.4676
ProvenancePurchased, Adams & Bonhams sale, Dublin, May 2000, lot 80
Exhibition HistoryRoyal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1896, lot. 81
Label TextSome of Kavanagh’s best works depict the strands north and south of Dublin, flat expanses where seaweed gatherers and cockle pickers worked routinely. The harvesting of seaweed for food, medicine and fertiliser was a common practice throughout Europe and recorded frequently by artists. Kavanagh’s choice of subject, and his focus on atmospheric effects calls to mind the painters of The Hague School, particularly Anton Mauve, whose work Kavanagh is likely to have encountered when he was studying in Antwerp.