And Now We Must Cross the River

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Veronica Bolay , German-Irish, 1941-2020

Title

Datec.2017

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

92 × 77 cm

Credit LinePresented, Aengus Jankowsky, 2024

Object numberNGI.2024.73

DescriptionBolay wrote extensively and openly about her experiences as child. One of her first memories was being carried as a two-year-old by her mother during the WW2 Operation Gomorrah of 1943. They escaped to an air-raid shelter to avoid the bombing of Hamburg. It was one of the largest firestorms raised by the Royal Air Force, and killed an estimated 37,000 civilians, while demolishing most of the city in an attempt to extinguish German morale and end the war. As their home was destroyed during the operation, they ended up at her grandmother’s farm in Mecklenburg, northeast Germany, but fearful over a potential division of the country, they began the 240km journey back to post-war Hamburg on foot, where her mother departed to the Netherlands for work, leaving a young Bolay with her grandmother. When viewing And Now We Must Cross the River with its representation of a mother and child huddled together in depths of a shadowy forest, it is understandable how such a harrowing experience has lived with the artist. And Now We Must Cross the River expands on the tradition held by many of the artists in the Gallery’s collection, such as Walter Frederick Osbourne, William Orpen, Brian O’Doherty, and Carey Clarke of depicting the parent(s) of the artist.
Inscriptionon verso, upper right: OIL Veronica Bolay RHA/
“Germany 45 / “And Now We Must Cross the River” (Anois in Mor Duinn A Trasna Na nAbhan)/Veronica Bolay RHA OIL

ProvenanceThe artist; by descent to previous owner; Presented, Aengus Jankowsky, 2024Exhibition HistoryAnnual Exhibition, Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts, Dublin, 2017

Elemental: An Appreciation of the Extraordinary Life and Work of Veronica Bolay, Coach House Gallery, Dublin, October 2022 - March 2023