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© The Artist’s Estate
, Irish, 1932-1986
Title
Paul Durcan (b.1944), Poet
Date1981
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
81.2 x 61 cm
Signedon verso: PAUL DURCAN/BY EDWARD McGUIRE/1981
Credit LinePurchased, 1992
Object numberNGI.4579
DescriptionPaul Durcan is a distinguished poet. He was awarded the Whitbread Prize for Poetry in 1990, and is a member of Aosdána. In 1991 he published Crazy About Women, a collection of poetry inspired by pictures in the National Gallery of Ireland collection. He subsequently produced Give Me Your Hand, a collection inspired by paintings in the National Gallery in London. This portrait, in which the sitter assumes a relaxed pose in a deck-chair, and looks wistfully upwards, was used to illustrate Durcan's Selected Poems, published in 1982. McGuire's other sitters, portrayed with similar precision, included Seamus Heaney and Pearse Hutchinson.
InscriptionPAUL DURCAN/BY EDWARD McGUIRE/1981
Exhibition HistoryIMMA, Dublin, 'Meetings: Into the Studio of Edward McGuire', Nov 2015 - May 2016