Hilary Heron (1923-1977) Lady of the Rocks (1953) Walnut, 8...

Estimate

€10,000 - €15,000

Hilary Heron (1923-1977) Lady of the Rocks (1953) Walnut, 82cm high (32¼) Signed with initials and dated 1953 Provenance: Collection of Sir Basil Goulding, thence by descent Exhibited: Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Hilary Heron: A Retrospective May - Oct 2024; travelling to Banbridge, Co Down, F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Nov 2024 - Feb 2025 One of the most unique and pioneering artists of her generation, Hilary Heron (1923-1977) was born in Dublin in 1923. The daughter of a banker, the family moved to Derry and later New Ross in Wexford before Hilary returned to Dublin to study in the National College of Art in 1941. After winning a travelling scholarship from the IELA in 1947, Heron lived in Paris for several months after which she returned to Dublin and began exhibiting with Victor Waddington at his gallery in South Anne Street. Lady of the Rocks is one of several large figurative works Heron created in 1953. Carved in walnut wood, the slender head, neck and torso are raised above a series of six coarse, oblong, disc-like carvings which form the bottom half of the sculpture and are reminiscent of the cap stones on Irish Celtic Dolmens. The top half of the figure is more refined and feminine. It has features that recur in her slightly earlier works such as Adam and Eve (1951). The head features two pigtails, a playful motif which can also be seen in Girl with Pigtails (1950) and in a more abstract form in Figurehead dating to 1952. An important piece from the artist’s cannon of work, Lady of the Rocks was one of several of Heron’s sculptures included in the Irish exhibit at the Venice Biennale in 1956. Shown alongside paintings by fellow artist Louis le Brocquy (1916-2012), the tactile nature of Heron’s work is wonderfully offset by the figurative neo-romantic cubism of the paintings. Lady of the Rocks shows the influence of Surrealism and a strong pinch of Giacometti. Although Heron’s work is never derivative in nature, she clearly had a great knowledge of her international contemporaries. The work also features in one of the best-known photographs of Heron, which depicts her sitting outside, with Lady of the Rocks lying against one leg, while the sculptor carves one of the stonelike strata using a chisel and mallet. All the while a lit cigarette is hanging slightly precariously from her mouth. In 1958 Heron would move to London and share a studio with her friend and contemporary Elizabeth Frink, who would have a great influence on her work from 1959-1960. Heron then married David Greene in 1959 and moved to Dalkey in 1961, where she continued to work and exhibit with the IELA. She held her final solo exhibition at the Waddington Gallery, London in 1964 before sadly passing away in 1977 aged just 53. The recent retrospective in IMMA and accompanying publication will without doubt help restore Heron to her deserved prominence amongst Irish artists. Adam Pearson, March 2025