Norah McGuinness HRHA (1901-1980)Lobster Pots, Brittany Oil on canvas, 45 x 60cm (17¾ x 23½'')SignedIn this work we are presented with a small snapshot of life in north western France where lobster fishing was an industry central to the coastal region. The traditional wicker pots used for trapping the lobster dominate the foreground of the painting. One can imagine McGuinness visiting the harbour, making sketches of the everyday rituals of the local fishing community. On this occasion the pots lie idle on the beach, awaiting their next journey out to sea. McGuinness uses a tightly cropped composition, suggesting the harbour stretching out beyond to the horizon on the left and the winding road sweeping up to the right, where a woman walks pushing a pram. A man stands behind her, facing the harbour, moving down a slipway towards the waters edge. Although the work is not dated, there are other known examples of paintings by McGuiness of the Breton landscape, such as the Les Bigoudenes in the Niland Collection, Sligo which depicts the Breton women wearing traditional tall lace headdresses of the Pays Bigouden region. This painting appeared in exhibition of McGuinness’ work at the Leicester Galleries, London, in 1951. Or another titled Breton Port which was exhibited in The Irish Exhibition of Living Art, 1950. While none of these works are dated by the artist it would suggest that she was working in the area in the late 1940s, early 1950s and would place this lot in a similar time frame. This was many years after her initial visit to France, when on the advice of fellow Irish artist Mainie Jellett, she travelled to Paris in 1929 to study with the cubist painter André Lhote. McGuinness was not as heavily influenced by the theories of cubism as Jellett nor did she adopt them as broadly in her own work. Throughout her career she maintained an interest in figural and representational subject matter, while at the same time introducing a heightened colour palette and broad expressive brushstrokes.In this work the colours take central importance, the surface of the painting is brought to life through the range of tones used by McGuiness, the ochre red of the sand, the dark green of the seaweed, the bright electric blue on the inside of the boat moored on shoreline. She uses thick, expressive brushstrokes, applying the paint in quick motions particularly in the sea, where the shifts in colour from white to blueish green suggest the passing light moving across the water’s surface. The vertical upright form of the ship mast is mirrored in the lighthouse in the background balancing the composition and creating a framing device for the scene taking place in between. A large country house stands overlooking the harbour, diminutive next to the trees, their full blossom outlined by McGuinness with the end of her brush, scraping lines into the painted canvas. This work is an interesting comparison to the established painted imagery of the region. In particular the overwhelming religious iconography associated with the traditional Breton clothing, that so compelled the French Impressionists and early 20th century painters who visited and lived in the artistic community of the region. McGuinness focuses on another aspect of this which feels slightly more considered in its expression of everyday life. She is an observer, avoiding the tendency to mythologise the traditions of the Breton people. Niamh Corcoran, February 2020