The inclusion in a sale next week of a picture attributed to Dermod O'Brien is a useful reminder of a painter who played such a major role in Irish artistic life during the first half of the 20th century but is now little remembered.
O'Brien became president of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1910 and held the position for the next 35 years until his death at the age of 80. He, therefore, was responsible for this institution, the reputation of which he strove hard to improve, when its premises on Abbey Street, designed by Francis Johnson, were burnt down during the Easter Rising. As is well-known, this was the only occasion on which the academy had held a sold-out show; it received government compensation for all the pictures destroyed in the fire.
Despite, or perhaps because of, his many activities on behalf of the country's cultural life, Dermod O'Brien was something of a gentleman painter. Born in Co Limerick in 1865, he was the grandson of the Young Irelander William Smith O'Brien and grew up in Cahirmoyle, a Celtic-Romanesque house built by his father. O'Brien eventually sold the property and he spent much of his time in later years in the south of France.
But Ireland was always the centre of his interests. O'Brien was a firm supporter of Hugh Lane's plans for a gallery of modern art, he compiled a complete catalogue of Nathaniel Hone's paintings after that artist's death, he became president of the United Arts Club and sat on a number of other advisory boards and committees. No wonder Theo Snoddy, in his entry on O'Brien in A Dictionary of Irish Artists: 20th Century, laconically remarks that the painter "had little patience with idle people".
He also frequently had little time to paint and this helps to explain why his reputation is not as great as it might be.
He studied art in France and Italy before attending the Antwerp Academy, where he met another Irishman, Walter Osborne. Later he moved to the most famous Paris art school of the period, the Academie Julian.
At this stage, he might have become a dilettante in the manner of the young George Moore, but O'Brien then moved on to London and the Slade School of Art, where he came to know some of the leading figures of the time.
Eventually, in 1901 O'Brien settled in Dublin, where he won many commissions for portraits, particularly after the death of Osborne in 1903; Snoddy estimates that a third of the works O'Brien showed in the RHA over almost half a century were in this category.
But O'Brien was also a keen landscape artist and some of his finest pictures belong to that genre. He would often paint in the countryside around Cahirmoyle and the work attributed to him is an example of such art. The style is simple and immediately appealing; O'Brien's training in France and Belgium had made him an enthusiast for painting outdoors, but in technique he never advanced much from the style developed in his youth.
Painted in oil on panel, the small work Cattle in a Sunlit Farmyard has the very modest estimate of £400-£600. It is being sold by Mullen's of Woodbrook, Co Dublin, next Tuesday in a fine art auction which begins at 7 p.m.
