SIR DENIS MAHON:SIR DENIS Mahon, who died last week aged 100, was a renowned art historian and collector who gifted several important works to the National Gallery of Ireland.
All are fine examples of the era with which he is most closely identified: Italian Baroque painting of the 17th century, the seicento.Indeed, it is said that he single-handedly rescued that entire century of Italian painting from historical obscurity.
Mahon was born in 1910 to John FitzGerald Mahon and Lady Alice Evelyn (née Browne), the daughter of the fifth marquess of Sligo. Three of his grandparents were Irish, making him, as he said, part of the “Irish Raj”, the Anglo-Irish. His parents brought him to Italy when he was 12 and he discovered, at this early age, that he had “an eye” for identifying who had painted what. The family income derived from the Guinness Mahon Bank but, after attending Eton, Mahon showed little inclination to go into business.
He studied history at Christ College, Oxford, and developed an interest in opera and art history, becoming informally acquainted with Kenneth Clark, then working at the Ashmolean. Attending lectures at the Courtauld Institute in London, he met Nikolaus Pevsner, who focused his attention on the seicentoand in particular the Bolognese Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino. He and other painters of the period were, Mahon later said, "absolutely despised", largely because of the prejudices of the influential 19th century writer John Ruskin.
Mahon's eye served him well when, visiting Paris in 1934, he spotted a Guercino in the shop window of an art dealer and bought it for just £120. That painting, Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph,was among those he later gave to the National Gallery of Ireland. Initially he hoped the paintings he was acquiring might immediately be passed on to national institutions but, realising that official opinion made that impossible, he began to build up his own collection until such time as opinion shifted.
Eventually that collection numbered nearly 80 works. He never paid more than £2,000 for an individual piece and his total expenditure was about £50,000. Buffered by a private income, he never bought for profit, but if he had done so he would have made a lot of money in the long run. Exact valuation is difficult, but reputable estimates suggest that his paintings would now fetch something in the region of £50 million.
That they would do so is due in no small measure to Mahon's scholarly work on the painters of the seicento. His book Studies in Seicento Art and Theorywas published in 1947 and was decisive in the gradual reshaping of opinion. It's worth remembering that he was essentially an amateur and, on occasion, fiercely territorial professionals did not welcome his contributions. He enjoyed combative friendships with several scholars, including Caravaggio expert Roberto Longhi. Friendship didn't come into his dealings with art historian Anthony Blunt, however.
As the recognised authority on Poussin, Blunt curated a major show of the artist’s work at the Louvre in 1960. Mahon felt Blunt’s knowledge was overly theoretical, that he lacked “an eye”, and he provocatively argued that the chronology mapped out in the exhibition was mistaken. To add insult to injury, he subsequently contradicted Blunt’s opinion in attributing a disputed work to Poussin. As it transpired, time has proved Mahon right on both counts.
Having resolved to give his paintings to public collections, Mahon set about imposing strict terms, ruling out entrance fees and the possibility of the works being sold on.
Instinctively distrusting bureaucrats and politicians, he fought a determined battle on behalf of public museums and galleries in Britain in the late 1990s, pointing out that VAT regulations discriminated against those who did not charge entrance fees. The bureaucrats, as they do, blamed the EU. Mahon went directly to Romano Prodi, newly appointed EU president, discovered that the bureaucrats were simply lying, and the rules were amended.
His collection was exhibited at the National Gallery, London, in 1997, and never returned to his Italianate house at Cadogan Gardens, where he lived alone with his housekeeper since his mother’s death in 1970.
By 1999, he had distributed the collection among many institutions, the National Gallery, London, being the major benefactor, with a total of 26 works. Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds, Bologna and, of course, Dublin, also benefited. Apart from a second Guercino, Dublin received fine works by Annibale Carracci, Domenichino, Guido Reni and the French 17th century painter Sébastien Bourdon. The gift was formalised in 2008.
In 1990, Sergio Benedetti of the National Gallery of Ireland recognised a painting that had been hanging for decades in the Jesuits' residence in Dublin as Caravaggio's The Taking of Christ. Mahon concurred with Benedetti's attribution. Things became more complicated when, in 2004, art historian Maria Letizia Paoletti claimed that an art dealer in Rome owned the original painting, and the Irish painting was a copy. Mahon agreed with her, she added.
Mahon pointed out, quite accurately, that Caravaggio was exceptional in making multiple versions of individual paintings and that, in his view, both paintings were by his hand – and perhaps a third, as well, in Odessa. He may have discomfited the National Gallery a little, however, in suggesting that the Rome painting did seem to pre-date the Irish version. The evidence lies in Caravaggio’s highly distinctive way of working.
Mahon was knighted in 1986 and received numerous other honours and awards, in England and Italy, for his services to art. He published many scholarly essays and collaborated in organising many important, influential exhibitions. Over the years, his exceptional eye helped to secure several significant works for the National Gallery London, where he was twice a trustee, at prices well below market value.
John Denis Mahon: born November 8th, 1910; died April 24th, 2011