
Nude by the Sea is the title of this arresting 1941 oil on canvas by Ireland’s pioneering abstract and modernist artist Mainie Jellett (1897-1944). With its intensity and flowing background it must have seemed beyond futuristic to most Irish viewers in 1941. It was shown at the Jellett exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art from December 1991 to March 1992 and at a retrospective of the artist at the Municipal Gallery in Dublin in 1962. The painting was catalogued for that show as Composition with Figure. Nude by the Sea is among a selection of works already consigned to Whyte’s next sale of Important Irish Art, which is to take place on September 28. Not surprisingly Whyte’s anticipate significant interest in this bright and highly polished work by an important figure in Irish art history.


