Elijah and the Ravens by Sean Keating UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,500 AT HAMMER
Elijah and the Ravens by Sean Keating (€10,000-€15,000) dates to 1940. It is a particular take on the Biblical story where Elijah was supposed to be protected and fed by ravens. In this work it seems as if Elijah is being attacked by the ravens. It is in fact a metaphor for the new Irish State which had offered so much protection and promise and had, in Keating’s view, achieved the exact opposite by its lack of support for the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. This painting was lent by its then New York owner to the major Keating retrospective at the Municipal Gallery in Dublin opened by Eamon de Valera in 1963.
It is at the online Irish Art Auction at de Veres on March 24, on view now at Kildare St. in Dublin. There is art by Gerard Dillon, Dan O’Neill, Peter Curling, Barbara Warren, Liam O’Neill, Kenneth Webb and Mary Swanzy.