Harry Kernoff – At the Railway Station
At the Railway Station by Harry Kernoff and Mercury’s Orbit by Mary Swanzy are two utterly different 1920’s paintings at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction which runs until the evening of June 2. The young Kernoff’s theme is downright Victorian, Swanzy’s semi abstract study demonstrates her skillful grasp of the Modernist movement. At 21 Kernoff became the first night student at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art to win the Taylor scholarship with this watercolour featuring a woman and child and an older woman on the spiral staircase of a railway station. It depicts popular Victorian and Edwardian themes of childhood, adulthood and old age.
Mercury’s Orbit by Swanzy stands in sharp contrast, depicting as it does the eccentric route of a planet which orbits the sun every 88 days and rotates on its axis every 59 days. Einstein explained it all with his Theory of Relativity and the painting is inspired by advances in astronomy and physics in the 20th century. There are 239 lots in a sale with an estimate range of €25- €40,0000. The catalogue is online.
Mary Swanzy – Mercury’s Orbit