Roderic O'Conor - Painter.

The O'Conors of Milltown (sometimes spelled Milton) near Tulsk, Co. Roscommon were of the Dundermott branch of the O'Conor Don family and appear to have been resident at Milltown from the mid 18th century. Roderic O'Conor was one of the principal lessors at the time of Griffith's Valuation and in the 1870's Roderic Joseph O'Conor of Milltown owned 1,496 acres of land in Roscommon, as well as substantial acreage in Co. Galway.

Roderic Joseph O'Conor & Eleanor Mary (nee Browne) had a son, Roderic, born on 17 October 1860 at Milltown. In 1865 the O'Conors moved to Dublin and lived in Blackrock, before moving to various other addresses in the city. From 1873 to 1878 Roderic (junior) attended Ampleforth College in Yorkshire and in January 1879 he enrolled in the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. He attended the Royal Hibernian Academy of Art (RHA) in 1881/2, winning two bronze medals and two cash prises for his work. He returned to the Metropolitan School of Art in 1882 and again won medals and prizes. He went to France in 1883 and attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts d'Anvers. He exhibited at the RHA in 1885 before returning to Dublin to study in 1885/6. He returned to Paris ca. 1887 and exhibited there in 1888 and 1889.

He married Henrietta Honta in Paris in October 1933 and he died at his home in Nuel-sur-Layon on 18 March 1940. His wife died in Paris on 22 January 1950 and the dispersal sale of his studio contents took place in Paris on 6/7 February 1956.

Roderic O'Conor was unique amongst Irish painters because of his involvement with a nineteenth century international movement which directly influenced the historical development of art. This movement was known as the Pont-Aven Circle and numbered amongst its members notable artists such as Paul Gauguin.

Left: "Roderic O'Conor 1860 - 1940" by Roy Johnston. Barbican Art Gallery / Ulster Museum. 1985 - A Catalogue for "The Roderic O'Conor Retrospective", an exhibition of O'Conor's works held at the Barbican Art Gallery, London (12 September to 3 November 1985), the Ulster Museum, Belfast (15 November 1985 to 18 January 1986), the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin (30 January to 8 March 1986) and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (14 March to 10 May 1986). The catalogue illustrates many of O'Conor's paintings in colour and black & white, and gives a chronology of his life (from which much of the above description is derived).

Left: "Roderic O'Conor a selection of his best work" by Roland, Browse and Delbanco. 19 Cork Street, London. 3 June - 10 July 1971. Catalogue (far left) and invitation.

"Roderic O'Conor 1860 -1940 (Lives of Irish Artists)" (right)

by Paula Murphy. Town House & National Gallery of Ireland. 1992.

Images are not to scale.

Two 55 cent stamps, two sheetlets of 12 stamps and a first-day cover were issued to commemorate the 150 anniversary of the birth of Roderic O'Conor by An Post, the Irish Post-Office, in May 2010 (left).

For more information or to purchase the stamps go to: www.irishstamps.ie

A stamp depicting his painting "Le Jeune Bretonne" was issued as part of a set of four in An Post's "Irish Impressionist Painters" set on 4 March 1993. A prestige booklet was produced and the pane (illustrated right, O'Conor's stamp indicated) is from the booklet that was used with an overprint for the Letterkenny Regional Stamp Show in April.

(more stamp issues below)

Cards depicting Roderic O'Conor paintings. From left - "Still Life With Bottles" 1892. Oil on Canvas. (Tate Gallery). Published for the Roderic O'Conor 1860 - 1940 exhibition at the Barbican Gallery in 1985. "Yellow Landscape, Port-Aven" 1892. Oil on canvas. (Tate Gallery). Printed for the Trustees of The Tate Gallery, London. "Bleu et Rose" 1911. Oil on canvas. (Private Collection). Published for the Roderic O'Conor 1860 - 1940 exhibition at the Barbican Gallery in 1985.

"Faience" and "Bretonne" (both ca. 1903). Oil on canvas. Published for the Roderic O'Conor 1860 - 1940 exhibition at the Barbican Gallery in 1985.

(If you have any more please contact us).

"Roderic O'Conor: A Biography With a Catalogue of His Work" (left) by Jonathan Benington.

248 pp. Irish Academic Press. 1992.

"Les Grands Impressionnistes" Roderic O'Conor 1860 - 1940 - two stamp sheetlets containing one and six stamps respectively, produced by Union des Comores in 2010 to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of his birth.

Other Sources and books about Roderic O'Conor (which we would like to add to our collection):

"Un Vie de Boheme: Lettres du Pein Tre Armand Sequin a Roderic O'Conor 1895 - 1903" by Armand Sequin. Musée De Pont Aven. 1989. (French text).

"Roderic O'Conor Private View" by D. M. Penny & D. Fennelly. Ashfield Press, Dublin. 2001.

The following material is by Roy E. Johnston:

"Roderic O'Conor in Brittany" in Irish Arts Review, Vol.1, No.1, Spring 1984, pp.12-17.
"Gauguin's Irish friend" in Art and Artists, September 1984, pp.26-28.
"Roderic O'Conor - the elusive personality" in Irish Arts Review Vol.2, No4, Winter 1985, pp.31-40.
"O'Conor, Roderic Anthony. Irish painter" in The Dictionary of Art, Grove's Dictionaries Inc. 1996
"Roderic O'Conor (1860-1940)" in The Encyclopaedia of Ireland, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 2003
"RODERIC O'CONOR - VISION AND EXPRESSION" Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin. 1996. Catalogue author.
"RODERIC O'CONOR 1860-1940. L'OEUVRE GRAVE" Catalogue raisonné of O'Conor's prints. Musée de Pont-Aven, France. Catalogue author.
 

We welcome copies of any of these for our collection, please contact us.

The Journal of the Roscommon Historical & Archaeological Society, Vol. 9 (pp 107 - 110) has an essay by J. A. Evans titled "Roderic O'Conor, His Heritage, His Education, His Legacy".

This collection of Roderic O'Conor material has been donated to Roscommon County Library. We would welcome additional material. Please contact us.

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