GERALD LESLIE BROCKHURST RA (BRITISH 1890-1978)
The West of Ireland [Fletcher 61]
1928
signed in pencil
etching on wove
plate 12 x 14.4 cm
framed
ARR

Reference: see Royal Academy, London, accession number 05/3943 for another example of this edition

Literature: William Dolan Fletcher, Complex Simplicity: Gerald Lesley Brockhurst and His Graphic Work, Sign of the Arrow, Connecticut, 1984

Note: This work is the only Brockhurst print to depict a double portrait of children. The sitters are two sisters from Connemara, West Ireland, the daughters of a woman Brockhurst depicted in an earlier etching 'A Ballynakill Woman' (see National Gallery NGI.2009.7). Brockhurst described that the peasant mother of the two girls discriminated greatly between her daughters, the girl on the right is dressed simply with a jagged fringe, whereas her sister to the left wears a pretty dress with a bow around her neck. The younger neglected daughter is said to have later thrown herself into a lake and drowned, whilst this tragedy may be true Brockhurst was known to be a great storyteller, especially when it added dramatic depth to his images.