Roderic O'Conor, Irish Artist, Impressionist Painter, Colourist: Biography, Paintings, Collections

Roderic O'Conor
Biography, Paintings Of Irish Colourist and Impressionist Artist

Breton Girl (1906)
In this portrait, the subject stares
at the viewer with a blunt, almost
expressionless gaze. Here her
head is slightly tilted to one side
and raised, but she looks at us
with haughty suspicion. In both
pictures he paints stripes of reds
and greens down her cheek and neck.

Roderic O'Conor (1860–1940)

A Francophile, an exponent of Post-Impressionism, and one of the greatest Post-Impressionist painters in the history of Irish art, Roderic O'Conor was born in County Roscommon and entered the Dublin School of Art (now the National College of Art and Design) at the age of 19. The following year, along with fellow artist Richard Moynan, he studied drawing and fine art painting at the Royal Hibernian Academy, before going to the Academie Royale des Beaux Arts in Antwerp. After Antwerp, O'Conor went to Paris where he became inspired by the Impressionist landscape artists like Pissarro and Sisley. He developed an interest in landscapes and duly left Paris for the Breton village of Pont-Aven (a latter day Barbizon school), where he painted with several artists including the revered Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin. In some of his 1890s paintings one can see clear traces of the painting techniques which later became known as Fauvism and Expressionism. At the Pont-Aven school, O'Conor painted two portraits of Breton girls.

Field of Corn, Pont Aven

Roderic O'Conor remains one
of the most collectable artists.
For more about the value of
his works, compared to other
record-breaking Irish artists,
see: Most Expensive Irish Art.

In his landscape painting Field of Corn, Pont Aven (1892) displays brushwork and colouring similar to the post-Impressionist Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, who had just committed suicide.

O'Conor spent more of his life in France than any other Irish painter and unquestionably belongs to the sunny 'Post-Impressionist' world of the turn of the century. Inspired and engaged by the use of colour, his bold colors and color combinations give his work the stamp of true individuality. Other members of "The Antwerp School", like Walter Osborne and Nathaniel Hill (both more mainstream Impressionists) and Joseph Kavanagh (Dutch/Belgian style) tended to shy away from O'Conor's colourism.

After 1904, O'Conor stayed in Paris for the next eight years. Soon his oil painting developed a rich vibrancy of color and a weight of impasto which became two of his mature hallmarks.

His subject matter also changed. Instead of landscapes and outdoor artwork, he switched more to painted interiors, nudes and still-life painting.

In Reclining Nude Before A Mirror (c. 1909), the subject is portrayed in a harmony of soft reds, pinks and violets under dim studio light and is reflected in a mirror, perhaps in the Baroque tradition.

Other nudes by O'Conor include: Reclining Nude (1910), Perles Rouges (1915), Reclining Nude on a Chaise Longue (1915), La Femme Au Drap Rouge (1916), Seated Nude, Half Length (1923).

Roderic O'Conor died in Nueil-sur-Layon, France in March 1940.

More Information About Irish Visual Arts and Culture

• For details of other Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, see: Irish Artists: Paintings and Biographies.
• For more about colourist painters like Roderic O'Conor, see: Irish Art Guide.
• For more about Impressionism, see: Art Encyclopedia.

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