Private Dealers in Fine Irish and European Paintings

Harry Scully c.1860 - 1935

Washing Day, Cornwall

Oil on panel, 9 ½ x 6 ½ inches. Signed and dated 95
Exhibited: Milmo-Penny Fine Art, Oct.1992

The theme of this painting is one Scully repeats in titles such as A Washing Place at Quimperle and A Washing Place, Brittany. At The Royal Hibernian Academy in 1896, Scully exhibited a work entitled Evening at Newlyn and it is seems quite likely that this is also a Newlyn scene. Scully made a few visits there, the first being in 1894. He would have felt very much at home there in the company of Stanhope Forbes and Norman Garstin. The painting is nicely lit with bright sunlight finding its way through the buildings and onto the walls and path. The young girl in her pink dress carries an empty basin having filled the line with cloths to dry in the sun.

 

Young Girl in a Church

Watercolour on board, 14 ½ x 10 ½ inches. Signed by the artist and dated 1896
Exhibited: Milmo-Penny Fine Art, December 2001

Scully’s work has traditionally been compared to that of Walter Osborne. They shared a common ability to work with the same degree of skill in both watercolour and oil. They both were masters in the art of landscape and portrait work. This sensitive study displays all the control required in a work in watercolour. The young girl in traditional costume clasps a prayer book under her arm. He creates interesting depth and atmosphere by showing a soft glow of light creeping under the door. The date of 1896 suggests that this work was probably painted during the visit to Étaples. Scully painted a number of other church interiors, for example, Interior of St. Fiacre, Brittany  in 1906 and Two Breton Children in a Church in 1911.

  

Mother and Child

Watercolour on board, 17 x 21 inches. Signed by the artist and dated 1907
Exhibited: Milmo-Penny Fine Art, December 2001

This delightfully tender study demonstrates the influence of Jozef Israels, one of the best-known painters of the Hague School. Scully would have been familiar with his work which, at this time, had become popular all over Europe, depicting the struggle of the peasant in a manner similar to that of Millet. Many of Israel’s paintings are set in a sparse interior and feature a young mother and child.

Gently restrained by her mother, the child stretches forward as she tries to grasp a bowl on the table. They are lit from the side by a gently filtered light shining through a curtain. The window is set in a deeply recessed wall. The bench on which they sit is made of coarse timber. A bed has been made ready in the corner of the room. The covering on the bed is the only suggestion of comfort. There is an expression of peace and tranquillity on the mother’s face.

Harry Scully turned his back on the world of accountancy and enrolled in the School of Art in his native city of Cork. He progressed from there to Heatherley’s Academy in London, close on the heels of John Lavery, and followed this by further periods of study in Paris. He may have met William Gerard Barry in Cork around 1885. It may have been Barry who encouraged him to join the artist colony at Étaples.

Unusually for an Irish artist, he developed a great skill as a watercolour painter but he was equally as accomplished with oil. In 1893, he had established a studio at Emmet Place in Cork from where he offered instruction in the art of painting. His working trips took him to Normandy, Brittany, Italy, Holland and England. His subject matter was wide-ranging and recurring themes include atmospheric moonlight and evening scenes; marshlands and rivers; cottage and church interiors; farmyards and rural scenery. He made his exhibition debut at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours with six exhibits in 1887. He sent his work to the principal London Galleries, including the Royal Academy, and exhibited regularly at the Royal Hibernian Academy up to the year 1932 and was elected as a member 1906. He eventually settled in Kent where he lived out the last years of his life.

 

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Private Dealers in Fine Irish and European Paintings
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