George Campbell RHA (1917-1979)
Memories of Virginia II
Oil on board, 61 x 101cm (24 x 39¾'')
Signed

Provenance: From the collection of the late Paddy Walsh, friend of the artist.

George Campbell RHA (1917-1979)
Memories of Virginia II
Oil on board, 61 x 101cm (24 x 39¾'')
Signed

Provenance: From the collection of the late Paddy Walsh, friend of the artist.

Exhibited: 'George Campbell and the Belfast Boys', Adam's summer loan show 2015, Catalogue No.112.

During the 1960s George Campbell was engaged in a number of State and Church commissions as well as exhibiting at the Richie Hendriks Gallery in Dublin. From the mid 1960s, a chalet type house in Virginia became a weekend retreat for the artist and his wife Madge until they purchased a house in Ranelagh. Friends from Dublin often joined musicians from the surrounding area for evenings of entertainment. The Virginia Park Lodge Hotel was a regular venue for late night music sessions and the hotel owners, Helen and Barry MacDonnells close association with Campbell led to other commissions for the hotel.

Memories of Virginia II is similar in style and subject matter to another work Virginia in Retrospect, which featured as a postcard to promote the Virginia Park Lodge Hotel in the late 1960s. Both paintings depict the woods and land of Virginia Park Lodge Hotel by the shores of Lough Ramor. The looser brushwork however, in Memories of Virginia II suggest this work may have been executed slightly later. Built in 1610, as a hunting lodge for the Marquis of Headfort, the hotel was famed in the 1960s for its homely and welcoming atmosphere. Through Campbell, Helen and Barry McDonnell met and supported Arthur Armstrong, Gerard Dillon and Noreen Rice.

Memories of Virginia II was acquired by Paddy and Maureen Walsh who had met Campbell in the 1940s through the artists brother Arthur Campbell through their mutual interest in photography. In 1946, following George Campbells first successful solo exhibition at the Victor Waddington Galleries in Dublin, Campbell began making regular trips to Dublin staying with Nano Reid in Fitzwilliam Square and with Paddy Walsh in Marino, North Dublin. The Walshs soon became part of Campbells inner circle visiting the couple in Spain, Roundstone, Virginia and Dublin. Known for his generosity, Campbell may have presented this painting to his friend for his help and support in the late 1960s. In 1966 a booklet, George Campbell RHA was published by Three Candle Press, where Paddy Walsh was employed and one year later Walsh Studios collaborated with Campbell in publishing a folio of eight prints by George Campbell and Arthur Armstrong, the printing works he set up at his home in North Dublin.

Karen Reihill
August 2016

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