Erskine Nicol RSA ARA (1825-1904)
Preparing for Market Day
Oil on canvas, 103 x 83cm (40½ x 32¾'')
Signed and dated 1867

Although born and living the majority of his life in Scotland,...

Erskine Nicol RSA ARA (1825-1904)
Preparing for Market Day
Oil on canvas, 103 x 83cm (40½ x 32¾'')
Signed and dated 1867

Although born and living the majority of his life in Scotland, Nicol had an enduring interest in Ireland and Irish society. He first visited in 1846 and stayed for four years and returned regularly over the course of his artistic career. Nicol established a studio for his work at Cloncave in County Westmeath. As a mid-19th century artist, Nicol inhabits an interesting period in which there was a gradual shift away from Romantic painting to what would become in a more concrete sense towards the latter end of the century, a Realist style. However, an issue, which pervaded Irish art well into the twentieth century, was the lack of any homogenous school of Irish painting. There had always been a tension between the way Irish people viewed themselves and the way in which they were viewed by others from the outside. A difficulty made more apparent alongside the emerging realist style as there was a tendency for British painters to present Irish rural life through a biased and sentimental lens. While Nicols is best known for his depictions of the poor and marginalised members of Irish society - particularly pertinent since his arrival coincided with the Great Famine (1845-52) which devastated the country- there was a fine line between bearing witness to the plight and struggles of those individuals and pandering to a stereotype of the stage Irishmen through a Victorian moralising lens.

Fairs and markets were a crucial element of social and commercial life of Irish towns for centuries. The occasion is apparent in the fashion of the gentleman as he steps out the door wearing his top hat and inverness outer coat. Nicol draws our attention to certain accents of details, the red neckerchief, the striped train of the mothers dress, blue childs bonnet or the pile of turnips on the ground. These vegetables belies a more rural character to the image balanced by the two small children leading the pigs to their pen or the woman in background of the image shielding her face from the sun while carrying a large basket in one hand, presumably on her way to work in the fields. In poor farming families the luxury of shoes was reserved for the men who needed them while working with the livestock. However, in this image none of the family members is barefoot; this scene is more of a light-hearted and cheerful depiction of Irish social rituals. Although the location is not indicated, Donnybrooks annual fair was infamous for attracting artists to record its lively and at times raucous spirit. Nicols often focused on these less salubrious aspects in his paintings but in this instance the present example reflects a more subtle and considered reflection capturing a tender moment of domestic life.

Niamh Corcoran

 

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