Tag: Gerard Dillon

Love and Hope are at the Heart of the Christmas Story

Gerard Dillon’s depiction of the Magi

The story of Christmas reminds us that it is important to love and remain hopeful.

Matthew’s Gospel describes how the Magi visited the infant Christ and are richly depicted in Gerard Dillon’s High Cross Panel from 1949. Shortly after the visiting Magi had departed Joseph was warned by an angel of the Lord that King Herod was planning to kill all the firstborn male children in Judea to protect himself from the threat posed by the newborn “King of the Jews”. Joseph fled with his family to Roman occupied Egypt. The painting after the Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo is titled Rest on the Flight into Egypt and shows the Holy Family resting on their journey attended by cherubim. After Herod’s death they were again visited by the angel of the Lord who told them to return to Israel.

After Bartolomé Esteban Murillo – The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

In recent times, and not least this year, there has again been much in our daily lives and the news to remind us of the difficulties of our current time, in particular the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Sometimes it can seem difficult to remain hopeful about the world. And yet the solution is not to be fearful but to be confident of what is at the heart of our nation’s common narrative, the values expressed in the Christian story of Christmas.

As a Christian I draw hope from my belief that on that first Christmas day God came among us as a baby born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. His parents were displaced and without their home. The world over the millennia has often talked of value in terms of the material. By these standards Mary and Joseph had little and yet they knew that they had been richly blessed. What they had been given, this remarkable child, they shared with the world. This intimate Christian story invites us to be active in the world and not spectators. By their example Jesus and his parents leave us in no doubt that acts of kindness to one another and a genuine concern for others can transform our lives and the lives of those around us restoring hope. These values are universally held by people of good heart from all faiths and none. The gift of the message of Christmas is that true value and hope are defined by love and service to others, especially those in need. I wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas.

Irish Artist Gerard Dillon’s Seminal Work High Cross Panel

Gerard Dillon – ‘High Cross Panel’, mixed media with oil, gouache and pastel on fifteen sheets of paper laid on board, circa 1949, 112.5cm x 159cm © The Artist’s Estate/Toovey’s

Gerard Dillon (1916-1971) started to paint in 1936. He worked predominately in Belfast, where he was born, as well as Dublin and Connemara. The work, titled ‘High Cross Panel’, is a large mixed media painting with oil, gouache and pastel comprised of fifteen sheets of paper laid on board. It dates from around 1949. The ‘High Cross Panel’ is inspired by Celtic relief sculptures that Dillon had sketched during his visits to Monasterboice and Mellifont Abbey with his friend and fellow artist Nano Reid. The picture’s series of vignettes depict scenes from the life of Christ and the Old Testament. Dillon grew up in the Roman Catholic Church but became disenchanted with it. Here Dillon incorporates Celtic Christian iconography as he seeks to position his work within the broader context of Ireland’s artistic and religious heritage.

This large seminal work was sold in Toovey’s recent specialist fine art auction for £27,000.

Gerard Dillon – ‘High Cross Panel’ (detail) © The Artist’s Estate/Toovey’s

The painting was first owned by P.J. Carroll & Co. Ltd who provided vital support for many leading Irish artists at a time when general interest in the visual arts was limited. The P.J. Carroll art collection was widely regarded as one of the pre-eminent collections of 20th century Irish art and was originally hung in their factory in Dublin Road, Dundalk, Co. Louth. A large portion of the P.J. Carroll collection is now to be found in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. High Cross Panel was lent by the Carroll collection to the Gerard Dillon Retrospective exhibition held at the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art (now the Hugh Lane Gallery) in 1973.

The piece was purchased from the P.J. Carroll collection after 1973 by Sir John Galvin, a self-made Australian multi-millionaire. Sir John, who amassed his wealth through ventures in media and mining, was born in Tasmania in 1908. A passionate patron of the arts, Sir John Galvin amassed an art collection that included significant works from his native Australia. He relocated to Ireland in 1959 and added numerous Irish works to the collection. Galvin was a generous a philanthropist in Ireland helping financially to construct St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin. He also contributed to the arts and was a Trustee at the National Library of Ireland. The High Cross Panel remains one of Dillon’s most seminal works.