The French Connection: Irish Artists in Brittany from Impressionism to Contemporary Art - Heritage Week

Join Art Historian Dr Matthew Whyte and Art Historian and Curator Dr Michael Waldron as they speak about the impact of Brittany both in art history and in the National Collection at Crawford Art Gallery.

Dr Whyte will open by exploring the lure of Brittany for artists during the birth of Modernism in the late nineteenth century, discussing why artists including Monet, Gauguin, Picasso, and so many others flocked to the area to develop styles such as Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. In the era of industrialisation, the natural and ephemeral qualities of the Northern French coastline and its communes inspired artists seeking new ways to capture atmospheric effects with their brush.

Dr Waldron will then turn attention to the Irish artists who travelled to the area in search of a new aesthetic. Looking at our National Collection through the Crawford Art Gallery’s magnificent holdings, Dr Waldron will explore the ways in which Irish artists have responded to Brittany’s culture, landscape, and emerging artistic styles.

The talk will conclude with a tour of the present exhibition Cork/Brittany ‘MARITIME’ in TRISKEL SAMPLE Project Space, which represents a culmination of an artistic residential exchange, supported by Brittany Ferries, between two members of Sample-Studios in Cork and two French artists based in Brittany. The exhibition stands as a renewed and absorbing testament to the historic artistic ties between Ireland and Brittany.

In partnership with Sample-Studios and Triskel Arts Centre.

About the Speakers

Dr Michael Waldron is a curator and art historian based in Cork, Ireland, with an interdisciplinary background which includes literary criticism. He is Curator of Collections & Special Projects at Crawford Art Gallery, and has previously lectured in English, Irish Studies, European Art History, and History of Art at University College Cork. He holds a PhD in English literature and has published on artists John Hogan, Samuel Forde, Patrick Hennessy, Una Watters, John Noel Smith, Joseph Heffernan, John Rainey, and writer Elizabeth Bowen. He is a board member of Sample-Studios and editorial board member of The Elizabeth Bowen Review.

Dr Matthew Whyte is an art historian based in Cork, Ireland. He specialises in the visual and cultural history of Italy from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. He currently serves as Development & Communications Coordinator in Sample-Studios and has lectured in Art History in University College Cork since 2014. He completed his PhD in History of Art in University College Cork, and his current research focuses on fifteenth-century Italian sculpture, exploring the impact of medieval theological principles on the visual response to issues of religious reform. Matthew has most recently presented his research at conferences organised by the Renaissance Society of America (RSA) and the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes in London.

Images:
William Gerard Barry, Time Flies (1887), Collection Crawford Art Gallery
Rebecca Bradley, Dream Upon Waking (2024), © Rebecca Bradley