Farmyard in Brittany
Oil on canvas
Signed
The National Gallery of Ireland ‘The Irish Impressionists’ 1st October - 30th November 1984 exhibition label verso
Augustus Joseph Nicholas Burke (1838-1891) was born into a landowning family in Co. Galway. He began his artistic career in London, and from 1863 exhibited at the Royal Academy. Later, in 1871, he became a Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy. Burke resided in the Netherlands between 1870 and 1872, and in 1875 was one of the first Irish painters to move to Pont-Aven, France, to be followed by Aloysius O’Kelly, Stanhope Forbes, Walter Osborne (his pupil), Joseph Kavanagh, and Nathaniel Hill. Many painted-en plain air and showed the influences of French Realism in their works at the RHA’s Annual Exhibitions. Augustus Burke showed 16 Breton subject paintings at The RHA between 1876 and 1878. His scenes of Breton daily life reflect the influence of the great French Social Realist artist, Jean-François Millet (1814-1875), for example Millet’s paintings, The Angelus of 1857 (Musee d’Orsay, Paris) and The Gleaners, also of 1857 (Musee d’Orsay, Paris). His Breton figures are depicted with the same dignity, workers in the field carrying out their daily tasks. Augustus Burke exhibited a total of 149 works at the Royal Hibernian Academy. A portrait of him, by Alfred Grey, RHA, is to be found together with his own works in The National Gallery of Ireland. Burke’s other work, On the Feast Day of Notre Dame in Tremalo, Brittany is on display in the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin.11¾ x 15¾ inches (30 x 40 cm.)