Patrick Leonard

Acquired from Dillon Antiques, Dublin, circa 1985 by the late Brian P. Burns

Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1954

Known for his realist style and genre paintings, After the Storm - the End of a Coaster, is a beautiful example of Patrick Leonard’s picturesque output during the 1950s. Having studied under Sean Keating and Maurice MacGonigal at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, Leonard’s talent was soon recognised and he began exhibiting at the Royal Hibernian Academy from 1941. Leonard went on to become an art teacher in Dublin between 1953 and 1981, however bouts of illness often prevented him from teaching and painting with the same enthusiasm. In these periods, he would often turn to drawing and these sketches, which later would manifest as oils, were an integral part of his working method.

Executed in 1954, the present work points to Leonard’s deep affection for his local surroundings in County Dublin. Capturing the moment a large ship is beaten from its right hand side by the waves, After the Storm draws attention to the beauty and power of the wild Irish coast. Accented by painterly spots of white and yellow, Leonard animates the fierce sea whilst also illuminating it in the soft post-tempest light. By utilising a softer palette and brush strokes in the landscape and sky, Leonard furthermore draws attention to the action of this precise moment. As one of his larger works, After the Storm is a significant example of the artist at his most vocal and fuses his admiration for the beauty of this untamed coastline with his pleasing realist style.

On the reverse of the present work is another painting by the artist entitled Ladies' Singles. This work was selected to represent Ireland, one of three Irish pictures, in the Olympic Art Exhibition in Helsinki, 1952 (catalogue no. 34). Leonard painted over the picture and re-used the other side of the canvas for the present work. Ladies' Singles was presumed destroyed, as the artist claimed, until its discovery here.