Still Life With Lemon And Pomegranates - Atelier O'conor

Gouache on paper, unsigned, but marked on the back "Atelier O'Conor". Not framed.

Roderick O'Conor (1860-1940) was an Irish painter and engraver who was part of the famous School of Pont-Aven. Most of his career was spent in Belgium and France: after attending the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and the schools of the Royal Hibernian Academy, he first went to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. arts in Antwerp, then frequented the studio of Charles Carolus-Duran in Paris. Experimenting with the techniques of Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism and Pointillism, O'Conor stayed in the artists' colonies of Grez-sur-Loing and Pont-Aven. It was in the latter that the artist came into contact with the circle of Paul Gauguin (1848 - 1903). The two artists met for the first time in 1894 and became friends. O'Conor exhibited with Gauguin, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Sérusier, and other prominent artists at the Exposition of Impressionist and Symbolist Painters in the 1890s. From 1903, O'Conor's subjects moved away from the representation of Breton life to turn to nudes, female figures, portraits and still lifes. He immersed himself in the cultural life of Paris, notably with an exclusive group of British expatriates including Clive Bell, Arnold Bennett and Somerset Maugham. In 1933, O'Conor married his companion Henrietta (Renée) Honta, who often posed for the artist. The couple lived in France and Spain, and the artist died at their home in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1940.