Bringing Home the Seaweed

Artist Charles Lamb (1893 - 1964)

Date1944

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions45 x 56 cm

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by the Thomas Haverty Trust, 1945. © The Estate of Charles Lamb.

Object number994

DescriptionLife in the West is very much based on living off the land; growing crops in the often unyielding soil, fishing from the currachs, raising a few domestic animals and cutting turf from bogs to heat the home. Lamb, like many writers and artists, was attracted to the resilience of the people and the rugged beauty of the western landscape. When painting in Brittany in 1926, peasant life and the rural countryside were similarly an important element of Lamb's imagery. In 'Bringing Home the Seaweed' two currachs, filled with recently collected seaweed, pull into port. Seaweed was traditionally used on the west coast as fertiliser for arid soil. Strong references to the local traditions are visible in the homespun bainins worn by the fishermen and the currachs that bring their harvest ashore. The traditional rowing boat along the west coast, the versatile currach, was originally made by stretching animal hide over a wooden frame.

A sense of calm and harmony permeates Lamb's vision of rural life. The subdued palette of grey enhances this feeling and reflects the artist's contemplative personality. Lamb was very much captivated by the tranquillity of the West, seeing in it what he described as the 'national essence'. He conveys this ideal in 'Bringing Home the Seaweed', but also gives us a document of a way of life largely since past with the growth of 20th century modernisation.

(Catalogue Entry [42]: A Century of Irish Painting - Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 1997, p. 155)

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