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Portrait of John Hogan
Portrait of John Hogan

Portrait of John Hogan

Artist (English, b. 1962)
Date2004
MediumOil on linen
Dimensions183 x 168 cm
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated, 2011. © Nick Miller.
Object number2028
DescriptionThe subject is both very much in keeping with Miller's oeuvre and unusual in the historical traditon of portraiture. John Hogan was Miller's only close farmer neighbour for the sixteen yers he lived in the small town land of Kilmactranny, Co. sligo. Hogan is celebrated in this life size portrayal, not as a person of high status in society, but as an imposing character in his own right. The portrayal is more akin to the closely observed fictional world of John McGahern whose writing and person was an influence on the artist during that period when he knew and painted John McGahern (Niland Collection). The contrast with the role of portraiture and societal status is further illuminated through the inclusion of four postcards in the background; historical 'giants' of portraiture that informed the artist and this painting in particular. Holbein's King Henry VIII, Titian's Portrait of Doge Francesco Venier; an El Greco Prince and Ingres's formidable portrait of Louis-Francois Bertin (1832) are all included, drawn upon and in the case of the Ingres, it also forms the reference for the pose in this painting.

As with all Miller's work, his focus is on the direct human encounter with the subject, the urgency of that meeting is conveyed in the restrained but forceful intensity of the painting. Made over seven intense days of sitting, it like all Miller's work, reflects that durational race against time,. it was finsihed on 29th March 2004, incidentally, the day the workplace smoking ban was introduced in Ireland - referenced in the hanging cigarette and green packet of Major cigarettes at his side.

The snow landscape and child's slide hat appear to be an open doorway on the left is in fact the edge of a large painting "Snow Garden". A landscape or "Truckscape" made from his mobile studio around the same time, presenting a vista from the artist's front garden into the surrounding fields and lands that are the domain of the sitter, John Hogan. Further to the left, the edge of the canvas on which he is actually working is also included, further referencing the act of seeing and painting in terms of the "Truckscapes" where viewfinder doorway of his truck/mobile studio frequently frames or crops the image.

To the far right, all pervading nature invades the canvas in the form of the still-life spindles and seedpods on a winter branch of a tree, reminding the viewer of the temporality of life and again positing questions about mortality and portraiture and its function.

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