Self Portrait

Artist Roderic Montagu O'Connor (b. Paris 1908 - d. Florida 2001)

Date1923

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions39 x 30.5 cm

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by Roderic O'Connor (the Artist), 1947. © The Estate of Roderic Montague O'Connor.

Object number1012

DescriptionRoderic Montague O'Conor was the youngest son of the sculptor Andrew O'Connor who was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1874. Andrew O'Connor had four sons, Hector, Owen, Patrick and Roderic. Patrick was also a painter and he later served as Director of the then Dublin Municipal Art Gallery in Harcourt Street.

The brothers were educated at home and neither Patrick nor Roderic had a formal art school training but were guided and instructed by their father who was an excellent draughtsman. He insisted on a rigorous study of the methods and techniques of the old masters as a way of developing their painting skills.
As a result, Roderic and his brother developed a youthful and precocious talent as painters and both were represented in the Paris Salon Exhibition of 1925 when they were still in their teenage years. They subsequently became regular Salon exhibitors while the family was living in Paris. They also lived in Rome before Roderic moved to the United States just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. He took a studio in New York and exhibited with the Reinhart Galleries.

Roderic Montague O'Connor painted numerous portraits and self-portraits throughout his career in which his strict classical training under his father's tutelage is evident. His use of light and shade in his portraits was derived from his study of Rembrandt, an artist whom he greatly admired. He also painted in several styles including Italianate scenes and used different nom de plumes to sign his paintings including 'Montagu,' 'Ricardo Rossi,' 'Jean Paul de Guyon,' and 'Roderic.'

It should be noted that Roderic Montague O'Connor was not related to Roderic Anthony O'Conor (1860-1940) with whom he is sometimes confused.

Dr Roy Johnston

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