Sean O'Casey

Artist Patrick Joseph Tuohy (1894 - 1930)

Date1926

MediumPencil on paper

Dimensions42.5 x 35.6 cm

ClassificationsDrawings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by Miss B. Tuohy through the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland, 1937.

Object number814

DescriptionA delicate pencil portrait of the Irish playwright, which Sean O'Casey did not like. It was the preliminary study for an oil portrait, which Tuohy began afterwards, as Joseph Holloway records in his diaries. Kenneth Reddin told Holloway that O'Casey left Dublin to reside in England without telling Tuohy, who was then working on the portrait in oils. O'Casey returned some time later to Dublin for a few days, but never informed Tuohy of his presence and when Tuohy later complained to him, O'Casey wrote back,'You can go to Hell' (see Holloway, 'Irish Theatre Diaries', Volume II 1932-1937 dixon, CA, 1968-70. Although initially O'Casey had a good relationship with the Tuohys during the time of their membership of the Irish Citizen Army in 1916, his relationship with Patrick deteriorated in 1926 when O'Casey moved residence from Dublin to London. Perhaps O'Casey's admiration for the romantic painters such as Augustus John hindered his judgement on the unsentimental realism of the fastidious Tuohy. In his memoir 'Inisfallen Fare Thee Well' O'Casey is less than generous to Tuohy as an artist. O'Casey's portrait by Augustus John is held in the Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.

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