Roderic O'Conor

Roderic O'Conor was born in County Roscommon, in the west of Ireland, into an Irish aristocratic family. Following an academic education in England, he opted to study art, initally in Dublin followed by a period of study in Antwerp. Like many artists of his generation he was drawn to Paris where he studied with the academic painter Carolus Duran. However in Paris he became familiar with contemporary avant-garde developments and he moved to Brittany to paint the rural landscape. Here he became acquainted with the circle of painters around Gauguin, and following his return from Tahiti he became a friend of the famous French artist. During his time in Brittany, O'Conor developed his own distinctive striped style of painting, which reveals a familiarity with the work of Van Gogh. After some years working in various parts of Brittany, O'Conor returned to Paris in 1904. His later paintings concentrate on typical studio subjects of still-life and the human figure and his later style was not unlike that of Bonnard

For many years his work was little known. O'Conor was suspicious of art dealers and did not exhibit outside the regular avant-garde salons in Paris. After his death in 1940 his paintings remained in the studio and it was only after the death of his wife Renée fifteen years later that the work became known to the public.