Placed among her peers

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Una Watters’ death (Nov 20, 1965) but it was also the year when her artistic powers were at an all-time high. She’d designed the winning logo for the Easter Rising Commemorations in an Arts Council open competition, she’d completed five major oil paintings plus a ground-breaking cycle of watercolours (see the Emerald Ballroom Watercolours page elsewhere on this site) which suggested a new artistic direction.

She’d also participated in the 25th Annual Waterford Art Exhibition, a major group show which places her firmly in context. Una exhibited two recently completed works – Wild Apples (oil on canvas, 56 x 43 cms) – https://unawattersartist.com/2020/06/24/wild-apples/ – which was sold for £30 and Malahide (oil on canvas, 37.5 x 35 cms) – https://unawattersartist.com/2020/07/22/the-three-graces-in-malahide/ – which featured in the show, but was not for sale.

The exhibition was a veritable who’s who of mid-century Irish art featuring Harry Kernoff, Anne Yeats, Patrick Pye, Gerard Dillon, George Campbell, Brigid Ganly, Norah McGuinness, Bea Orpen, George Collie, Walter Verling, Barrie Cooke, Camille Souter and Gerda Fromel, to name but 13 contributors to the show, which featured a total of 127 exhibits.

Seeing Una in this company is an eloquent reminder of her standing in the art world of the time. (It’s interesting to note that her works were in the higher price bracket among contributors. George Collie’s Industry and Commerce and National Museum from the Artist’s Studio was on sale for £100, but he was an elder statesman in the art world, a portraitist of note and a member of the RHA. Apart from Collie, prices for work ranged from £12 up to £45).

Una’s status among her contemporaries is sometimes forgotten because of the eclipse her reputation suffered immediately after her death, which we discuss elsewhere on this site. Only two of her works have come up for public auction in the past 20 years, so it’s easy to write her off as having a small output. In fact, however, although much of her work has flown under the radar, Una was a prolific artist as even a casual trawl through this site demonstrates.

We’re still looking for seven known paintings of hers from the posthumous show organised by her husband, Eugene (Eoghan O Tuairsic) a year after her death. (See The 1966 Exhibition page) And who knows how many more paintings are out there that we don’t know about?

Poignantly, the Waterford show, which ran from November 6 to November 20, closed on the day of Una’s death.

Waterford still plays a significant role in the artistic scene boasting one of the most impressive regional collections in the south. The Waterford Municipal Gallery was founded by a group of public -spirited citizens in the late 1930s. The current Waterford Art Gallery which boasts a collection of 750 paintings, prints, photography and sculptures, is the direct descendant of the municipal gallery which, as historian Roy Foster has noted, formed a “cautious bridgehead” for art when it opened in hard times in 1939.