Mary Morrissy curates this site. She is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and journalist. She has taught creative writing at university level in the US and Ireland for the past 20 years, and is also an individual literary mentor.
It’s not just in the art world that Una Watters’s work is getting noticed. Her Self-Portrait in Green (1943) appears on the cover of poet and academic Gerald Dawe’s just published book. Politic Words is a collection of essays and writings on the literary and cultural influence of Irish women writers and critics, such as Edna Longley, Eavan Boland, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Lucy Caldwell and Leontia Flynn.
The book also considers the legacies of traumatic Irish history such as the Famine and the Northern Troubles, as well as the political impact of Brexit. Politic Words: Writing Women/Writing History is the final part of a trilogy of cultural studies by Dr Dawe and is published by Peter Lang in its “Reimagining Ireland” series.
Meanwhile, Dr Paige Reynolds, Professor of English at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, has chosen Una’s Girl Going by Trinity in the Rain (1959) – now on display at the National Gallery – as the cover for her study of modernism in the work of Irish women’s contemporary fiction.
Dr Reynolds examines the work of Elizabeth Bowen, Edna O’Brien, Anne Enright, Anna Burns, Eimear McBride, Claire-Louise Bennett and Sally Rooney, among others, in what the publishers promise will be a new literary history. The volume could not have a more fitting visual ambassador than Una Watters. As Dr Reynolds has said: “It’s both perfectly in tune with the arguments of my book – and gorgeous.”
Modernism in Irish Women’s Contemporary Writing: The Stubborn Mode from Oxford University Press, will be published in November.
Una Watters’ The People’sGardens (oil on canvas, 40.6 x 50.8 cms), which is part of the Hugh Lane City Gallery collection, has been given on long-term loan to the Mansion House in Dublin. It will hang in the Blue Room (or the Lady Mayoress’s Parlour) in the Mansion House where, traditionally, all the paintings have come from the city’s municipal’s collection at the Hugh Lane.
The outgoing Lord Mayor Councillor Caroline Conroy personally requested the painting before her term ended last month. Ms Conroy, who’s a Green Party councillor, represents the Ballymun and Finglas local electoral area. Perhaps the Finglas connection prompted her choice?
The People’s Gardens dating to 1963 was shown at the following year’s Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition and depicts a slice of Dublin’s public life in the gardens which are part of the Phoenix Park. The Thomas Haverty Trust bought the painting and lent it for Watters’ posthumous retrospective exhibition in 1966. The following year the Trust donated the work to the Hugh Lane.
The Haverty Trust was established following the death of the artist Thomas Haverty who left a sum of money for the purchase of paintings by Irish artists for public galleries and institutions. Between 1935 and 1966, the Trust donated over 40 works to the Hugh Lane including paintings by Swanzy, William Leech, Brigid Ganly and Maurice MacGonigal (who encouraged Watters in her art studies).
As Logan Sisley, Acting Head of Collections at the Hugh Lane, noted in a blog on this site (The People’s Gardens: May 6,2020) the painting is typical of Una’s work with the trees and figures pared down to angular forms. “This shows the influence of earlier modern art movements such as Cubism and Futurism, albeit interpreted in her own style. Her clever use of shadows adds depth – notably under the trees and in the figure of the girl kicking the ball, the man reading a paper and the duck taking off (or landing). These also demonstrate a keen observation of people and an eye for detail. The strong shadows and summer dresses suggest a warm sunny day, yet the elderly couple walking arm-in-arm on the path are still dressed in heavy coats and hats.” (See also The Gardens Revisited: April 12, 2022)
In concert with the recent acquisition of Girl Going by Trinity in the Rain (1959) by the National Gallery and now on public view in Room 15, it is very heartening to see Una’s work on show after many years in the stacks at the Hugh Lane.
The painting hasn’t been shown in Parnell Square since the 1970s although, according to gallery records, it was on loan to the City Hall between 1969 and 1974 and again in the 1980s. It was also hung in the ILAC Centre Library in 1987 along with a number of other works from the Hugh Lane, including Harry Kernoff, John Leech and Lizzie Stephens, all of them depicting scenes of Dublin.
However, the painting’s new home although public is limited in its access. The Mansion House is open to the public annually as part of the Culture Night and Open House initiatives and occasionally for open days but it’s not possible to walk in off the street and view the work. However, group tours of the Mansion House can be arranged by contacting the Office of the Lord Mayor at lordmayor@dublincity.ie.
Perhaps it’s time for a tour by Una Watters’ groupies?
After four years of campaigning to re-establish the reputation of Una Watters, we had a proud moment today when we went to view her work in its new (and rightful) home – the National Gallery of Ireland.
Girl Going by Trinity in the Rain now hangs in Room 15, alongside many of Una’s contemporaries – Louis le Brocquy, Mary Swanzy and Mainie Jellet – artists with whom she would have exhibited in the 1950s and 60s. Furthermore, it places her at the centre of the national visual stage and allows hundreds of new people to enjoy her work which has been hidden for so long.
The descriptive tag beside the painting notes its faceted surface which “demonstrates Watters’ awareness of Cubism and Futurism” as well as her depiction of the driving rain “as a novel means of distorting the picture plane”.
We have to agree with him. Shown in the gallery’s Irish rooms, the painting sits between Tony O’Malley ‘s Self-portrait, winter, Heavy Snowfall at Trevalyor (1962/63)and Patrick Collins’ Liffey Quaysides (1957). Una’s striking work is already proving popular with visitors, according to Donal Maguire, director of the gallery’s ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art.
The 1959 oil on canvas which was donated by Colbert Kearney to the gallery earlier this year, was gifted to him by Una’s husband, Eugene Watters, following Una’s death in 1965.
The lasting legacy of his donation is that Una’s work is now free to be seen by everyone who visits the gallery.
Photograph: Left to right, Colbert Kearney, the director of the NGI, Dr Caroline Campbell and Mary Morrissy.
May has been a great month for Una Watters news. As a result of an event at Phizzfest, Phibsboro’s community and arts festival, where I gave a talk on Una earlier in the month, a new painting has been discovered.
The watercolour of the River Suck, where Una and Eugene spent many happy hours fishing, is one of several Una made during the 1950s (we’re not yet sure of the date of this one) and its owner came along to the Phizzfest, having not known about last year’s exhibition, or been aware of the surrounding publicity. The owner of The Pine Wood ( oil on canvas, 1961) also came to the full-house event. We had an image of this work but hadn’t definitively identified its owner.
We’ve also discovered through contacts made at Phizzfest that Una made a banner for St Michael’s School, Finglas – again we’re not sure of the date – as a result of a request by her sister, Maureen, who was a Holy Faith nun ( Sister Mel) based in Glasnevin. Better still, the banner still exists. We’re hoping to see it in the coming weeks and take photographs of it. This is yet another testament to Una’s design skills and her range, as well as her embedded artistic presence in her own community.
Also present at Phizzfest was Gary Byrne, Una’s nephew, who brought along two samples of Una’s work – an early oil of The People’s Gardens (1943) and a pen and ink drawing – Old Woman – both of which you can find on this website under Uncatalogued Work.
Finally, and best of all, we’ve had word from the National Gallery that they plan to hang Girl Going by Trinity in the Rain “imminently” – perhaps as early as June. Watch this space – or should I say – watch that space on the walls of the NGI, where we’ve always felt Una rightly belongs.
Catch up on Una Watters at Phizzfest where I’ll be giving an illustrated lecture – “Una Watters: Total Eclipse”- which will look at her work in context and explore the reasons for her retreat into invisibility.
Una Watters (1918-1965) 