cubism – Una Watters (1918-1965)

Hot on the heels of acquiring through donation three Una Watters’ paintings, the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) has hung two of the works in Room 15. The Red Bridge, above and Isabella, below, are two of the three paintings recently donated and they now hang side by side.

For the time being, Girl Going by Trinity in the Rain, (1959), which has been on display since 2023 in the same room and become a firm favourite with gallery patrons, has been removed to facilitate the new arrivals. A temporary situation, we hope.

Having four of Una’s works in the national collection, and two on display, is a situation we couldn’t have dreamed about when we started our quest to rehabilitate Una’s reputation way back in 2020.

It means the public has a chance to see the range and versatility of Una’s talent. The Red Bridge (1956) highlights her Cubist-influenced rendering of landscape, featuring the River Suck in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, where Una and husband Eugene spent their summers. The town and surroundings often featured in her work.

Isabella (also 1956) is a portrait of Eugene’s sister, Isa, and shows another string to Una’s bow – portraiture. There are several portraits among her paintings – one of her husband, featured in her retrospective 2022 show, which, those who knew him say, captures his personality exactly.

There’s also a striking self-portrait which we used for the poster of the 2022 retrospective – an intense work which commands the viewer’s attention with its candour. As a view of the sitter’s back, Isabella may be less forthright, but it manages to create a intriguing sense of mystery.

The last of the trio of paintings donated, Harvest (1965) – a very late work – is not on the walls of the NGI yet, but there are plans to show all of Una’s works together some time in 2027. In the meantime, if you want to see Una in duplicate, now’s the time to visit!

For your diary

After the flurry of the presentation of Una’s Girl Going by Trinity in the Rain to the national collection by Colbert Kearney in 2023, things have been quiet on the Una Watters front.

However, this year will see more activity. It’s an anniversary year – 60 years on from her death in 1965 – and hopefully that may see an upswing in Una Watters-related activities.

First development this year is the inclusion of Girl Going by Trinity in the Rain in the National Gallery of Ireland’s diary. Always a beautiful production, this year is no different, and Una appears for the week of May 26, 2025.

The director of the gallery, Dr Caroline Campbell, remarks in the diary’s introduction that Una’s Girl has already become a” popular favourite” among gallery patrons. This makes a trifecta of images the NGI has used of Una’s signature painting – it appeared in last year’s calendar and is for sale in postcard form in the gallery shop. (Speaking of merch, I’m waiting for the gallery umbrella and tote bag!)

As Sara Donaldson author of the notes accompanying the image in the diary writes – “Watters’s awareness of Cubist forms is evident everywhere, while Futurist-inspired ‘lines of force’ represent the sheets of rain, evoking the atmosphere of a wet urban scene.”

Speaking of dates for the diary, I will be doing a lecture – “The Lost Reputation of Una Watters” as part of Ballinasloe & District Historical Society’s Town Talks series in March – more details to come closer to the time.

Meanwhile, I’m on work on a book on Una so if any of you out there have stories or memories of her or Eugene Watters, do contact me via the email on the blog.

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