Lot Essay
From about 1944 Dillon travelled to Connemara during the summer months to paint. Sometime he settled in Roundstone on the mainland but occasionally he took the ferry to Inishlacken, one of the Aran Islands and worked among the white-washed thatched cottages and small fields surrounded by tall stone walls or small fishing harbours (seen on the painting behind the artist) that protected the currachs (the local tall-bowed fishing boats) from the Atlantic swell. This painting can be dated to around that time and because of the shortage of materials and the isolation of the island, the artist used all the surfaces he could get hold of, sometimes using the sides of tea-chests, or in this case, both sides of a canvas (there is a typical landscape from around this date on the reverse).