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Lot Essay
In 1945 Dillon's sister, Molly, acquired a house at 102 Abbey Road in North West London. Dillon moved in as a tenant, converting the basement into a flat which had its own independent entrance. He was to live and paint here, on and off, for the next twenty years.
Painted circa 1950, the present work, depicting the interior of a pub, is a combination of the figurative and the abstract. The men stand against planes of flattened colour, one area of which almost divides the painting in two and hides part of the figure in the background. Dillon's use of abstraction demonstrates his desire to paint works that did more than depict an observed reality. In 1951 he wrote in the Irish review Envoy, 'The Irish painter is trying to fight this story telling quality (natural in himself) in his work, because he knows it isn't 'Pure painting', It's a hard fight' (see J. White, Gerard Dillon: An Illustrated Biography, Dublin, 1994, p. 54).
Painted circa 1950, the present work, depicting the interior of a pub, is a combination of the figurative and the abstract. The men stand against planes of flattened colour, one area of which almost divides the painting in two and hides part of the figure in the background. Dillon's use of abstraction demonstrates his desire to paint works that did more than depict an observed reality. In 1951 he wrote in the Irish review Envoy, 'The Irish painter is trying to fight this story telling quality (natural in himself) in his work, because he knows it isn't 'Pure painting', It's a hard fight' (see J. White, Gerard Dillon: An Illustrated Biography, Dublin, 1994, p. 54).