Oil paint on 3 canvases
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/augustus-john-om-1362" aria-label="More by Augustus John OM" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Augustus John OM</a>
Galway
Presented by Sir Edmund Davis 1917
adults
apron
architecture
baby
bottle
boy
children
clothing and personal items
coast
countries and continents
crowd
drinking
eating and drinking
family
furnishings
girl
groups
hat
hill
Ireland
Ireland, Connacht
Ireland, Connacht, Galway
landscape
leisure and pastimes
man
mother and child
objects
people
picnic
places
seascapes and coasts
shawl
society
table
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
vessels and containers
woman
<p>This is the largest mural painting Augustus John produced. He began work on it, without any commission, when he was staying in Galway City on the west coast of Ireland, in 1915. He hoped to make ‘a vast picture synthesizing all that’s fine and characteristic in Galway City – a grand marshalling of the elements’.</p><p>This was during the war, just before the Irish uprising, and the issue of home rule was often in the newspapers. John’s view suggests a self-sufficient and independent Ireland, but not a modern one.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2008</em></p>
painting oil paint 3 canvases
28 October 2002 – 8 June 2005
2005-06-08
28 October 2002 – 8 June 2005
2005-06-08
2002-10-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-10-28
Link Hall Staircase Displays
Collection based display
Galway
support: 2750 × 11900 mm
Presented by Sir Edmund Davis 1917
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<span class="text15">This is the largest mural <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> </span><span class="text14">
</span><span class="text6">Augustus John</span><span class="text14"> produced. He began work on it, without any commission, when he      was staying in Galway City on the west </span><span class="text6">coast of      Ireland, in 1915. He hoped to make</span><span class="text14"> ‘a      vast picture synthesizing all that’s fine </span><span class="text16">and characteristic in Galway City – a grand</span><span class="text14"> marshalling of the elements’. </span>
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<span class="text14">This was during the war, just before the Irish      uprising, and the issue of home rule was often in the newspapers.      John’s view </span><span class="text16">suggests a self-sufficient      and independent </span><span class="text14">Ireland, but not a modern one. </span>
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2008-07-30T00:00:00
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DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N03210</b> GALWAY (CARTOON FOR A DECORATION) 1916
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Canvas, 114 1/2×472 1/2 (291×1200).
<br/>Presented by Sir Edmund Davis 1917.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> <i>Arts and Crafts Society</i>, R.A., 1916 (541).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> James Laver, <i>Portraits in Oil and Vinegar</i>, 1925, p.63; Rothenstein, 1944, p.9, repr. pl.76 (detail: central panel); John Rothenstein, <i>Modern English Painters: Sickert to Smith</i>, 1952, p.184; John, 1952, pp.92–3.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Bertram, 1923, pl.9; <i>Studio</i>, CI, 1931, p.87 (detail: left and central panels).</p>
<p>‘Galway’ was commissioned for the Arts and Crafts Society exhibition at Burlington House in 1916. Ireland fascinated John and Galway especially excited him. His impressions of this part of the country can be read in <i><a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/chiaroscuro" title="Glossary definition for 'Chiaroscuro'"><span>Chiaroscuro</span></a></i>, which contains an almost perfect verbal description of this picture. In a ‘Fragment of Autobiography’ John wrote: ‘I found the old port rich in motives for a painter.... Back in England I did an immense cartoon, which summarized some aspects of it, and many <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> recorded impressions of its scene. If they haven't improved the place altogether I may go back yet. There must surely be a shawl or two left’ (<i>Horizon</i>, IV, 1941, p.292). The central motif of bare-footed women with shawls on their heads greatly interested John, and two examples of the drawings referred to in the passage quoted above can be seen in the Davies Bequest, National Museum of Wales. They are ‘Galway Peasants’ and ‘Donegal Shawls’.</p>
<p>Although Sir John Rothenstein has recorded that John told him that he had painted the cartoon in a single week (1944, <i>loc. cit.</i>, and 1952, <i>loc. cit.</i>) the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> had evidently occupied him for a number of years. Two large cartoons for ‘Galway’, though differing somewhat in detail, were included in the second sale of <i>Drawings and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>Paintings</span></a> from the Studio of the late Augustus John</i> at Christie's, 21 June 1963 (118 and 119, repr.), dated in the catalogue as <i>c.</i> 1908 and 1910 respectively. A drawing for the left-hand group of ‘Galway’ dated 1907 (?) or 1917 is reproduced in Bertram, 1923, pl.31, as ‘Bank Holiday’ (as well as a group of ‘Galway Girls’, pl.33), and another variant of the scene round a table is reproduced in Browse, 1941, pl.50, as ‘Bank Holiday, West Wales’. John had paid a number of visits to both Wales and Ireland during the decade before he painted <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/john-galway-n03210" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03210</span></a>.</p>
<p>In 1920 the artist was given permission to retouch the work and in 1948 he consented to have the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> relined as the picture was in a bad condition; the canvas was divided into three parts and is now on three separate stretchers.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I</p>
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Catalogue entry
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults apron architecture baby bottle boy children clothing and personal items coast countries and continents crowd drinking eating and drinking family furnishings girl groups hat hill Ireland Ireland, Connacht Ireland, Connacht, Galway landscape leisure and pastimes man mother and child objects people picnic places seascapes and coasts shawl society table townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features vessels and containers woman