The Donegal Coast

Artist Nathaniel Hone (1831 - 1917)

Date1880s

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions61 x 102.6 cm

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Lane Gift, 1912.

Object number20

DescriptionHone began to exhibit paintings of Donegal in the 1890s, but he may have made earlier visits to the north-west of Ireland, perhaps in the 1870s or 1880s. As at Kilkee, he was drawn to the bare, rocky and windswept coast of Donegal, a contrast to the flat pastoral landscapes of County Dublin. In the 19th century there was a tradition of elemental paintings of coastal landscapes, seascapes and breaking waves, by artists from Constable and Turner, to Delacroix, Isabey and Courbet, Whistler, Boulenger, Henry Moore and Winslow Homer, and Hone's sea paintings belong proudly to that tradition. He painted a series of pictures of the sea rolling in from the Atlantic and breaking upon the dark rocks.In Donegal Coast (National Gallery of Ireland), men are shown gathering seaweed on the rocks. However, in this painting, the scene is empty of human presence. Foam is blown in the foreground and the headland across the sea is almost obscured by clouds. Yet the waves that dominate the picture seem to reflect sunlight which may be breaking through the cloud covering. (From: The Collection Revealed: Nathaniel Hone, p. 8)

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