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Artist: Basil Blackshaw HRHA RUA (b.1932) Title: Cockerel Signature: signed lower left Medium: oil on canvas Size: 51 x 40½cm (20.1 x 15.9in) Framed Size: 74.4 x 64.3cm (29.3 x 25.3in) Provenance: These Rooms, 4th December 2017 lot 21; Private Collection a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} Lively and expressive, this sketch in oils on canvas demonstrates Blackshaw's consummate ability to capture the essence of the animal world. Although the background is cursory, indicated with rapid brushstrokes of red and blue, the cockerel itself is depicted vividly, its body and tail an explosion ... Read more Basil Blackshaw Lot 30 - 'Cockerel' Estimate: €15,000 - €25,000 Lively and expressive, this sketch in oils on canvas demonstrates Blackshaw's consummate ability to capture the essence of the animal world. Although the background is cursory, indicated with rapid brushstrokes of red and blue, the cockerel itself is depicted vividly, its body and tail an explosion of colour, the artist accentuating its fierce eye, sharp beak and spurs. Blackshaw delighted in painting cockerels, finding in their colourful feathers and fierce displays a metaphor for life. During the 1980's and 90's, he painted a series of studies, including one entitled The Dust Settles, showing two cockerels taking a break from fighting. Celebrated for his paintings of horses, dogs, landscapes and people, Basil Blackshaw was born in 1932 in Glengormley, Co. Antrim. Raised in Boardmills, Co. Down, after attending Methodist College, he enrolled at the Belfast College of Art, where T. P. Flanagan was a fellow-student. Among his tutors was Romeo Toogood, a member of the progressive Ulster Unit. Although Blackshaw admired the work of Franz Marc and Oskar Kokoschka he was inspired also by Alfred Munnings' paintings of animals. In 1951, a CEMA scholarship enabled him to travel to London and Paris, and on returning to Northern Ireland he quickly established himself. In 1954 a solo show of his work was held at the Ulster Museum; with the Museum acquiring his painting The Field (1953). Two years later he designed sets for Mary O'Malley's production of La La Noo by Jack B Yeats, at the Lyric Theatre. Blackshaw was married for a time to the Australian abstract painter Anna Ritchie. They had one child, Anya, who grew up in Australia and is now herself a noted abstract painter. Blackshaw continued to develop his career, exhibiting at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art and with the Hendriks Gallery in Dublin. He took a break for several years, but in the early 1970's resumed painting, and in 1974 a retrospective was held at the Arts Council Gallery in Belfast. Included in several Rosc exhibitions, in the late 1980's Blackshaw designed posters for the Field Day Theatre Company in Derry. A second retrospective was held at the Ormeau Baths Gallery in 1995, and at the RHA Gallery in 1997, the success of which confirmed his place as a leading contemporary Irish painter. In 2012 an exhibition to celebrate Blackshaw's eightieth year was held at the F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio. Aside from painting, Blackshaw, who was elusive and disliked publicity, bred greyhounds for racing. Peter Murray, June 2021