Henry Robertson Craig, who died in 1984, is far too little known other than as the close friend of fellow artist Patrick Hennessy. His work shows certain similarities with that of the more slick Hennessy, but possesses greater warmth.
It is therefore surprising that Craig's reputation is not higher, particularly since he specialised in landscapes, which have always enjoyed popularity among Irish collectors. Perhaps this situation is about to change, because next week, Dublin's Gorry Gallery will be exhibiting no less than 15 pictures by Craig. These were collected during the 1960s by an American admirer of the artist.
Based in Chicago, Craig's patron had each work custom-framed by Hydenryk of New York, who used a variety of different techniques to give a distressed effect to his designs; fortunately, the Hydenryk frames remain on the paintings for which they were first created.
Although he spent much of his life in this country, Craig was born in Scotland in 1916 and met the Cork-born Hennessy when the two were students at Dundee College of Art. In 1938, he won the college's travelling scholarship (awarded to Hennessy the previous year) but was unable to take advantage of this opportunity due to the outbreak of war.
He worked in British Intelligence during that period and, following demobilisation, came to Ireland where he took a house in Co Cork with Hennessy. Together they moved to Dublin in 1950, making the city their home for the next 18 years.
By then, Craig had already begun showing his work in Ireland; in 1948 he first exhibited at the RHA where he became an academician seven years later. One of the most important gallery owners during these decades, David Hendriks, also showed his paintings along with those of Hennessy. It was in the mid-1960s that the two men established a relationship with Chicago's Guildhall Gallery and, sometime later, with another gallery in San Francisco.
Association with the former seems to have been particularly successful for Craig, who now achieved financial security through sales of his work. In 1968, he and Hennessy moved to Tangier and then settled in Portugal in 1980 where Craig was to die in 1984.
Inevitably, the majority of the pictures being shown at the Gorry Gallery are landscapes, although one notable exception is a brilliantly-coloured study of primulas in a green jar with a metal teapot and teacup in the background.
This painting is notable for the crumpled copy of the Cork Evening Echo on which the items sit; its headline refers to the declaration of the Irish Republic made by the Taoiseach John A Costello while on a visit to Canada in April 1947.
But most of the other works have a more timeless and idyllic quality about them. With titles such as The Toy Boat and The Sunday School Picnic, these pictures exude an uncomplicated charm. Hide and Seek is typical in this respect; it shows a group of children playing amidst sun-dappled trees in full, summer foliage. A similar mood pervades Saturday Afternoon, in which the background is occupied by a dense bank of trees but the foreground dominated by a sandy riverbank on which figures can be seen relaxing.
A couple of pictures do not feature the human figure, such as The Rainbow, which has echoes of late-Lavery and Moonlight off the Donegal Coast, a highly effective study of light on water, clearly a subject of abiding interest to Craig, as was the effect of sunshine on stone. In this, again, he deserves comparison with Patrick Hennessy. But Craig is such an attractive artist that his pictures ought to be studied for their own merits.
The exhibition of Irish painting from the 18th to the 20th centuries, including Henry Robertson Craig, runs at the Gorry Gallery from 15th to 28th June.
