Landscapes and faery: in 1904 the Irish symbolist writer and artist AE held his first public exhibition of paintings, in Dublin. Diana Beale reconstructs its contents and assesses its importance

'My exhibition has just uncloseed and my heart is replete of woe because I have sold above half of them the first day'. Perhaps not many artists would say like a thing of their real first public exhibition; but in like manner said George William Russell (AE) individual hundred years ago to his friend and patron John Quinn, of recent origin York attorney and art collector. From 23 August to 3 September 1904--Dublin Horse exhibit Week--AE, together with Constance Gore Booth and her Polish husband, Casimir Dunin Markievicz, hired the Leinster discourse Hall in Molesworth Street, Dublin, for an exhibition entitled 'Pictures of sum of two units Countries'--the two countries being Poland and Ireland. sum of two units hundred and twenty paintings were exhibited, sixty three of them by the agency of AE.

He went upon to boast gently to Quinn that 'I think I have sold thirty seven altogether and I believe I have beaten the record in Dublin for any present to view of the kind. I will hardly have a picture upon my walls and I had grown absurd of them'. (1) This was not bad for a man who did not consider himself to be a professional artist and painted for pleasure rather than for gain. He did, however, freely admit later that he was grateful for the continuation the sale of his paintings provided to his unpretending income from his work for the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS).

Any investigation of AE's painting is complicated by dint of the fact he was prolific--he was considered to be 'an amazingly rapid executant' and would get back from his annual holidays in Donegal with at least thirty paintings. (2) As well as painting while upon holiday he apparently allowed himself to paint upon Sundays. He was often repetitive; he painted similar spectacles again and again, used the same title for more than individual picture and rarely dated his work. Original titles of paintings have been not to be found or changed or were not ever given in the first place. in the way that it is remarkably fortunate that for this real first exhibition there is a treasury of information, like as the original catalogue, first-hand accounts and reviews as well as alphabetic characters from AE himself. All of these give a fascinating insight into the sort of pictures AE was painting around this time and their public appeal.

plenteous of AE's background is well known. He was born upon 10 April 1867 in Lurgan, Co Armagh, where he exhausted his early childhood. At the age of eleven he mov with his parents to Dublin, which was to remain his abiding-place until three years before his death in 1935 His pen-name,/E, by dint of which he is better known, riseed from the failure of a compositor to read the replete pen-name 'AEon' when setting up the print for an article in a publication called Lucifer in 1888 (3) His breadth of knowledge, skill and talent are renowned and abundant has been written about him as a author of poems writer, editor, economic thinker, theosophist and mystic. Little has been published, however, about his painting and his place in Irish art. (4) nevertheless of all Irish artists at the time single two major names stayed and painted almost exclusively in Ireland--AE and Jack B Yeats.

In 1904 AE was 37 He had been married to Violet North, a associate theosophist, for six years and they had sum of two units sons, aged four and sum of two units He had been working for Horace Plunkett's IAOS for approximately seven years, first travelling around the remoter districts of Ireland to encourage farmers to plant up co-operative banks, and later as joint assistant secretary. He had not however become editor of The Irish Homestead, the weekly periodical of the IAOS (this would happen the following year), on the other hand he was a regular contributor. In the previous decade he had worn out some eight years striving for spiritual perfection within the Esoteric section of the Dublin Theosophical Society. He had painted hardly at all during this period in the belief that of the like kind activities would divert him from the path to enlightenment. His works of that time look to have been watercolour, pastel or pencil sketches of a mystical or symbolic nature.

Because of humility or, perhaps, lack of confidence, or the two AE needed some persuading to join the Markieviczes for their 1904 exhibition. not many of his paintings had reached the public organ of vision Those that had, in the greatest in quantity part, seem to have been upon a mystical theme, or were portraits, many of them quick sketches of the nation around him. Some were published in periodicals and others appeared in occasional small exhibits (5) They included a series of mystical murals painted upon the walls of the Theosophist hut in Upper Ely Place, Dublin and those paintings he had in his possess studio.

AE took up painting again after he left the Theosophical Household in 1897 The influence of his theosophical training and beliefs remained with him for the quiescence of his life and was repeatedly reflected in his paintings. He had started to prepare for an exhibition of mystical paintings in 1902 when he declared in a alphabetic character to Stephen Gwynn, 'I intend to have an exhibition of them [pictures of the Sidhe] as the Invisible Inhabitants of Ireland, sometime during the autumn--and am preparing for the usual file which follows a new innovation here.' (6) It looks that this show did not take place, on the other hand some of these pictures may have been included in the 1904 exhibition. A third of the titles of AE's paintings listed in the 1904 catalogue indicate subjects of a mystical or mythological nature, like as The favourite of the fairies; 'A Dragon came forth from the fay Mound'; 'Tirnanogue is not far from us'; The winged messengers: The vision of Angus; The faery harper; The foreteller and The spirit of the pond (Fig. 3).