James Humbert Craig RHA RUA (1877-1944) The Wee Fair Oil on...
Hammer
€18,000
James Humbert Craig RHA RUA (1877-1944) The Wee Fair Oil on board, 30 x 42cm (11¾ x 16½'') Signed; signed and inscribed with title verso
Often referred to as 'The People's Painter', James Humbert Craig enjoyed the rare privilege of painting for the love of it rather than any great financial necessity. He spent his boyhood in the bustling port town of Bangor at a period of great commercial expansion. Craig's family were tea-merchants and this proved to be a lucrative business which Craig would have been fortunate to inherit had he any interest in the field. Fortunately for us, Craig had no pressing need for funds and so his landscape painting was unhindered by financial struggle and market demands unlike many of his contemporaries. Craig was an ardent outdoorsman and session fiddle player and no doubt the pursuit of scenic landscapes for his plein air paintings also greatly facilitated his hobbies of sailing, angling and rambling across the Northern coastline.
The artist and his wife purchased Tornamona Cottage at Cushendun, Co. Antrim in 1919 as a holiday home which was to be the setting for a great many of Craig's most beloved works. It is unclear if the subject of this particular picture is indeed Cushendun, or instead an unspecified spot in Donegal or Connemara which he also favoured, however the subject of the rural marketplace is one Craig returned to many times as a proponent of the 'peopled landscape'. Indeed, the vast majority of Craig's landscapes are peopled to some degree, often softened by vernacular dwellings, lonely cattle herders, fishermen and turf-stacks which serve to add a sense of scale and depth to a sweeping landscape. Craig's composition here is expertly handled with a loose impasto application. The young artist often painted loosely on discarded wooden pallets from his family merchant business in his earlier years, enjoying the warm brown of the unprimed wood which would shine through the loose brushstrokes much like underpainting, evoking light and shadow without superfluous additions by the artist. Author John Hewitt aptly notes ''He found his style in impressionism, not Impressionism of the divided touch, the broken colour, the rainbow palette, but of the swift notation of the insistent effect, the momentary flicker, the flash of light, the passing shadow.'' (1) This intuitive approach can be seen here in the play of light and shadow across the oblique, pale wedge of squat thatched cottages which stand in an untidy harmony with each other and the looming green mountain beyond.
Stephanie Brennan, August 2026
1. John Hewitt, Art in Ulster 1, Belfast, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 1977.
Hammer
€18,000
James Humbert Craig RHA RUA (1877-1944) The Wee Fair Oil on board, 30 x 42cm (11¾ x 16½'') Signed; signed and inscribed with title verso
Often referred to as 'The People's Painter', James Humbert Craig enjoyed the rare privilege of painting for the love of it rather than any great financial necessity. He spent his boyhood in the bustling port town of Bangor at a period of great commercial expansion. Craig's family were tea-merchants and this proved to be a lucrative business which Craig would have been fortunate to inherit had he any interest in the field. Fortunately for us, Craig had no pressing need for funds and so his landscape painting was unhindered by financial struggle and market demands unlike many of his contemporaries. Craig was an ardent outdoorsman and session fiddle player and no doubt the pursuit of scenic landscapes for his plein air paintings also greatly facilitated his hobbies of sailing, angling and rambling across the Northern coastline.
The artist and his wife purchased Tornamona Cottage at Cushendun, Co. Antrim in 1919 as a holiday home which was to be the setting for a great many of Craig's most beloved works. It is unclear if the subject of this particular picture is indeed Cushendun, or instead an unspecified spot in Donegal or Connemara which he also favoured, however the subject of the rural marketplace is one Craig returned to many times as a proponent of the 'peopled landscape'. Indeed, the vast majority of Craig's landscapes are peopled to some degree, often softened by vernacular dwellings, lonely cattle herders, fishermen and turf-stacks which serve to add a sense of scale and depth to a sweeping landscape. Craig's composition here is expertly handled with a loose impasto application. The young artist often painted loosely on discarded wooden pallets from his family merchant business in his earlier years, enjoying the warm brown of the unprimed wood which would shine through the loose brushstrokes much like underpainting, evoking light and shadow without superfluous additions by the artist. Author John Hewitt aptly notes ''He found his style in impressionism, not Impressionism of the divided touch, the broken colour, the rainbow palette, but of the swift notation of the insistent effect, the momentary flicker, the flash of light, the passing shadow.'' (1) This intuitive approach can be seen here in the play of light and shadow across the oblique, pale wedge of squat thatched cottages which stand in an untidy harmony with each other and the looming green mountain beyond.
Stephanie Brennan, August 2026
1. John Hewitt, Art in Ulster 1, Belfast, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 1977.
