Harry Kernoff’s At The Railway Station and Mary Swanzy’s Mercury’s Orbit are two utterly different 1920s paintings at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online auction of Irish art, which runs until this Tuesday evening (June 2).

The young Kernoff’s theme is downright Victorian, Swanzy’s semi-abstract study demonstrates her skilful grasp of the modernist movement.

At 21, Kernoff became the first night student at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art to win the Taylor scholarship with this watercolour featuring a woman and child and an older woman on the spiral staircase of a railway station.

Harry Kernoff's 'At The Railway Station'.Harry Kernoff’s ‘At The Railway Station’.

 

It depicts popular Victorian and Edwardian themes of childhood, adulthood and old age.

The work Mercury’s Orbit by Swanzy stands in sharp contrast, showing as it does the eccentric route of a planet which orbits the sun every 88 days and rotates on its axis every 59 days.

Einstein explained it with his Theory of Relativity (though not to me!), and the painting is inspired by advances in astronomy and physics in the 20th century. There are 239 lots in a sale with an estimated range of €25,000-€40,0000.

Mary Swanzy's 'Mercury's Orbit'.Mary Swanzy’s ‘Mercury’s Orbit’.

The catalogue is online.