ANOTHER PAINTING of a girl tending a flock of geese – by the same artist who created one of the National Gallery of Ireland’s most popular exhibits – has turned up in the south Dublin suburb of Churchtown.
The Goose Girlis one of the nation's favourite paintings and print reproductions of it hang in thousands of Irish homes. But the painting isn't Irish at all.
It was long thought to be the work of William Leech, a Dublin-born artist who spent most of his working life in Brittany and England. But a bitter and protracted dispute two decades ago about the painting’s “authorship” resulted in the gallery declaring that the painting was, in fact, the work of an obscure English artist, Stanley Royle.
In November 1996, the then director of the National Gallery, Dr Raymond Keaveney announced that, following new research, the gallery accepted the “definitive reattribution of the painting to Stanley Royle (1888-1961)”.
But The Goose Girl's undignified reclassification as English had no impact on the painting's popularity with visitors nor on the sale of postcards bearing her image.
Royle, who lived in Sheffield, painted the picture in about 1921 and the painting shows a girl moving her geese through a bluebell wood in spring.
His wife, Lily, served as a model for the girl.
Now another painting – called The Little Goose Girl– by the same artist has turned up in fine art auctioneers de Veres of Kildare Street and will be auctioned next month.
The painting measures 28ins by 36ins – the same size as the National Gallery’s picture – but, unlike the more famous canvas, this one is actually signed and dated, 1923.
Auctioneer John de Vere White said the painting was from a private collection in the Dublin suburb of Churchtown and was being sold following the death of its owner.
He has assigned The Little Goose Girla pre-sale estimate of €14,000-€18,000.
Coincidentally, his late father Terence de Vere White, the former literary editor of The Irish Times, was on the board of the National Gallery which oversaw the acquisition for the State – in 1970 – of The Goose Girl.
Mr de Vere White said that, to the best of his recollection, the gallery had paid £50 for The Goose Girl– a painting today that is considered "priceless".
