Algarve Olive Tree, Patrick Swift, oil on canvas laid on board, 132 x 99 cm


Girl with blue thistles (Claire McAllister), Patrick Swift, 1950-51, Dublin, Signed, Inscribed, oil on canvas


The Springs, Ashwell, Patrick Swift (1927-1983), 1958, Oil on board, 100.5 x 70 cm; Signed, inscribed and dated 1958-59 (verso)


Positano, Italy (through a window), Patrick Swift, 1955, oil on canvas (poor quality reproduction)

Positano Palm Tree, 1955, Patrick Swift; National Museums Northern Ireland, Botanic Gardens, Belfast



Forget-me-[K]nots on a Cane Table, oil on canvas, 1950-52; Irish Museum of Modern Art


Trees with curved roof, Patrick Swift (1927-1983), c.1958, oil on canvas, 50 x 61 cm


Patrick Kavanagh by Patrick Swift, London 1961, Oil on Canvas


The poet's big, hulking, slightly shapeless body leans angularly towards the viewer, while his face is ridged and furrowed into what verges on caricature, yet remains a very good likeness, a psychological likeness as much as a physical one. Only a man with a keen literary sensibility could have painted it, a man who could get inside his sitters psychologically.
— Brian Fallon (chief arts critic to The Irish Times for 35 years), 'Patrick Swift and Irish Art', 1993


Patrick Swift's portrait of Patrick Kavanagh, for example, is positively iconic. Painted in London in 1961, it is ambitious in scale and scope, giving an account of the writer as a monumental though somewhat truculent figure. No single viewpoint could give us the view of Kavanagh's head that Swift offers. It is as if he unfolds a conventional three- dimensional image in a quasi-cubist manner.
— Aidan Dunne (art critic), The Irish Times, Sat 12 Dec 2006


John Jordan (poet, critic and short story writer), by Patrick Swift (1927-1983), 1950-1, Oil on canvas laid on board, 75 x 55cm; Signed


Algarve Landscape (yucca with fig trees), Patrick Swift, oil on canvas, 148.6 x 97.8 cm





Algarve Landscape (yucca and fig trees), Patrick Swift, signed 'Swift', oil on canvas, 100.3 x 129.5 cm







The Fig Tree with figure, Patrick Swift, Oil on canvas, c.1970 (poor quality reproduction)


Algarve Harvester Luis Cego (Blind Luis), Patrick Swift, oil on canvas, 100 x 75cm; Swift painted numerous portraits of 'Blind Luis' and he is most likely the figure that appears in many of Swift's Algarve landscapes




Oonagh Swift, by Patrick Swift, Oil, 1953


Algarve Harvester (Blind Luis?), 1970s, Oil on canvas (poor quality reproduction)


The Homestead, Patrick Swift (1927-1983), watercolour and ink, 24 x 34cm, Signed and dated '76


Self-portrait with woodcock, Patrick Swift, oil on canvas, c.1951


A View Through Trees, Patrick Swift, Oil on canvas, mid/late 1950s, 60 x 44cm


Oonagh Swift in Rome, by Patrick Swift, 1954/55, Oil on canvas (poor quality reproduction)


Boy with pears, Patrick Swift, Dublin, Oil on canvas, 1951 (poor quality reproduction)


Portrait of David Gascoyne, by Patrick Swift, oil on canvas, 1958 (poor quality reproduction)


Algarve landscape with building, Patrick Swift, oil on canvas
(poor quality reproduction)





Algarve Landscape, Patrick Swift, oil on canvas


Patrick Kavanagh, by Patrick Swift, Lithograph, Dublin, 1956; Held by the National Portrait Gallery, London


Hedgerow, Patrick Swift (1927-83), oil on canvas


Still life with chair and rose, Patrick Swift (1927-1983), 1950-51 (Dublin), oil on canvas; 81 by 58cm



Woodcock on a chair, Patrick Swift (1927-83), Oil (Dublin), 1951 (poor quality reproduction); Lucian Freud painted Dead Cock’s Head (1951) on the same red velvet chair



Interior, Patrick Swift (1927-83), oil, Dublin, 1950-2
Patrick Swift (1927-83), Double Portrait, Dublin,Oil, July 1951; The artist with his then girlfriend Claire McAllister, an American poet and student at Trinity College.


Snu Abecassi (Danish-born journalist and editor who founded the Portuguese publishing house, Publicações Dom Quixote; Francisco de Sá Carneiro's partner), by Patrick Swift (1927-83), watercolour, c.1980 (poor quality reproduction)


London Tree, Westbourne Terrace (buildings and red car beyond), Patrick Swift (1927-83), Oil on canvas, c.1959 (poor quality reproduction)


Green Wood, Patrick Swift (1927-83), oil on canvas, c.1958
(poor quality reproduction)


Claire McAllister on a red couch, Patrick Swift, oil, 1951
(poor quality reproduction)



Algarve Landscape, Patrick Swift, mixed media
(poor quality reproduction)
Still Life, Patrick Swift, Dublin


Russula Emetica Mushrooms, watercolour on board, 25.3 x 31.8cm.; inscribed "by Roadside Far Oakridge 1957"


Dead Bird, Patrick Swift (1927-1983), signed and dated [October 1951], pen and ink on paper; 18 by 25cm


White flower by fireplace, Patrick Swift (1927-83), Oil (Dublin), 1950-2 (poor quality reproduction)


London trees (street, cars and buildings beyond), Oil, c.1960
(poor quality reproduction)


Algarve Garden, Patrick Swift, mixed media
(poor quality reproduction)


Francisco de Sá Carneiro, by Patrick Swift, watercolour, 1980; Francisco de Sá Carneiro commissioned Swift to paint his portrait when he was elected Prime Minister in 1980; Swift painted several portraits of Sá Carneiro (poor quality reproduction)
Algarve Fig Tree, Patrick Swift


Still Life, oil on canvas, c.1951



Tony Swift by Patrick Swift, Dublin, 1950s



Figure through fig trees, Patrick Swift, oil on canvas


George Venn, by Patrick Swift, oil on canvas, c.1980
(poor quality reproduction)


Algarve Landscape, Patrick Swift, oil on canvas, 3m x 2m
(poor quality reproduction)
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Note: many of the reproductions displayed here are of poor quality
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Patrick Swift and Irish Art
Brian Fallon
(chief arts critic to The Irish Times for 35 years)

Patrick Swift was other things besides being a painter. He was, in fact, a key cultural figure in Dublin (and London) before his voluntary withdrawal to Portugal and virtual disappearance from artistic life in either an Irish or British context. As an artist and as a man, he discovered himself rapidly, and his first exhibition at the Waddington Gallery in 1952 established him as a mature and individual painter while he was in his middle twenties. Victor Waddington had a flair for recognising genuine talent... After the triumph of his first show, Swift could have looked forward to an assured career and place in Irish art. Instead he packed his bags and left for London, where he was only one more artist among thousands. He became the friend and intimate of some of the best living painters and poets, who accepted him as an equal, one of themselves, and with David Wright he became joint editor of the magazine X, a remarkable publication which, in some respects, was light years ahead of its time. Yet he formed no relationship with any official or quasi-official art group, nor did he seek a regular berth with any of the established London galleries. When Victor Waddington moved to London in 1957 and opened a new gallery in Cork Street, Swift could well have resumed his former ties with him, but there is no proof that he ever tried to do so; in fact, there is a tradition that Waddington offered him a show, and he refused. Throughout his years in London, when he was right at the nerve centre of its art and literary life, he showed little interest in exhibiting his work, and, in fact, had only two shows in his entire career...

- Brian Fallon, taken from his essay 'Patrick Swift and Irish Art', 1993; reproduced in Patrick Swift: An Irish Painter in Portugal, Gandon Editions, 2001


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FOR FURTHER INFO
About & By Swift - Bibliography
(see below)
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Algarve Studio

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By Swift
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Nano Reid - Some notes on Caravaggio - Italian Report - The Artist Speaks - X magazine - RHA Exhibition 1951 - Eça de Queiroz & Fernando Pessoa - The Portuguese Enigma - Notebooks - All
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About Swift
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Main
Patrick Swift: An Irish Painter in Portugal - IMMA 1993 Retrospective Catalogue - Dublin 1950s - By His Friends - X magazine - Poems - Further Quotes About - All

By His Friends
Anthony Cronin - John Ryan - John Jordan - C.H.Sisson - Martin Green - John McGahern - David Wright - Lima de Freitas - Katherine Swift - Tim Motion - Lionel Miskin - Jacques D'Arribehaude - Brian Higgins - George Barker - Patrick Kavanagh

Further Quotes
Brian Fallon - Aidan Dunne - Derek Hill - Brendan Behan - Lucian Freud - Patrick Kavanagh - Elizabeth Smart - Further Quotes About
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Images
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Dublin Oil - Dublin Watercolour/ Ink - Italy - Oakridge/ Ashwell Watercolour - Oakridge/ Ashwell Oil - London Oil - London Watercolour/ Ink - France - Algarve Oil - Algarve Watercolour/ Ink - Self-Portraits - Trees - Portraits I - Portraits II - Porches Pottery - Books - Misc - Algarve Studio
Note: many of the reproductions displayed here are of poor quality
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Hatch Street Studio

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