Michael Power O'Malley, born in county Waterford and studying in France and Italy, spent the greater part of his life in America, where he seems to have been regarded as the foremost interpreter of Irish life and scenery. He is little known in Ireland. It was probably, therefore, from memory or imagination, that he painted scenes like Himself and Herself. Unlike many such pictures, it is not a romantic evocation of Irish life but one where the mood is rather sombre and even lonely. The painting can be read also as a social commentary, depicting as it does two elderly people in a traditional cottage. The sense of loneliness and isolation reflected the realities of life in the West of Ireland, particularly where rural depopulation, caused by the emigration of young people, left communities demoralised and isolated 'Herself', working by the scanty light of the window, inhabits her own shadowy space, seemingly far from the uneasy presence of 'Himself' by the fire. The sense of remoteness is heightened by a sketchy painting style that suggests rather than describes the interior.

What we see most clearly in the painting is what we expect to find, like the open fire so typical of country houses, with a cauldron heating over the glowing turf stacked directly on the mud floor. In the deep chimney breast is a 'keeping-hole', where usually a pipe, tobacco or tea might have been stored, and a bigger 'keeping hole', closed with a wooden door, is seen behind the woman's head.

[HO'K]

Lit. - Murray, 1992 / Kinmonth, 1993