CAG.2792 Harry Aaron Kernoff, The Forty Foot, Sandycove, 1940, oil on board, 60.5 x 75 cm. Presented to the State, 2012 (AIB Art Collection). © the artist’s estate. 

WORK OF THE WEEK! 

The Forty Foot, Sandycove (1940) by Harry Aaron Kernoff is an image of summer on Dublin Bay. 

Painted during ‘The Emergency’ (Second World War), it presents us with a carefree image of bathing as the heat of the day emanates from the sandy-toned rocks and concrete, as well as the orange-red railings, diving board, and yacht. The Baily Lighthouse at Howth Head may be glimpsed across the bay. 

James Joyce, who once lived nearby at the Martello Tower at Sandycove, famously mentions this location in Ulysses (1922), in which the character of Buck Mulligan memorably swims in ‘the snotgreen sea, the scrotumtightening sea’. Later, we are told that ‘He capered before them down towards the forty foot hole, fluttering his winglike hands, leaping nimbly.’ 

Bathing it in idyllic summer sunshine, the artist not only warms the novelist’s setting but, through the solitary male figures, also renders leisure in homoerotic terms. 

Did you know: The Forty Foot, a popular swimming spot on the southern tip of Dublin Bay was, until 1974, reserved exclusively for male bathers. Forty years later, the Sandycove Bathers Association lifted its membership ban on women.  

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Harry Aaron Kernoff (1900-1974). Born in London, he moved to Dublin with his family in 1914 and enrolled at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art where he was influenced by a trio of painters: Seán Keating, Maurice MacGonigal, and Patrick Touhy. He won the Taylor Scholarship in 1923 and, thirteen years later, was elected to the Royal Hibernian Academy.  

The Forty Foot, Sandycove is on display in our Long Room (Floor 1).  

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