Roderic O'Conor (1860-1940) was born in Ireland in County Roscommon. After attending school in England, he worked from 1881 to 1883 at the Academy of Saint Luke in Antwerp, then went to Paris where he studied in the studio of Carolus Duran.
Roderic O'Conor's first paintings bear the influence of Claude Monet and especially Alfred Sisley whom he met at the end of the 1880s in Moret. From 1888, Roderic O'Conor displayed his closeness to Paul Gauguin. He even lent him his Parisian studio where several paintings by Gauguin were found after his departure for Tahiti. Gauguin had also tried to persuade O'Conor to follow him but the latter had no desire to do so.
From 1897, Roderic O'Conor's style evolved towards bolder colors, red and orange tones, which attracted the interest of collectors looking for the most recent pictorial trends, like Morosoff. In Paris, he became a figure in the colony of Anglo-Saxon artists whose headquarters was rue d'Odesssa. In 1904, he became a member of the Salon des Indépendants, appreciated the Douanier Rousseau, and frequented literary salons.
Roderic O'Conor will admit his admiration for Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Vincent Van Gogh and Pierre Bonnard, with whom he is close in certain of his paintings, such as the "Nude" which he painted around 1909. Guillaume Apollinaire will cite in an article from the Salon d'Automne "the biting, good painter of Brittany O'Conor, who preserves with jealous care the tradition he received from Gauguin".
In his art history lectures, Fabrice Roy combines the past with the present, in a poetic and playful evocation of the 19th century in France...
