John B. Flannagan (1895-1942)

The present work was created circa 1930-31, during John Flannagan's first stay in Ireland, his ancestral home. Erhard Weyhe, the owner of Flannagan’s long-time gallery, Weyhe’s Bookstore, sent the artist and his bride to the scenic western coast of Ireland for a year as a combination wedding gift and business investment. The region is known for its stunning, rocky cliffs and plentiful, grazing sheep, as seen in this charming stone sculpture. As emulated by the present work, Flannagan once observed, “I would like my sculpture to appear as rocks, left quite untouched and natural, and, as you have said, inevitable.” (as quoted in The Sculpture of John B. Flannagan, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1942, p. 9)

Another sculpture of a ram by Flannagan, circa 1929, is in the collection of the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida.