Eleanor O’Connor, Green Cinema Dublin, Telephone Receptionist (1930s)

A phone receptionist stands up from her three-legged stool. Everything is the peak of 'modernity': the phone, the furniture, the short hair, the bare legs, the platform shoes. This painting from the Green Cinema on St Stephen's Green in Dublin perfectly captures what must have been an exciting era: the early years of cinema and the advent of new technology. The edges of the painting are dark as if the whole scene were viewed through a lens... a clever bit of graphics that was intended to give the image a cinamatic feel.

The painting is signed Eleanor O'Connor. It has the air of other murals / large-scale artworks from the era such as works by Harry Kernoff and Cecil Ffrench Salkeld. If anyone knows anything about Eleanor O'Connor we would love to hear from them. There is a second painting to accompany this one, of a cinema usher and a gentleman: equally charming and stylistically similar.

This must have originally been a panel from the lobby of the Green Cinema, one of Dublins largest and few south-city cinemas. Located on Stephen’s Green, it opened in 1935 and closed in 1987, being demolished shortly after. Somehow or other, these two panels were rescued and were found by us recently at a house clearance auction. Although slightly damaged and marked, the colours are vibrant and clean and they still convey the aura of the thirties. 

72 x 90 cm. Oil / water-based paint on board. Signed bottom right. Damage includes scratches and scrapes as shown.

Artworks are on display in our Clare Street shop. National and international shipping can be arranged.