By the early 1930s Jellett had pushed her cubist training toward something close to pure abstraction: rhythmic arcs and layered geometry, built through the translation and rotation of forms she worked out with Albert Gleizes in Paris. Yet look longer and a second image surfaces — the upright central mass, cradled and enthroned within its interlocking planes, quietly recalls a traditional Madonna and Child, a resonance the neutral title never names.
This is one of Jellett's hybrid, transitional pictures: at once abstract and figurative, secular and devotional. It marks her move away from pure abstraction and anticipates the gradual, disciplined return of descriptive detail that would define her later work. As Louis le Brocquy remarked, in her classic works Jellett "brought to Gleizes's Cubist sensibility her own intense, hieratic spirituality." The original — oil on canvas, 104 × 81.5 cm — is held in the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.
Mainie Jellett (1897–1944), born in Dublin, studied under William Orpen before training in Paris with André Lhote and Albert Gleizes. With Evie Hone she exhibited the first abstract paintings shown in Ireland in 1923, and went on to found the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. Her work hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.
Sizes & Format
30×40 cm / 12×16″
45×60 cm / 18×24″
60×80 cm / 24×32″
75×100 cm / 30×40″
Available framed (black, white, wood) in 30×40, 45×60 and 60×80; 75×100 available unframed
Print & Frame Details
Archival matte paper, 250gsm (110lb), acid-free and FSC-certified — off-white, uncoated. Framed prints: solid oak or ash wood frame, 20mm thick, with shatterproof protective glazing. Ready to hang, hanging kit included. Unframed prints up to A4 ship flat; larger sizes ship rolled in a protective tube.
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Framed prints are packed with protective corners and wrap, boxed with reinforced edges, and braced with internal supports for extra rigidity (max 3 frames per package). Every order ships free, made to order and delivered from the hub closest to you: Ireland 3–7 business days · UK 4–8 · USA 5–10 · Canada 6–12 · Australia 7–14
