Introduction

Brian Metcalfe

The idea of a Colin Middleton Gallery came to me because few people are aware Colin was a former pupil at Belfast Royal Academy and secondly, although he was one of Ireland’s most prominent artists of the Twentieth Century it is difficult to see and experience his work. Many museums and galleries across Ireland have significant Middleton collections but, regrettably, few of his paintings are on public display.

The second part of this venture arose because I wanted to recognise the contribution the school has made to me (1963-70) and my broader family including my sister, uncle and three cousins. In particular it has always meant a lot to my mother Beattie (nee Stevens). She started at the school in 1927 aged five, the same year Colin left BRA. At the time of the Gallery’s unveiling in May 2023 she is 101 and as a former President of the Old Girls’ Association can currently claim to be the school’s “Oldest Old Girl”!

I would like to thank several people who assisted in the creation of the Gallery. From the outset both Jane Middleton and Dickon Hall (author of Colin Middleton: A Study, 2001), provided outstanding support and enthusiasm. Dickon also assisted by providing notes on the interpretation of each painting.

School Principal, Hilary Woods readily embraced the concept and worked with me to bring it to fruition. Karen Reihill, curator and art historian and Charlie Minter, Head of Irish Art, Sotheby’s London kindly assisted with the paintings from private collections.

Jane Middleton and Marie Heaney graciously permitted me to arrange high resolution images of their paintings. I believe these paintings, Loughanure and Farmhouse, Co. Down enhance the wall and juxtaposed with the Heaney and Longley poems reveal an important part of the artist’s character.

Finally, I would like to thank the various galleries who willingly cooperated on the project of establishing the Colin Middleton Gallery at Belfast Royal Academy.

Colin Middleton one of Ireland’s most outstanding artists of the Twentieth Century

Colin Middleton, RUA, RHA, MA, MBE was born on January 29, 1910 at 48 Victoria Gardens, Belfast on the slopes of the Cavehill and later moved to 28 Chichester Avenue. Both parents were from England. His father Charles Collins Middleton (1878-1935), a partner in the damask design company, Page & Middleton was also a dedicated amateur impressionist artist. At his side, Colin produced his first oil painting at the age of seven.

he was able to study works by the Flemish masters. When his father died in 1933, Colin took his place as partner in the business in order to support his mother Dora. During his 20 years as a damask designer he frequently visited Belfast’s world-famous linen mills, but he also explored the surrounding streets where their workers lived. Such experiences undoubtedly inspired paintings such as “If I were a Blackbird” (1941). In 1935 he married Maye McLain, a fellow art student who later became the art teacher at Methodist College. Tragically, Maye died in 1939, the eve of the Second World War. In 1945 Colin married Kathleen Hazel Giddens. Kathleen had two daughters, Alison and Peggy from her first marriage. In 1947 Colin and Kathleen moved with the two girls and baby son John to the Middleton Murray community farm in Norfolk. Unfortunately, the move was not a success and the following year they returned to Belfast. On his return Middleton made contact with the Dublin Gallery of Victor Waddington. While Middleton was sceptical about the “gross

Colin left Belfast Royal Academy in 1927 without as John Hewitt said, “any remarkable academic success”. Hewitt also remarked that Middleton remembered with great enthusiam his daily walk to school through the Waterworks, past the upper and lower ponds. The two drawings displayed on the gallery wall, “A Street Band” and “Punt on the Isis” were donated to the Ulster Museum by the former Headmaster, A.R. Foster. Colin’s ambition was to enrol at an art college in England, but his father’s failing health meant that he was compelled to enter Page & Middleton as an apprentice. As compensation, he enrolled for evening and Saturday morning classes at the Belfast College of Art. During a family holiday in London in 1928, he visited a Van Gogh exhibition and then in 1931 he travelled to Belgium, where artificiality of the contemporary art world”, he also recognised the need to sell his work. Waddington provided a gateway not just to the Dublin market but beyond to London, Europe and America. Middleton became part of the Waddington ‘team’ that included Gerard Dillon, Nevill Johnson and Dan O’Neill. When his mother Dora died in 1949, the Middletons moved to Ardglass.

In 1950 their daughter Jane, was born. The three to four years spent in Ardglass were fruitful and promising, but unfortunately, things changed when the Waddington Gallery relocated to London and began concentrating on the new American action painters. Middleton was then obliged to turn his hand to teaching, first as a part-time lecturer at the Belfast College of Art. Then by 1955, he had secured a full-time teaching position at Coleraine Technical College.

In 1961 Colin was appointed Art Master at Friends School, Lisburn, a post he occupied until 1970, when he was granted the Arts Council bursary subsistence award. This enabled him to dedicate his time exclusively to painting. Belfast once again became home to him and his family for the next seven years.

They made a final move to 6 Victoria Road, Bangor, where from his studio, he had a magnificent view of the harbour and Belfast Lough. Middleton died on 23 December, 1983.

Middleton was successful in having a painting selected for a series of stamps for Festival ’71, along with Tom Carr and T.P. Flanagan commemorating the 50th anniversary of Northern Ireland. In 1968 Middleton was awarded an MBE and in 1972 an Honorary Master’s Degree from Queen’s University.

Today Middleton is widely recognised as one of Ireland’s best Twentieth Century artists.

His paintings remain in many private and public collections, including the National Gallery of Ireland, Ulster Museum, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Crawford Art Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, Hugh Lane Gallery, Herbert Art Gallery, Queen’s University, Birmingham University and Oxford University.