"Victim"

1974

Flanagan, T.P.

Oil on board

Height: 61cm
Width: 147.3cm

TP Flanagan painted ‘The Victim’ in direct response to the shooting of his friend, Resident Magistrate Martin McBirney, in 1974, as part of a terrorist attack. ‘The Victim’ is closely based on Nicholas Poussin’s painting, ‘Echo and Narcissus’ (c.1627) in the Louvre. TP Flanagan wrote of his painting that: "I wanted to evoke a sense of solemnity by employing a neo-classical image, thereby precluding any local or incidental detail, for that I believed would be irrelevant, profane even. The shrouded ‘victim’ is not therefore the actual victim, but a symbol of all those who had perished in like circumstances since our ‘troubles’ commenced. The red and cream earth colours attempt to evoke the texture and stillness of an ancient tomb figure. Everything is at a remove, impersonal, except for one naked foot, exposed and human." Within ‘The Victim’, TP Flanagan has framed his personal grief and the factual reportage of the Troubles within a lament of timeless and universal proportions.

Purchase supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Art Fund and the Friends of Fermanagh County Museum

The Artist's Estate

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