Today, his works can be found in some prominent private collections, including the collection of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco who purchased a portrait of James Joyce, two pieces by the Levett family trust and three pieces by Julian Lennon.
Speaking to the Donegal News from his home on the Cote d’Azur this week, Mr McFadden urged anyone with big dreams not to be afraid to pursue them.
“Sometimes, you just need to make the leap,” he said.
Prince Albert of Monaco has opened up his palace to show Irish people a James Joyce painting that he bought from the Donegal artist Mark McFadden.
McFadden, a self-taught artist who spent years working as a barman in the south of France before taking up his paintbrush, features in a new RTÉ series on the Irish who cater to the super-rich and famous. In the documentary Irish in Wonderland, presented by Yasmine Akram, he is allowed to bring the camera crew into the Monaco palace to film the Joyce portrait thanks to his friendship with the monarch.
He reveals how the prince has a strong connection to Ireland through his mother, the Irish-American actress Princess Grace. “He is very proud of his Irish heritage,” McFadden…
Mark will be exclusively exhibiting his own pieces. Below is a selection currently on display in the Gallery. Don’t hesitate to give Mark a call for a visit, or just drop in at your leisure.
Ph +33 (0)629936884
Mark’s portrait of Oscar Wilde is an interpretation of the photograph by Napoleon Sarony that has come to be the image through which Wilde is universally recognised. The portrait, with the hints of degeneration that serve as reminders that Wilde was the inventor of the most celebrated of all portraits in fiction, is more a complex dialogue between painter and subject than a simple representation of an admired writer.
“I first started painting literary figures when reading Robert Graves’ “Goodbye to All That”, his beautifully written account of a harrowing experience serving the full term of World War One.
The next task seemed the most daunting, to do justice to one of my favourite authors, to try and encapsulate in a painting all that was Oscar Wilde.
I read Oscar from a young age and he quickly became one of my all time favourite authors.
He has inspired me not only artistically but also personally.
I have always appreciated his insight into the society that he lived in but also into the human condition, which he sometimes very cleverly mocks, sometimes subtly, sometimes with great and humorous irreverence.
Oscar Wilde, a writer whom I’ve admired most of my life not only for his politically and socially perspicuous plays, depicting with great humour and insight the era in which he lived. I have always enjoyed Oscar’s sharp and poignant wit and have quoted him in my daily life for many years.
The painting had to have many elements in an attempt to come close to portraying everything this great man was.
It had to have subtlety, beauty, intelligence, mystery, elegance and flamboyance to name but a few of his qualities”.
Local Press
George Bernard Shaw Painting
Oscar Wilde by Artist Mark McFadden
Francis Bacon Portrait
Mark features in a new RTÉ series
Prince Albert has purchased a portrait of James Joyce
Irish Times writes about Mark
“Oscar Wilde has inspired me”
