| Description | Painting of a Christmas scene including snow-covered trees, a robin, two choristers singing and ringing bells, and a red-nosed reindeer in flight. Signed "HELEN" in blue pen in bottom right hand corner. Creased and torn in several places. One of several items made by Helen O'Brien in the 1950s while being treated for miliary tuberculosis in Saint Patrick's Sanatorium, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon and Newcastle Sanatorium, Co. Wicklow. At the time, Dr. Noel Browne (1915-1997) worked in the latter and art classes, taught by Yann Renard-Goulet (1914-1999), were arranged for the patients there. Another object made by Helen during this period, a decorated box, is also held in the RCPI collections (ref. no. HI/2022-1L-3). |