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WHYTESS I N C E 1 7 8 3
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Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958)
COTTAGES,WEST OF IRELAND
oil on canvas
signed lower right
21.50 by 25.50in. (54.61 by 64.77cm)
Provenance:
Mervyn Solomon, Belfast;
Private collection;
‘The Irish Sale’, Christie’s, London, 20 May 1999, lot 211;
‘The Irish Sale’, Sotheby’s, London, 13 May 2005, lot 74;
Where purchased by the present owner
Literature:
Kennedy, S. B., Paul Henry: with a catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings, Illustrations, New Haven and
London, Yale University Press, 2007, catalogue no. 689, p. 240 (illustrated)
As was often the case with Paul Henry’s compositions, this picture was almost certainly made from sketches
done much earlier. The somewhat heavy layering of the paint and the gentle stylisation of the subject
matter, are characteristics of Henry’s work in the late 1920s, a time when he had both domestic and other
personal problems. His mood is thus refected in his palette and his handling of paint. The mountains may be
the Maamturks, viewed from the eastern end of Kylemore Lough, County Galway, but of this one cannot be
certain. Dated 1928-30 on stylistic grounds.
Dr. S.B. Kennedy
April 2012
€60,000-€80,000 (£49,180-£65,573 approx).