46
62
Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958)
KEEL VILLAGE, ACHILL ISLAND, 1911
oil on canvas
signed lower left
18 by 20in. (45.72 by 50.80cm)
Provenance:
Private collection;
Adam’s, 28 May 2003, lot 86;
Whence purchased by the present owner
Exhibited:
‘Paintings by Mrs. Frances Baker, Grace Henry, Paul Henry, Casimir Dunin-Markiewicz and George
Russell (AE), Leinster Hall, Dublin, 16-21 October, 1911, catalogue no. 35 or 36
Literature:
Kennedy, S.B.,
Paul Henry, Paintings Drawings Illustrations
, Yale University Press, New Haven &
London, 2007, catalogue no. 342, p.162 (illustrated)
In original Waddington frame.
The form of the signature, with dots between the two words of the artist’s name and after the word Henry,
signify that this composition must have been painted shortly after the artist arrived on Achill Island in
August 1911.The village of Keel, where in his autobiography,
An Irish Portrait
(1951), he tells us he settled, is
seen from the high ground to the north-west, the long and graceful sweep of Trawmore Strand dominating
the middle distance.The scene has been rendered with remarkable economy of means, there being only
moderate impasto, but a great sense of fluidity, in the handling of the paint. As is characteristic of Henry’s
painting at this time the brushwork is rigorously descriptive of form and structure and the use of subtle
blues and greys to emphasise the recession of the landscape is a foretaste of the strong Whistlerian
influence that would soon emerge in his painting.The use of upright brushstrokes, as seen in the near
foreground, is characteristic of other Henry pictures of this time.There is an almost identical, but smaller,
composition of the same title and period to this in the Ulster Museum, Belfast. Nowadays the village of Keel
is larger, although not substantially so, so that the main thrust of the landscape can clearly be seen. Henry’s
excitement at his new-found surroundings is also evident in his rendering of the landscape.
Dr SB Kennedy
February 2013
€
50,000-
€
70,000 (£42,700-£59,800 approx.)
WHYTES
SINCE 1783
,
67
Colin Middleton MBE RHA (1910-1983)
SEATED FIGURE: 6.72 [1972]
oil on gesso-prepared board
signed in monogram lower right; signed again on reverse and inscribed with title [Seated Figure:
6.72]; with inscribed Arts Council of Northern Ireland label on reverse; also with [1985] Studio stamp
on reverse 36 by 36in. (91 by 91cm)
Provenance: Collection of the artist; His sale, Christieʼs, London, 4 October 1985, lot 177 (full colour
illustration in catalogue); with Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin; Where purchased by the previous owner;
Thence by des ent
Exhibited: ʻColin Mid letonʼ, David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, January to February 1973, catalogue
no. 3; ʻColin Middletonʼ, David Hendriks at the Cork Arts Society Gallery, Cork, until 21 July 1973,
catalogue no. 2; ʼColin Middleton Retrospectiveʼ, Arts Council exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast,
and Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, 976, catalogue no. 173 (loaned from the collection of
the artist);
Seated Figure 6. 2is part of an ambitious series of large paintings of the female nude that Colin
Middleton completed in the early 1970s. While the female figure occurred frequently in his work from
previous decades it was often seen in a more narrative or symbolic context. These paintings depict a
female figure, highly abstracted and depersonalised, with no setting or attributes that identify her.
Even the titles of the works refrai from any detail, c nceding only t most basic details of the
subject and the date of its production.
It is interesting to co pare the series of work to which Seated Figure 6.72belongs to the single figure
paintings of the early 1950s, such as Gypsy, Ardglassor Teresa, both of which remove all context
from the actual painting and concentrate almost entirely on the sitter, but also suggest a specific
identity, place or narrative in the title.
Seated Figure 6.72is more schematised than these in its treatment of the female figure, although it
retains the strong sense of physical presence that these earlier works share.The figure is sexualised
but not eroticised and the interlocked hands evoke a more awkward presence and a suggestion of
tension.While many of the Seated Figure group use an extremely reduced palette there is a much
stronger and wider range of colour in the present painting. Rather than looking back at the
formalised synthesis of nude with landscape that Middleton experimented with in the 1960s Seated
Figure 6.72, in its palette and stronger forms, seems to look forward to the often vibrantly colourful
and more geometric female figures of Middletonʼs late Spanish paintings.
Blocks of flat colour and shape reiterate the flatness of the picture plane and contrast with the
volumetric female form.The physical surface of the prepared board is also noticeable across the
work, maintaining the sense of controlled design.The repeated vertical strokes of various scales that
run throughout the work recall Middletonʼs landscapes of the period, suggesting spatial depth, but
ultimately the isolation of the figure is deliberate and adds to the focus on the formal construction of
the work. Clearly Middleton felt that this group of female nudes was at the heart of his work at this
time, as the earlier Seated Figure K.371.1was selected to represent him in the 1971 publication
Causeway. In addition, Middleton selected the present work to be included in the Arts Councilʼs 1976
touring retrospective of his work. Dickon Hall April 2014
€25,000-€35,000 (£20,660-£28,930 approx.)
