118 / 122
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
,
131
Richard Staunton Cahill (1826-1904)
READING THE NEWS, 1871
oil on canvas
signed and dated lower left; inscribed with
marking and numbered [50] upper left
24 by 36in. (60.96 by 91.44cm)
Provenance:
Tennants, North Yorkshire, 15 May 1992, lot 407;
Where purchased by the previous owner;
From whom acquired by the present owner
An accomplished figure painter in oil and watercolour,
Richard Staunton Cahill was born in County Clare.
Having trained at the Royal Hibernian Academy
School in 1850, he exhibited there from 1851 until
1900. Research shows he painted in Clare and Galway,
concentrating on genre subjects such as The Irish
Peasant Boy (1853), The Spinning Wheel (1879) and
An Impending Eviction (1888). He exhibited from the
early 1850s at London’s Roy l Academy, and when
living in London, at The Royal Society of British
Artists and the New Watercolour Society and
elsewhere in English galleries. His detailed,
sympathetic paintings form useful historical sources
for authentic furnishings and clothing.
Cahill’s group is gathered in an Irish cabin to listen to
news read from the newspaper. The post famine years
saw a huge increase in publication of provincial
newspapers, from 68 in 1850, to 127 by 1880. This
growth went hand in hand with the establishment of
National schools, improved rates f literacy in English,
and the expansion of the railways, facilitating
inexpensive distribution. Newspaper editors were often
highly politicised, encouraging the rise and spread of
nationalism through the printed word. People often
shared newspapers and the resulting debates had
previously been depicted by other artists. Initially John
Boyne’s The County Chronicle shows a paper being
read aloud in a pub (1806). Then famous Scots artist
David Wilkie produced The Village Politicians (1913),
popularised through engravings (and stylistically
influential here). Another lively Irish portrayal of the
subject was by Henry MacManus (c.1810-78) whose
oil Reading the Nation features the weekly paper ‘The
Nation’, which was overtly political. By the late 19th
century, artists were addressing political issues more
frequently through their paintings. Subsequent to
Cahill’s version of this subject, other artists included
similar imagery to draw attention to Ireland’s evolving
Nationalist movement. Most notable is Howard
Helmick’s Reading the News: Proclamation of the
Land League (1881, National Gallery of Ireland).
This setting suggests a small farmhouse, with its flagged
floor and comparatively well-dressed, well fed, comfortable
inhabitants. The men on the left are close to the open half
door, which allowed light yet restricted the movement of
animals and children. The neatly made form that they sit on,
bears Cahill’s distinctive signature and date. The young
mother on the right sits on a stake-legged stool beside her
treadle spinning wheel, an improved type introduced for flax
production, used predominantly in northern counties. Her
head is covered, indicating her married status, and the boy
listening attentively in the centre wears green, a colour
symbolic of Fenianism, as wearing green had been outlawed
by the ruling British in the late 17th century. Young boys
were traditionally dressed as girls, in skirts. There were
various reasons, including a superstition that if dressed as
girls they were less likely to be taken by the fairies, but also
following similar European aristocratic fashions, as well as
for reasons of practical hygiene. In the right corner is a red
painted chest, upon which rests a rush light holder, and a
plate propped up, as was customary, for display. The
significance of the prominently placed initials and the
drawing on the wall to the left is uncertain. However, 1850
was the year of The Reform Act, which increased the
electorate, and helped build a newly political nation. The
juxtaposing of the male figures, with the older men sitting
passively, the young man standing (with his green hat band),
and the child centrally placed representing the future,
suggests an active stance towards a nationalist future, which
by the time this was painted in 1871, had started to become a
reality.
The size and quality of the pr s nt work would suggest it
may have been painted for exhibition. While no record has
yet been found in exhibitors’ indexes for the present title,
Reading the News, an example by the artist shown at the
‘Irish Exhibition in London’ in 1888 entitled Thoughts of the
Future [catalogue no.99, £10] would be an equally fitting
name for the present work. Thoughts of the Future was lent
by the artist to the London exhibition.
Claudia Kinmonth MA(RCA) PhD
Moore Institute Visiting Research Fellow NUIG January,
2015
References:
C. Kinmonth Irish Rural Interiors in Art (Yale University
Press, 2006), figs. 85 & 130, pp.89-90.
B. Rooney ed., A time and a Place, Two centuries of Irish
Social Life (catalogue for Exhibition at the National Gallery
of Ireland, Oct 2006- Jan 2007), pp.128-131, figs 67-8.
Kevin O’Neill, ‘Reading Pictures: Reading Aloud in Rural
Irish Society’ & Andrew Kuhn ‘Painting Print: Reading in
the Irish Cabin’ in V. Krielkamp ed., Rural Ireland, The
Inside Story (catalogue for exhibition at McMullen Museum
of Art, Boston College), pp.67-80.
€
8,000-
€
10,000 (£5,930-£7,410 approx.)