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32A
Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958)
WEST OF IRELAND LANDSCAPE, 1925-1935
oil on canvas
signed lower left; with original Combridge Gallery framing label on reverse; also with Oriel Gallery label
on reverse; with inscription [“Cottage & Peat-Stacks”] in another hand also on reverse
15 x 18¼in. (38.10 x 46.36cm)
Provenance:
Adams, 10 March 1988, lot 62;
Private collection;
The Oriel Gallery, Dublin, November 1998;
Private collection;
Whyte’s, 31 May 2011, lot 26;
Whence purchased by the present owner.
Literature:
Kennedy, Dr S.B., Paul Henry: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations, Yale University Press, New Haven and
London, 2007, p.230, catalogue no. 646
In its original Combridge Gallery black frame, circa 1925-35.
This was formerly thought to be a view of Clare Island from Achill (Kennedy 2007, p.230), but in 2011,
with a larger image than was available in the past, the view is almost certainly of Moyteoge and Achill
Head, seen from the Keel to Dooagh road. Certainly the twin peaks to the left and the profile of the
mountains are similar to those in Henry’s Paysage Sinistre, 1914-15 (Kennedy, number 406), which also
depicts the scene, and the accompanying photograph which was taken from further south at
Killeenabausty on Achill’s Atlantic Drive. The predominating mountain must therefore be Croaghaun and
the barely indicated stretch of beach to the right, where the high ground meets the sea, is Keem Strand.
West of Ireland Landscpape is dated 1925-35 on stylistic grounds and the strong colours and moderate
impasto of the paint in the foreground are typical of Henry’s work at that time.
Time and again Henry made paintings in his studio from sketches done much earlier. He often, too,
painted variations on a theme. A characteristic of his output from about 1916-18 onwards, as in this
picture, is an absence of people as he grew more interested in the landscape per se. And yet his
ubiquitous cottages and turf stacks evoke a redolence of humanity and of our relationship to the very
ground that supports us. Again, as here, Henry’s compositions often have a sense of timelessness which
lends a gentle feeling of monumentality to his work.
Dr S. B. Kennedy
€90,000-€120,000 (£81,820-£109,090 approx)
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