WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 2 December 2019

60 46 Patrick Hennessy RHA (1915-1980) FIGURES ON A STAIRCASE, YORK STREET, DUBLIN, 1942 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right 40 by 24in. (101.6 by 61cm) Provenance: Gifted by the artist to the previous owner; Gorry Gallery, Dublin, 1995; Private collection Exhibited: ‘An Exhibition of 18th, 19th and 20th Century Irish Paintings’, Gorry Gallery, Dublin, December 1995, cata- logue no. 18 Painting of Crucifixion on reverse. Here one woman can be seen reading the newspaper on the landing of a building. Another woman looks out nervously from her doorway. We wonder if some news is expected from the front – or worse, a list of casualties. York Street, off St Stephens Green in Dublin, was the site of a terrace of grand Georgian houses that had become some of the worst tenements in the city. They were pulled down in the 1960s to make way for modern social housing. Many photographers like Elinor Wilshire had recorded them before this as their condition was so shocking. In York Street Hennessy was documenting some of the grimmest pover- ty to be found anywhere in the country. Large families were crowded into single rooms; there was almost no sanitation, and privacy non-existent – a feature indicated by the nosy-neighbour who is ever-present. €8,000-€10,000 (£6,900-£8,620 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid Lot 46