WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART Monday 19 October 2020

30 18 Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) A SUNNY DAY, CONNEMARA, c.1940 oil on canvas signed lower right 16 by 20in. (40.6 by 50.8cm) Frame size: 23 by 27in. (58 by 69cm.) Provenance: Adams, 19 May 1983, lot 31, as West of Ireland Coastal Landscape with Cottages; Private collection Exhibited: ’Paul Henry: An Irish Portrait’, Ulster Museum, Belfast, 28 November 1997 to 19 April 1998; ’Paul Henry’, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 19 February to 18 May 2003, catalogue no. 99 (illustrated in colour) Literature: Henry, Paul, An Irish Portrait, Batsford, London, 1951, p.17 and front jacket (illustrated in colour); Deane Paul, Paul Henry on Achill Island: Paintings and Drawings, Éire Ireland, Spring 1989, pp.60, 66 (illustrated in colour); Kennedy, Dr S.B., Paul Henry, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2000, p.128 (detail illustrated in colour) p.138 (illustrated in colour) and on jacket in colour; Kennedy, Dr S.B., Paul Henry: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, p.300, catalogue no. 1007 (illustrated in colour) This late picture is remarkable for the fresh atmosphere it conveys. It ably demonstrates Henry’s lasting ability to formulate a composition in his mind and set it down on the canvas with little or no overpainting or re-working. Thus, the colours remain pristine and un-muddied and the composition radiates a sense of spontaneity. The assurance of the brushwork seen here reveals an artist at the height of his powers. The scene almost certainly represents Achill Island observed in the distance from around the foot of Croagh Patrick. The harbour at the centre left of the composition may be Leckanvy. Dr SB Kennedy 1. Kennedy, Dr S.B., Paul Henry, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2000, p.138-139 €150,000-€200,000 (£133,330-£177,780 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot18