WHYTE'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART Monday 11 March 2024 at 6pm

38 18 Grace Henry HRHA (1868-1953) LITTLE WAVES, ACHILL, 1915-19 oil on canvas signed lower right 15 by 18in. (38.1 by 45.7cm) Frame Size: 20.5 by 24in. (52.1 by 61cm) Provenance: Whyte’s, 10 October 2011, lot 44; Private collection; Whyte’s, 9 March 2020, lot 14; Private collection In 1912 Grace Henry and her husband, the artist Paul Henry, left England and settled on Achill Island where they spent seven productive years painting the local people and landscape. Little Waves forms part of an increasingly sought-after body of work by her which, although created in tandem with Paul’s more ubiquitous scenes of the region, demonstrate a different interpretation of the landscape, one which is less literal and more lyrical. The composition opens right across the foreground, creating an interesting sense of space which immerses the viewer in the seascape. The lapping waves create curving lines in the sand that bring the eye into the middle ground and beyond, to the dancing little cumulus clouds that mirror the rhythm of the waves below them. There are wonderful subtleties to the palette with dashes of ochres and greens in the waters near the shore and delicate mauves in the tideline picked up in the darker waters and the headland in the distance. Henry’s work was overshadowed by that of her husband, primarily because of her gender, but also in part because it was more challenging. Like many of her female contemporaries it is only in recent years that a conscious effort has been made to throw light on her work. In 2023 Henry was included in the exhibition ‘It Took a Century: Women Artists and the RHA’ at the National Gallery of Ireland. It marked both the bicentennial of the RHA and the 100 years that passed before that institution elected its first woman academician. In her article for the Irish Times (It Took a Century: Do we still need an exhibition dedicated to art by women? Sadly, yes July 12 2023) Gemma Tipton explores the question with Patrick Murphy (co-curator) who picked out Grace Henry among “...gems waiting to be investigated,” he continued. “Brigid Ganley, Margaret Clarke, Grace Henry: they would make superb candidates for historical one-person exhibitions.”With women at the helm of both institutions now perhaps these artists can finally make waves and be celebrated in their own right. The present work would make a worthy addition to such an occasion. Adelle Hughes, February 2024 €10,000-€15,000 (£8,550-£12,820 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot18