IMPORTANT IRISH ART 25 MAY 2026

48 27 Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) A BOG BY THE SEA, circa 1915-17 oil on panel signed lower right; inscribed with title and original price (£8-8) on reverse 13 by 16in. (33 by 40.6cm) Frame Size: 19.5 by 22.5in. (49.5 by 57.2cm) Provenance: Magee Gallery, Belfast; Whence purchased circa 1930 by Dr Robert Gilmour; Thence to his sister, Milly Finlay MacKenzie, of Lochboisdale, Isle of South Uist, Scotland; By whom given to the father of the later owner, circa 1960; Whyte’s, 17 September 2007, lot 81; Private collection Exhibited: Possibly exhibited as The Bog by the Sea, ‘Paintings by Paul Henry’, Hackett Gallery, New York, 10-22 March 1930, catalogue no. 6; ‘Paintings of Ireland by Irish Artists’, Grace Horne’s Gallery, Boston, 31 March to 18 April 1930, catalogue no. 4; ’Four Irish Artists: J. Humbert Craig, Paul Henry, E. L. Lawrenson, J. Crampton Walker’, Fine Art Society, London, November 1930, catalogue no. 53 Literature: S.B. Kennedy, ‘Paul Henry: with a catalogue of the Paintings Drawings Illustrations’, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, catalogue no. 428, illustrated p.186 Kennedy writes: Probably a scene on Blacksod Bay, immediately to the north of Achill Island, the composition being almost identical to another picture of that title. In early 1917, while still living on Achill, Henry worked for a time as a paymaster for the Congested Districts Board. In his autobiography (Henry 1951, p. 84) he says that the job was ‘a godsend’, not that it brought in anything worth talking about, but it carried with it a travel allowance, which, he said, ‘more than repaid me because I was able to go farther afield.’Moreover, he continued, ‘I was able to sit down whenever I wanted to and make drawings on the way, going down side roads, taking any opportunities to get off the beaten track’. It was almost certainly on one such trip that he made this composition. The heavy clouds, solid film of paint and form of the signature suggest a date of execution of 1915-17. €70,000-€90,000 (£60,870-£78,260 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot27