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Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) WEST OF IRELAND LANDSCAPE, 1925-1935

Currency:EUR Category:Art / General - Paintings Start Price:NA Estimated At:60,000.00 - 80,000.00 EUR
Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) WEST OF IRELAND LANDSCAPE, 1925-1935

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Auction Date:2011 May 30 @ 18:00 (UTC+1)
Location:Royal Dublin Society, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Dublin, ., Ireland
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
38 by 46cm., 15 by 18.2 5in.
Adam's, 10 March 1988, lot 62;
Private collection;
The Oriel Gallery, Dublin, November 1998;
Where 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
This was formerly thought to be a view of Clare Island from Achill (Kennedy 2007, p.230), but now, 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, no. 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.