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Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958)

Currency:GBP Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:1.00 GBP Estimated At:40,000.00 - 60,000.00 GBP
Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958)

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Auction Date:2004 Nov 30 @ 18:00 (UTC+00:00 : GMT)
Location:Ireland
Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958)
BOGLAND LANDSCAPE, circa 1935-45
signed lower left
oil on panel
29 by 47cm., 11.5 by 18.5in.
Provenance:
Evelyn Joynt MBE, Hampshire, formerly World Wide Commissioner for Guiding (1968), daughter of Rev. George Joynt, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland;
James Adam Salesrooms, 8 December 1999, lot 63 (illustrated in sale catalogue);
Private collection, Warwickshire
Paul Henry’s earliest landscape pictures, which are executed in charcoal, date from the time he worked as an illustrator on a number of newspapers and journals in London in the early years of the twentieth century. Even at that early stage of his career his landscapes are characterised by a simple compositional device which brought a sense of charm to his work. This device involved dividing the picture plane into two distinct areas, namely the sky and landscape itself, and almost invariably one area or the other was given dominance over the entire composition. Usually the upward thrust of a tree, a cottage, a turf stack or other element united these two areas. This device he utilised throughout his career. It allowed him to focus attention on specific elements of a scene, the sky or the landscape itself and was a means of determining and controlling the mood and atmosphere he wished to convey.
Even in a late work, such as this Bogland Landscape, one can see the power and eloquence of his compositional approach. Here, the sky dominates the scene, the heavy clouds announcing what will soon become a downpour. Yet the light, which still manages to filter through the clouds, catches the pool of water in the foreground and thus draws our attention to the strip of sodden terrain with its gentle peaks of the turf stacks. The eye’s recession is halted by the band of low hills in the distance, another commonly used element of Henry’s technique. Thus, in this case the sky, which occupies two thirds of the picture plane, is the key to our reading of the scene and determines our response to it. The setting, which cannot be identified, is probably Connemara or County Kerry and the picture was almost certainly made from sketches done earlier. The loose brushwork and fluidity of the handling of the paint, which is well laden with linseed oil, suggest a date of execution around 1935-45. The original owner, Miss Lyn Joynt, was a major in the British Army and World Wide Commissioner for Guiding.
Bogland Landscape is provisionally numbered 0994 in S. B. Kennedy’s ongoing catalogue raisonné of Paul Henry’s oeuvre.
Dr S. B. Kennedy,
Belfast, October 2004
€40000-€60000 (£26800-£40200 approx.)