16 by 24in. (40.6 by 61cm)

Title: TURF STACKS IN THE WEST, c.1934-36
Frame dimensions: 24 by 32in. (61 by 81.3cm)
Note: The scene is a blanket bog with turf stacks in the west of Ireland. The wide viewpoint of bog pools narrows along a line of peat stacks to a vanishing point at the base of steep-sided mountains creating a deep perspective.The tiny piece of land in the foreground is bright with yellow bog plants of early summer. A gentle early morning light touches the left side of the turf stacks and mountains.The sky fills half of the canvas and is reflected in the bog pools. The transparency of the sky and water contrasts with the solidity of the quartzite mountains whose shape and strength are echoed in the peat stacks. Small clouds gather in the sky while large billows cluster in the distance behind the mountain peaks.The painting has a strong geometrical foundation being divided into three horizontal bands which are crisscrossed by diagonals and divided by verticals. The sky is pulled forward by its reflection in the water, like a canopy which restores a lived-in familiarity to the underlying decorative flatness.Based on smaller field sketches, this painting is reproduced to a greater size and finish in the studio using thinner paint with more care. The colours are chosen with economy - blue, yellow, brown, white and a touch of red - and mixed to give a range of tones. Prussian blue holds the image together, sometimes mixed with burnt umber and sometimes with white or yellow ochre and applied to soften the hard edges of the geometric structure. Yellow ochre around the foreground stacks allows the brown to create shadowy, ragged edges about the pool and turf stacks. A dab of crimson added to white is used for the low clouds and applied boldly in vertical stripes with a dry brush on the centre front pool to suggest reflections.The subject matter and style of this painting points to the 1930s as the date of production, by which time Henry's work was regularly exhibited in London, New York and Boston as well as at home. It had also been reproduced on internationally distributed railway posters.Although depicting the harsh realities of deforestation, depopulation, emigration and unemployment that the artist knew only too well from working with the Congested Districts Board, Henry's landscapes appealed to Irish-Americans during the Depression, achieving better prices than in Ireland during its own economic crisis.The land in "Turf Stacks in the West" appears to hold its breath in brooding silence in the wake of civil war and partition, a time when Henry found himself living in a different jurisdiction to his birthplace and family in Belfast.Henry had the ability to edit the scene and fuse reality with emotion, to find beauty and powerful significance in the small rainclouds rising slowly over enduring mountains after spent storms, in the contrasting colours of bog and mountain and in the human presence of hand-built stacks.Dr. Mary Cosgrove,November 2022

Slight cracking visible on close inspection upper centre and lower centre. These areas appear stable. Otherwise very good condition.

oil on canvas