14
Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958)
Estimate:
€70,000 - €90,000
Sold
€85,000
Live Auction
Important Irish Art
Size
15 by 18in. (38.1 by 45.7cm)
Description
Title: KILLARY BAY, c.1919-20
Note: This oil painting on canvas is of Killary, An Caoláire Rua in Gaelige the red fjord, to be found in north Connemara in the west of Ireland. The flooded valley, sixteen kilometres long and forty-two to forty-five metres deep, has provided a focal point for tourists since two centuries ago when they could travel on the Midland Great Western train from Dublin to eventually stay at the hotel at Leenane. Henry often painted in the Killary area when he lived in nearby Achill from 1910 to 1919, and this painting is one of a series of paintings of Killary done from different viewpoints. Its provenance and technique points to a production date around 1919 with a possibility of being exhibited in Belfast and Dublin at that time. Lorraine Creed Meredith who was the owner in 1986 and was a close friend of Grace Henry (1), was the wife of James Creed Meredith a Supreme Court Judge who upheld Breton Law. (2)Here Henry's position is close-up to the mountains and water which helps achieve an abstract pattern of almost monochromatic blocks. He closely studies how the flatness of the overlapped mountains can simultaneously allow the mind access to the distance and to the path of the water out to the Atlantic Ocean. Firstly, Henry establishes a firm foundation, dividing the small canvas into horizontal and vertical bands criss-crossed with diagonals that meet in vanishing points to the lower left and right outside the picture frame. He places the land mass in the middle horizontal band with clouds above and water below. Then almost certainly he covers the canvas with a warm ground hue that is only sensed in the completed work lying below the overall coldness. The water and reflections provide the foreground. The nearest block of mountain is defined clearly with Prussian Blue and sweeps down across almost the whole scene to a point where it meets the opposing stillness of the Prussian Blue water creating a Rorschach test effect.A little white is mixed with blue and painted with directional strokes on the left-hand mountain providing distance from the nearest mountain. The most distant mountain in the middle is coldest of all with more added white and is less defined. It has an intriguing turquoise streak that is continued diluted and more thinly applied to the white impasto of the clouds. Grey and violet edges in the clouds follow lines radiating from the vanishing point outside the scene on the lower left.Tinges of red added to the blue to form purple is applied on the mountains and edges of the clouds and also to the vegetation at the base of the nearest mountain. Impasto pure white is applied in strong vertical strokes to the foreground following the diagonal radiating from the vanishing point off lower right to depict the clouds reflected in the water. Thin lines of white radiate from the same point across the water as striated Langmuir lines traversing the water and introducing some of the cloud movement to the water. There is an influence of Whistler (3) whom Henry greatly admired in Paris on display here; in the emphasis on aesthetic arrangements and harmonies and the crepuscular effect. The combination of the uncanny and sublime with harsh reality elevates this little treasure into a universality less obvious in other landscapes by Henry.Dr Mary Cosgrove,September 20241. Grace Henry (1968 - 1953) artist married to Paul Henry in 1903 until 1930 2. James Creed Meredith KC (28 November 1875 - 14 August 1942) was an Irish judge who served as Judge of the Supreme Court from 1937 to 1942 and a Judge of the High Court from 1924 to 1937. Best known as a nationalist of the early 20th century, who upheld Brehon Law, he was President of the Supreme Court of the Irish Republic, Chief Judicial Commissioner of Ireland.3. James Abbott McNeill Whistler 1834 - 1903.
Frame dimensions: 24.5 by 27.5in. (62.2 by 69.9cm)
Note: This oil painting on canvas is of Killary, An Caoláire Rua in Gaelige the red fjord, to be found in north Connemara in the west of Ireland. The flooded valley, sixteen kilometres long and forty-two to forty-five metres deep, has provided a focal point for tourists since two centuries ago when they could travel on the Midland Great Western train from Dublin to eventually stay at the hotel at Leenane. Henry often painted in the Killary area when he lived in nearby Achill from 1910 to 1919, and this painting is one of a series of paintings of Killary done from different viewpoints. Its provenance and technique points to a production date around 1919 with a possibility of being exhibited in Belfast and Dublin at that time. Lorraine Creed Meredith who was the owner in 1986 and was a close friend of Grace Henry (1), was the wife of James Creed Meredith a Supreme Court Judge who upheld Breton Law. (2)Here Henry's position is close-up to the mountains and water which helps achieve an abstract pattern of almost monochromatic blocks. He closely studies how the flatness of the overlapped mountains can simultaneously allow the mind access to the distance and to the path of the water out to the Atlantic Ocean. Firstly, Henry establishes a firm foundation, dividing the small canvas into horizontal and vertical bands criss-crossed with diagonals that meet in vanishing points to the lower left and right outside the picture frame. He places the land mass in the middle horizontal band with clouds above and water below. Then almost certainly he covers the canvas with a warm ground hue that is only sensed in the completed work lying below the overall coldness. The water and reflections provide the foreground. The nearest block of mountain is defined clearly with Prussian Blue and sweeps down across almost the whole scene to a point where it meets the opposing stillness of the Prussian Blue water creating a Rorschach test effect.A little white is mixed with blue and painted with directional strokes on the left-hand mountain providing distance from the nearest mountain. The most distant mountain in the middle is coldest of all with more added white and is less defined. It has an intriguing turquoise streak that is continued diluted and more thinly applied to the white impasto of the clouds. Grey and violet edges in the clouds follow lines radiating from the vanishing point outside the scene on the lower left.Tinges of red added to the blue to form purple is applied on the mountains and edges of the clouds and also to the vegetation at the base of the nearest mountain. Impasto pure white is applied in strong vertical strokes to the foreground following the diagonal radiating from the vanishing point off lower right to depict the clouds reflected in the water. Thin lines of white radiate from the same point across the water as striated Langmuir lines traversing the water and introducing some of the cloud movement to the water. There is an influence of Whistler (3) whom Henry greatly admired in Paris on display here; in the emphasis on aesthetic arrangements and harmonies and the crepuscular effect. The combination of the uncanny and sublime with harsh reality elevates this little treasure into a universality less obvious in other landscapes by Henry.Dr Mary Cosgrove,September 20241. Grace Henry (1968 - 1953) artist married to Paul Henry in 1903 until 1930 2. James Creed Meredith KC (28 November 1875 - 14 August 1942) was an Irish judge who served as Judge of the Supreme Court from 1937 to 1942 and a Judge of the High Court from 1924 to 1937. Best known as a nationalist of the early 20th century, who upheld Brehon Law, he was President of the Supreme Court of the Irish Republic, Chief Judicial Commissioner of Ireland.3. James Abbott McNeill Whistler 1834 - 1903.
Frame dimensions: 24.5 by 27.5in. (62.2 by 69.9cm)
Condition
Light cracking visible on close inspection upper centre and upper left., these areas appear stable. One stain spot visible upper centre. Otherwise very good condition.
Medium
oil on canvas
Signature
signed lower left
Provenance
Mrs. Lorraine Creed Meredith;Adam's, 11 December 1986, lot 104;Private collection;Adam's, 4 October 2006, lot 71;Private collection
Literature
Kennedy, Dr S.B., Paul Henry: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 212, catalogue no. 543
