Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) A Village in the West of Ireland...

Estimate

€100,000 - €150,000

Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) A Village in the West of Ireland (1941) Oil on canvas, 37.5 x 45.5cm (14¾ x 18'') Signed, also signed and inscribed with title verso Provenance: Artist's studio till 1957; deVere's, Dublin, June 1997; Private Collection, Dublin; Sale, these rooms, Important Irish Art Sale, 21/03/2010, lot 105. Exhibited: Dublin, 1941(7); Dublin, 1952(14); Bray, 1956(13); Dublin and Belfast, 1957(12) and Shannon, 1957(12) Literature: Kennedy, S.B. Paul Henry, Yale 2007, p.302 Dr. S.B Kennedy writes that this painting was almost certainly painted in the spring of 1941 when Paul Henry stayed for a time in Co. Kerry. Numbered 1020 in Dr. Kennedy's then ongoing Catalogue Raisonne (2010) Almost certainly painted in the spring of 1941 when Paul Henry stayed for a time in Co. Kerry, this work depicts a grouping of thatched cottages nestled within the landscape. Green and dark blue hills rise in the background beneath a quintessential Henry sky. In the work he utilises a tighter composition, positioning the cottages at the edge of the picture frame, some slightly cut off from view. It immediately creates a sense of viewing a small village, a community of people living, albeit in a remote landscape, but within walking distance of their neighbours. This work is less focused on the open expansive environment as seen in his larger lake and mountain scenes and instead honing in on the more detailed depiction of the landscape. In the mid-foreground of the composition sits a small pool of water reflecting the cloud formations above. In this work the handling of the paint is looser, more expressionistic in character. He draws our attention to the texture of the stone walls, outlined in strong black lines while for the grasses and thatching the paint is applied thinly in areas allowing the weft of the linen canvas to show through. He balances the volumes of the cottages against the rising undulation of hills and mountains beyond, ensuring that the cottages to not feel dwarfed by the natural landscape but rather in communion with it. Henry painted this work aged in his mid-sixties, after many years on the road travelling and in a radio broadcast that he made for the BBC in January of that year titled 'Painting in Ireland', he remarked on the challenges of working as a landscape painter, 'skirting a village or a lake…climbing stone walls and fences and ditches' but also of the immense value of the experience 'In all these things there is a wealth of interest… and somehow or another it gets into your work if you are really trying you to get the spirit of the place you are painting' (Quoted in S.B Kennedy, Paul Henry, Yale 2007 p.80) Niamh Corcoran, April 2026