Beschreibung:

Artist: Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) Title: Head of an Old Achill Man (1910-13) Signature: signed lower right Medium: charcoal on paper Size: 19 x 18cm (7.5 x 7.1in) Framed Size: 43 x 39cm (16.9 x 15.4in) Provenance: Oriel Gallery, Dublin, March 1982; James Adams, Dublin, 30th September 2015 lot 13; Private Collection Exhibited: Pictures of the West of Ireland by Mr. & Mrs. Paul Henry Belfast, 23rd March- 8th April 1916; Cat. No.51 Literature: S.B. Kennedy: Paul Henry Paintings, Drawings Illustrations, published by Yale, University press; Catalogue No. 210, page 138 a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} In 1910, Paul and Grace Henry arrived in Achill Island, intending to stay for a few weeks, but they quickly decided to stay on and make the island their home. Having studied in Paris and worked in London, the move to the West of Ireland was a momentous step for the two young artists. For the next d... Read more Paul Henry Lot 12 - 'Head of an Old Achill Man (1910-13)' Estimate: €10,000 - €15,000 In 1910, Paul and Grace Henry arrived in Achill Island, intending to stay for a few weeks, but they quickly decided to stay on and make the island their home. Having studied in Paris and worked in London, the move to the West of Ireland was a momentous step for the two young artists. For the next decade, the Henrys lived and worked on Achill, documenting in paintings and drawings the people and landscape. Although much is made of Paul Henry's Modernist outlook, his style and approach seem more in line with mid nineteenth-century Realist painters such as Jean-Francois Millet, for whom the social and economic conditions of country people were a significant element in determining their artistic approach. This sketch of an old Achill fisherman or farmer, wearing a large cloth hat, could well be a sketch by Millet, or indeed Honore Daumier. It relates to another drawing by Henry from this period, a sketch of islander Tony Patten. Those sketched and painted by the Henrys were generally not young; many of the younger islanders had emigrated to America or England. Nor are the people in Paul Henry's paintings necessarily heroic; he did not sentimentalise their hard life, nor the hazards faced when fishermen ventured out to sea in light currachs. This sketch is eloquent however in conveying the character of an islander who had endured many hardships. Paul and Grace Henry's first exhibition of Achill paintings took place in 1911 in Belfast, where their work was compared to the writings of John Millington Synge. Synge's visit to the Aran Islands had resulted in books, poems and plays including Riders to the Sea, which had inspired their visit to Achill. An exhibition the following year in Dublin followed, and over the next decade, the Henry's painted on Achill and exhibited the resulting works in Belfast and Dublin. As documented by Brian S. B. Kennedy, the 1916 Belfast exhibition led to a favourable review in the daily newspaper Northern Whig, in which this drawing was singled out for mention as a fine character study. Peter Murray, June 2021