Beschreibung:

Artist: Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) Title: A Western Landscape (1919) Signature: signed 'PAUL HENRY' lower right Medium: oil on canvas Size: 48.30 x 53½cm (19 x 21.1in) Framed Size: 68 x 74cm (26.8 x 29.1in) Provenance: Artist's Studio and by descent to Mabel Henry; Oriel Gallery, Dublin, April 1978, acquired by William and Joan Roth; Christie's, London, The Irish Sale, 14th May 2004 lot 42; Adams, Dublin 23rd March 2005 lot 81; These Rooms, 28th April 2014 lot 64; Private Collection Exhibited: Paintings by Mr. & Mrs. Paul Henry Magee's Gallery, Belfast, April 1919; Oriel Gallery, Dublin, April 1978 Literature: Paul Henry Paintings-Drawings-Illustrations by S.B.Kennedy, published by Yale University Press image no. 527 (illustrated on page 210) a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} The coarsely woven canvas on which this painting is painted suggests a date of execution of around 1919. Moreover, the composition is similar in concept and execution to a number of works by the artist - in particular An Antrim Bog, Western Skies and the Bog Cutting - done in the late Winter and ear... Read more Paul Henry Lot 20 - 'A Western Landscape (1919)' Estimate: €80,000 - €120,000 The coarsely woven canvas on which this painting is painted suggests a date of execution of around 1919. Moreover, the composition is similar in concept and execution to a number of works by the artist - in particular An Antrim Bog, Western Skies and the Bog Cutting - done in the late Winter and early Spring of 1918-1919, a time when Henry and his first wife, Grace, were considering abandoning Achill Island, which had been their base since 1910, and moving eastwards. Grace was delighted with the prospect of the move, but Paul was downcast, for he remained enchanted with Achill - 'I pine for Achill every day', he had earlier told a friend. The heaviness of this scene, therefore reflects the artist's mood at the time and, although he was not then to know, the period also represented the beginning of a decade of financial and domestic difficulties that eventually ended in his separation from Grace in 1930. This picture, therefore, was painted at a turning point in Henry's life. To begin with, the Henrys went house hunting at Cushendun in County Antrim - hence An Antrim Bog and Western Skies are almost certainly both scenes in County Antrim - but in the event they returned to the West before settling in Dublin. It is impossible therefore to identify the whereabouts of 'A Western Landscape', which may well be Connemara, but in any case the terrain depicted is typical 'Paul Henry' country. The heavy massing of the ponderous cumulus clouds, which bring an ominous drama to the scene; the even film of paint, with its precisely executed brushwork and descriptive modelling of forms; the sodden terrain of the bogland, barren save for its harvest of turf, and, above all, the emphasis placed on the mood of the scene, with its reflection of the artist's current feelings, are characteristic of Henry at his best in these years. Reviewing the artist's joint exhibition with his wife Grace, at Magee's Gallery in April 1919, Belfast's News Letter (17 April 1919) commented that Henry often worked within 'a very narrow scale of colour' but, nevertheless, it said, he conveyed in his works 'depth of feeling......(a) silence and mystery [which] belong to the eternal order of things', attributed indeed opposite to this composition. Besides the drama evolving in the sky, the landscape, which is confined to a narrow strip at the bottom of the canvas, appears almost inconsequential. The severely limited range of the palette also shows the continuing influence on Henry of Whistler, his teacher in fin de siécle Paris. A 'Western Landscape' is numbered 527 in S.B.Kennedy's catalogue raisonne of Paul Henry's work. Christie's sale catalogue notes the picture as having been acquired by William Roth from the Godolphin Gallery, Dublin. This is probably an error, for in his i