Beschreibung:

Artist: Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) Title: Killary Bay, Connemara (1924-5) Medium: oil on board Size: 35½ x 40½cm (14 x 16in) Signature: signed 'PAUL HENRY' lower right Provenance: James Adams, Dublin: 8th September 1977, lot 45, reproduced, probably acquired by the Oriel Gallery, Dublin; 5th April 1979, lot 12A, as "The Lake", a Lake and Mountain Landscape; Private collection Exhibited: Pictures of Beautiful Ireland by Paul Henry The Studio, 13A Merrion Row, Dublin, c.5th -19th July 1925 (catalogue number 4); Four Irish Artists: J.H. Craig, Paul Henry E.L. Lawrenson, J. Crampton Walker, Fine Art Society, London, March 1928 (74); "In Connemara", Paintings by Paul Henry R.H.A., Fine Art Society, London, from 11th April 1934 (2); Paul Henry RHA, Oriel Gallery, Clare Street, Dublin, 21st March - 8th April 1978 (3, as Evening on Killary Bay, reproduced in colour); Paul Henry An Irish Portrait, Ulster Museum, 28th November 1997-19th April 1998, as Evening in Killary Bay (loan no. ENT 149.97) Literature: S. B. Kennedy, Paul Henry with a catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings, Illustrations, New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 2007, p. 225, catalogue number 615, reproduced. More info: Click to read more about this lot When Paul Henry first went to Achill Island, in the summer of 1910, it was the people of the island, going about their lives that most caught his attention. Indeed his first exhibition of Achill pictures, held at Pollock's Gallery, Belfast, in March 1911, was entitled 'Pictures of Irish Life'. However, from about 1915 he turned to the landscape itself and although he had made a few studies of 'pure' landscapes before, such as Clare Island, 1911, from now on it was the landscape per se that preoccupied him. Soon, besides Achill, he began to travel around Connemara, he took a job as paymaster for the Congested Districts Board and for a time lived in a cottage at Aasleagh, east of Leenane. From there he painted many memorable studies of Killary Harbour with its changing moods. In 1919, however, Henry moved to Dublin for his wife, Grace's sake, although he continued to make many paintings from sketches done earlier. Killary Bay, Connemara therefore dates from his early years in Dublin. The picture, despite its title, is most probably a scene on Lough Fee, near Leenane, the background mountain with its distinctive profile being Garraun, which rises to a height of 450 metres. Typically the landscape is devoid of people, but the habitation is omnipresent of human life. The handling of paint in the sky, which is low in impasto and makes good use of the surface of the board, the gentle play of light on the mountains and the serenity of the lake contrast with the heavier impasto of the houses and of the immediate foreground, with its brisk brushwork, and emphasizes the 'human' side of the picture. S. B. Kennedy November 2015