
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
Sold for £79,300 inc. premium
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Provenance
Acquired directly from the Artist by the family of the present owner, circa 1920s
Thence by family descent
Private Collection
Almost certainly painted before Henry left Achill Island in 1919 to settle in Dublin. The heavy impasto employed throughout, and especially in the clouds, reinforces this. Besides this we have the typical Paul Henry compositional technique of keeping most of the narrative to the lower half of the composition while the sky, with its heavy cumulous clouds, is given over to the upper half. The mountain and the distant hills, which halt the eye's recession, are only slightly modelled on the right hand side, thus indicating the direction of light. The foreground and roadway, which have the appearance of scrub land, have been briskly painted, as has the lake beyond in which brushstrokes are drawn vertically to represent the clouds above, again a characteristic 'Henry' trait. The cottage, which is the only habitation in the scene, is well anchored by the turf stacks to its right, which form a barrier between it and the lake.
We are grateful to Dr. S.B. Kennedy for compiling this catalogue entry.