Paul Henry RHA (1877-1958) *
Keem Bay (c.1911)
Oil on canvas, 35.5 x 40.5cm (14 x 16")
Signed

Provenance: Samuel Figgis, acquired from the artist c.1911/12 and thence by descent.

Exhibited: Dublin,...

Paul Henry RHA (1877-1958) *
Keem Bay (c.1911)
Oil on canvas, 35.5 x 40.5cm (14 x 16")
Signed

Provenance: Samuel Figgis, acquired from the artist c.1911/12 and thence by descent.

Exhibited: Dublin, Lenister Hall, 16th - 21st October, 1911, 'Paintings by Mrs Frances Baker, Grace Henry, Paul Henry, Casimir Dunin-Markiewicz and George Russell AE.'

Literature: S.B. Kennedy, 'Paul Henry, Paintings, Drawings, Illustrations', Yale, 2007, Ref. No. 350

 

Painted early in Paul Henry’s Achill sojourn, Keem Bay was purchased by Samuel Figgis directly from the artist in 1911/12. The Figgis’ had a cottage in Achill and it is believed in the family that Paul Henry may have stayed with their great grandparents, perhaps before he was fully settled on the island.

Paul Henry made his first visit to Achill in the late summer of 1910, and after just a couple of days there he made the decision to stay for the foreseeable future. According to his own account in An Irish Portrait, he took his return train ticket from his jacket pocket and ‘tore it into small pieces and scattered the fragments into the sea’.

Keem Bay is located on the west of the county Mayo island, past Dooagh village and adjacent to the majestic Moyteoge Head. Achill and its barren landscape, with little in the way of creature comforts, presented Henry with the opportunity to embed himself into the community and to develop as a painter. He, and his wife Grace settled in the village of Keel, south of Keem, taking lodgings with John and Eliza Barrett. He later wrote of having no money at the time and having to rely on the generosity of others for his food, lodgings and even for his artist’s materials.

The composition in the present work has an almost graphic simplicity in its forms, the foreground with its dominant but carefully delineated turf mounds, the near coastal mountains and distant Achill Head with their blocks of colour are juxtaposed against the backdrop of the early evening sky, modelled in warm but monochromatic tones. The sight of the bee-hive shaped turf mounds reminds us of an unseen human presence and lends a mood and atmosphere to the composition. The present work has not been seen in public having remained in the original owners family since it was acquired from the artist.

 

*May be subject to EU Importation charges. Please see page 168.

View more View less