Paul Henry RHA RUA (1876-1958) Slievemore, Achill (1920-5) Oil on canvas, 44.5 x 53cm (17.5 x 21'') Signed Provenance: Sold in these rooms, Important Irish Art Sale 27th October 1988, Lot 86....

Paul Henry RHA RUA (1876-1958) Slievemore, Achill (1920-5) Oil on canvas, 44.5 x 53cm (17.5 x 21'') Signed Provenance: Sold in these rooms, Important Irish Art Sale 27th October 1988, Lot 86. Acquired from the Oriel Gallery, Dublin, 1990 by the present owner. Exhibited: ''Paul Henry and Frank McKelvey Exhibition'' The Oriel Gallery, December 1990 - January 1991, catalogue number 31. ''The Paintings of Paul and Grace Henry'' Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, November 1991, catalogue number 48 (illustrated page 47). Literature: ''Paul Henry'' Catalogue Raisonn? by Brian Kennedy, Yale 2007, catalogue 567. Although Paul Henry left Achill for Dublin in 1919, he continued for much of his career to make paintings of the island which were usually based on drawings done while he was living there. This composition was almost certainly done in this manner. The subject is the distinctive conical shaped Slievemore mountain, which, rising to a height of 671 metres, dominates Achill from almost every viewpoint. This particular view looks due west almost certainly from Caraun Point, and is an almost identical composition to Henry's Mountain and Sea, Achill, of the same date (private collection, reproduced in Kennedy 2007, p. 217, no. 568). The monochromatic and closely modulated blue tones, which often feature in Henry's paintings at this time, recall the influence of the artist's erstwhile teacher, James McNeill Whistler, and his time spent at the Acad?mie Carmen in fin de si?cle Paris. Whistler, one of the most controversial artists of his time, was a fervent supporter of avant garde painting and was celebrated (even notorious) for his 'Nocturnes' and other atmospheric compositions. Henry adored Whistler, even from his first, fleeting, encounter with him in the Boulevard Montparnasse. 'The sight of his slim, dapper figure as he came towards me filled me with awe and delight as the sight of no other living artist could have done,' he later wrote in his autobiography, An Irish Portrait (Batsford, London, 1951, p.14). He continued: 'As he approached I did not know what to do but I felt that I could not pass such a master without some recognition or some little tribute of homage,' he recalled, and, as they passed he raised his hat ceremoniously and Whistler, 'just as ceremoniously', raised his with a little kindly smile. 'I walked home,' Paul remembered, 'with a strange uplifting of the spirit and I trod among the stars.' The handling of paint in Slievemore, Achill is quite fluid, the mountain, with its great mass, by implication dominating the existence of those who dwell in the scattered hamlet in the middle distance. All is rendered in general terms, there being little detailing, save for the foam that breaks upon the rocks in the foreground. Dated 1920-5 on stylistic grounds and on the form of the signature, with a dot between the names Paul and Henry.

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