Paul Henry RHA (1876-1858) In the Wicklow Mountains (1933-4) Oil on canvas 15 x 20'' (38.1 x 50.8 cm.) Signed Provenance: Private collection. Exhibited: ''In Connemara'': Paintings by Paul...

Paul Henry RHA (1876-1858) In the Wicklow Mountains (1933-4) Oil on canvas 15 x 20'' (38.1 x 50.8 cm.) Signed Provenance: Private collection. Exhibited: ''In Connemara'': Paintings by Paul Henry, R.H.A., Fine Art Society, London, from 11 April 1934, catalogue number 25. Literature: S. B. Kennedy, Paul Henry: with a catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings, Illustrations, p. 229, number 641 (where, in the light of new information, incorrectly catalogued and dated c. 1925-30). This picture shows clearly the brighter hues and easier mood associated with Henry's work from the early 1930s and later, after a period of domestic turmoil in the late 1920s. The subject matter remains characteristic 'Henry' material, but the palette is lighter and the application of paint more fluid than hitherto. That the narrative is confined to the narrow strip of the foreground, which is rendered with considerable verisimilitude, is also characteristic of the artist's work, as is the blueing of the hills in the middle distance-with their warm pinks-and the still lighter blue of the distant peak, all of which serve to give a clear sense of recession. Although Henry employed less artistic licence than one might expect, it is nevertheless impossible to identify the setting for this picture. By the late 1920s Henry had both defined and created a way of seeing the Irish landscape that was convincing and would endure and which helped to form a popular vision of Irish identity. Also, he had introduced a degree of Realism to Irish painting which was to prove influential on a number of followers-James Humbert Craig and Frank McKelvey come instantly to mind-who continued the process until the outbreak of war in 1939 and beyond. Such views, often depicting a rural world of people at ease with themselves and their surroundings, was widely projected in publications of the time, such as the Book of Dublin (1929) and the Irish Free State Official Handbook (1932). In the Wicklow Mountains is dated 1933-4 on stylistic grounds and on the assumption that it was recently painted when included in Henry's 1934 exhibition at the Fine Art Society. Also, there is a label of the Fine Art Society on the reverse with the date 1934.

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