Paul Henry RHA RUA (1876-1958) A Connemara Bog Oil on board, 24 x 28cm (9½ x 11'') Signed Provenance: From the estate of the late James Gibson Exhibited: 1931 RHA (19, as The Bog Stream);...

Paul Henry RHA RUA (1876-1958) A Connemara Bog Oil on board, 24 x 28cm (9½ x 11'') Signed Provenance: From the estate of the late James Gibson Exhibited: 1931 RHA (19, as The Bog Stream); 1935 Dublin (20, as Bog Stream, Donegal) Literature: Anne M. Stewart (ed.), Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts: Index of Exhibitors and their Works 1826-1979, 3 vols., Dublin: Manton Publishing, 1985, vol. 2, p. 81; S. B. Kennedy, Paul Henry: with a catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings, Illustrations, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 246, catalogue number 726. Although thought to have been exhibited at the RHA in 1931 as catalogue number 19-and there is an unidentified label on the reverse with an exhibition number '19'-the imagery in this composition does not quite match the title of that work, although with Henry such things should never be taken on face value. Judged stylistically, however, the use of fluid paint contrasts with the dryer palette typical of his work in the late 1920s and points to a date of around 1930-1. Although the setting cannot be identified, the nature of the terrain suggests the area around Maam at the north-western tip of Lough Corrib in County Galway, where Henry often painted in these years. Certainly the handling of the paint is comparable to other pictures he painted there, such as The Muinterone at Maam, 1928-30, or, a later work, The Maam Valley, 1942 (Kennedy, 2007, numbers 692 and 1035 respectively, both reproduced). The billowing cumulous clouds and the growing brightness of the sky are used in a masterly fashion to radiate light on the foreground landscape, a device characteristic of Henry's work in general. Dr. S.B. Kennedy, May 2013

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