AN IRISH BOG, circa 1939 Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958)
Signature: signed "PAUL HENRY" lower left; inscribed and numbered "2" on reverse Medium: oil on canvas board Dimensions: 37 by 33cm., 14.7 5 by 13in. Provenance: Combridge's Gallery, Dublin; Whence purchased in 1940 by the present owner Exhibited: ’New Pictures by Paul Henry’, Combridge’s Gallery, Dublin, from 8 April 1940 (catalogue number unknown) Literature: Seán Ó Faolain, An Irish Journey, Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1940, reproduced as frontispiece and (in later editions) on front of dust jacket; S. B. Kennedy, Paul Henry New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000, p. 126, reproduced Painted during Henry’s tour of Ireland with Seán Ó Faolain in 1939 when gathering material for the latter’s book An Irish Journey. “Paul Henry and I want to rediscover that simpler, more racy Ireland ... of the people”, Ó Faolain wrote (An Irish Journey, p. 3), words that convey the nature of this picture. Painted directly to the canvas with little or no overworking, the surface of the picture is remarkably fresh and reflects the advice that Henry’s Parisian teacher, Whistler, the most important influence on his career, impressed upon his students, that is, that they should observe things in simple, direct terms and set them down harmoniously in closely modulated tones without attempting to obtain the “thousand changes of colour that there are in reality”, an approach which underpins much of Henry’s best work. Whistler also emphasized the need for an artist to understand how he had achieved certain qualities in a picture. “You must know how you did it, so that the next time you can do it again.…Remember which of the colours you employed, how you managed the turning of the shadow into the light.…You must be able to do every part equally well, for the greatness of a work of art lies in the perfect harmony of the whole, not in the fine painting of one or more details” (Stanley Weintraub, Whistler: A Biography, London: Collins, 1974, pp. 440-41). Henry absorbed Whistler’s instruction and it stood him in good stead throughout his career and never more so than in the group of late works, of which this is one, done specifically for O’Faolain’s book in 1939. Indeed these pictures represent the last creative flowering of Henry’s art, for within a year or two he suffered an illness which led to almost total blindness and thus the end of his painting career. There is an even film of paint throughout, with no emphasis of impasto. Erroneously titled Mountain Lake on the reverse, but not in the artist’s hand. An Irish Bog is numbered 996 in S. B. Kennedy’s forthcoming catalogue of Paul Henry’s Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations. A copy of An Irish Journey is included with this lot. S. B. Kennedy, Seaforde, Co. Down, March 200 more
AN IRISH BOG, circa 1939 Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958)
Signature: signed "PAUL HENRY" lower left; inscribed and numbered "2" on reverse Medium: oil on canvas board Dimensions: 37 by 33cm., 14.7 5 by 13in. Provenance: Combridge's Gallery, Dublin; Whence purchased in 1940 by the present owner Exhibited: ’New Pictures by Paul Henry’, Combridge’s Gallery, Dublin, from 8 April 1940 (catalogue number unknown) Literature: Seán Ó Faolain, An Irish Journey, Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1940, reproduced as frontispiece and (in later editions) on front of dust jacket; S. B. Kennedy, Paul Henry New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000, p. 126, reproduced Painted during Henry’s tour of Ireland with Seán Ó Faolain in 1939 when gathering material for the latter’s book An Irish Journey. “Paul Henry and I want to rediscover that simpler, more racy Ireland ... of the people”, Ó Faolain wrote (An Irish Journey, p. 3), words that convey the nature of this picture. Painted directly to the canvas with little or no overworking, the surface of the picture is remarkably fresh and reflects the advice that Henry’s Parisian teacher, Whistler, the most important influence on his career, impressed upon his students, that is, that they should observe things in simple, direct terms and set them down harmoniously in closely modulated tones without attempting to obtain the “thousand changes of colour that there are in reality”, an approach which underpins much of Henry’s best work. Whistler also emphasized the need for an artist to understand how he had achieved certain qualities in a picture. “You must know how you did it, so that the next time you can do it again.…Remember which of the colours you employed, how you managed the turning of the shadow into the light.…You must be able to do every part equally well, for the greatness of a work of art lies in the perfect harmony of the whole, not in the fine painting of one or more details” (Stanley Weintraub, Whistler: A Biography, London: Collins, 1974, pp. 440-41). Henry absorbed Whistler’s instruction and it stood him in good stead throughout his career and never more so than in the group of late works, of which this is one, done specifically for O’Faolain’s book in 1939. Indeed these pictures represent the last creative flowering of Henry’s art, for within a year or two he suffered an illness which led to almost total blindness and thus the end of his painting career. There is an even film of paint throughout, with no emphasis of impasto. Erroneously titled Mountain Lake on the reverse, but not in the artist’s hand. An Irish Bog is numbered 996 in S. B. Kennedy’s forthcoming catalogue of Paul Henry’s Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations. A copy of An Irish Journey is included with this lot. S. B. Kennedy, Seaforde, Co. Down, March 200 more
.jpg "Quelle: Christie's")
Testen Sie LotSearch und seine Premium-Features 7 Tage - ohne Kosten!
Lassen Sie sich automatisch über neue Objekte in kommenden Auktionen benachrichtigen.
Suchauftrag anlegen
