Is it Kerry or Connemara? A little bit of mystery surrounds the location of a small classical work by Paul Henry at the James Adam spring sale of Important Irish Art on March 1. The title of this 1930’s work is Cottages by the Lake, Outer Killary, Connemara. The late art historian Dr. Brian Kennedy, author of the catalogue raisonne on Paul Henry, thought otherwise. He reckoned that that this might well be a Co. Kerry painting possibly mislabelled at a gallery. In the mid 1930’s Henry produced a number of Kerry landscapes using similar type brushstrokes. Last at auction in 1977 Adams now estimate it at around €120,000.
The auction will include a selection of works from the collection of senior counsel Paddy McEntee including eight lots by Edward McGuire RHA. Seven are portraits. In a catalogue note Aidan Dunne writes that the renowned defence barrister was a committed supporter of the artist. Brian Fallon, whose portrait is included, wrote that McGuire was “possibly thefinest portrait painter of his generation, and was possibly the finest portraitist
since John Butler Yeats”. There are portraits of Nobel laureate Sean McBride, painter Patrick Collins and writers and poets Sidney Bernard Smith, John Jordan and Paul Durcan. The McEntee collection includes three full sized cartoons by Harry Clarke for stained glass windows, two for the Church of the Assumption, Bride Street in Wexford and a single lancet window Church of Ireland in Killiney. The Wexford windows are among a very small number in memory of soldiers who fell in WWI in Catholic churches. Executed in 1918 they commemorate Lt. William Henry O’Keefe who was killed at the age of 21. The Killiney window commemorates local solicitor Clifford Lloyd who lived at Ayesha Castle, now home to the musician Enya.
