Paul Henry RHA RUA (1877-1958) – Errigal, Co. Donegal made €95,000 at hammer
This striking 1929 oil on board by Paul Henry made a hammer price of €95,000 over a top estimate of €70,000 at Adams sale of important Irish art in Dublin this evening. The sepia monochromatic conception is especially significant in its rarity. Henry’s debt to James McNeill Whistler was profound: having travelled to Paris in 1898, he studied at the Académie Julian before attending Whistler’s Académie Carmen. Whistler’s insistence upon tonal harmony, restraint and the subordination of local colour to mood left a lasting impression on the younger artist. This painting of cottages beneath Mount Errigal was selected as the frontispiece to the 1932 Saorstát Éireann: Irish Free State Official Handbook, edited by Bulmer Hobson.
Other top hammer prices at the sale include the following: Cattle on a road by Gerard Dillon (€46,000); View of Pullough Bay by Paul Henry (€42,000); Kerry Interior by Sean O’Sullivan (€38,000); Roundstone by Letitia Marion Hamilton (€36,000); Connemmara Quayside with fishermen by Gerard Dillon (€30,000); The rake by Jack B Yeats (€22,000); Still Water by William John Leech (€22,000); After the Meal by Dan O’Neill (€20,000) and Design for St. Maculind window by Harry Clarke (€19,000).
