Paul Henry, R.H.A., R.U.A.

Kenny's Gallery, Galway, where purchased by the previous owner c.1950 and by whom gifted to the present owner in 1972

Paul Henry, An Irish Portrait, Batsford, 1961, illustrated p.98;
Paul Deane, 'Paul Henry on Achill Island: Paintings and Drawings', Eire-Ireland, Spring 1989, p.59;
S. B. Kennedy, Paul Henry, 2007, no.647, illustrated p.230

Original canvas. The work appears in excellent overall condition, clean and ready to hang. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be a few minor flecks of retouching above the sail of the left hand ship. Held in a Dutch 17th century style ebonised frame.
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Almost single-handedly Paul Henry defined a vision of the Irish landscape, in particular the West, through a body of paintings that remain as evocative as the time they were created.   

The Fishing Fleet, County Galway harmoniously balances sky, land and water to create a highly atmospheric work. The addition of the three sailing boats returning home, dwarfed by the mountains and the golden cumulus clouds, heightens the romantic element, their presence humble in the magnitude of the landscape.  Henry characteristically imbued his pictures with profound emotion, enhanced by his use of Whistlerian tones – dashes of blue, ochres and soft greys.

The Fishing Fleet, County Galway is a superb example from Henry’s oeuvre and testifies to his reputation as one of the most important Irish landscape painters of the twentieth century. S. B. Kennedy has suggested in his monograph that the setting may be near Letterfrack, County Galway, with the Twelve Bens in the background, and dates the work between 1925-35.