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Paul Henry RHA RUA (1876-1958)
Early Morning in Donegal (1918 - 19)
Oil on canvas, 51 x 61cm (20 x 24”)
Signed
Provenance: Sale, Sotheby’s, Slane Castle, Co. Meath, 20th November 1978 as ‘Morning in Donegal’;
Private Collection, Dublin.
Exhibited: Recent Work by Paul Henry, Combridge’s Gallery, Dublin, August 1930, catalogue num-
ber unknown; “In Connemara”, Paintings by Paul Henry, R.H.A., Fine Art Society, London, from 11
April 1934, catalogue number 10; Paul Henry, National Gallery of Ireland, 19 February-18 May 2003,
(ex-catalogue) as Early Morning Donegal
Literature: S. B. Kennedy, Paul Henry: with a catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings, Illustrations, New
Haven & London, Yale University Press, 2007, p. 205, catalogue number 513, reproduced
A fine Whistlerian composition, possibly a view of Lough Altan, in which case the distant mountain
is almost certainly Dooish.The picture is dated 1918-19 on stylistic grounds, despite the fact that the
artist’s 1930 Dublin exhibition, in which it was included, was entitled ‘Recent Paintings’. Henry of-
ten included paintings done much earlier in such exhibitions.The muted tones employed throughout
are characteristic of the artist’s training in late nineteenth century Paris, while the detailing on the
bark of the tree and the brushwork in the foreground give a clear sense of recession. On the reverse
are labels of the Combridge Gallery, Dublin, citing the title and the artist’s signature, but not in his
hand; there is also a label recording the picture’s exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland in 2003.
Dr. S.B.Kennedy November 2014
€70,000 - 100,000