Adam's Important Irish Art 27th March 2019

20 17 NATHANIEL HONE RHA (1831-1917) Malahide Sands with Figures Oil on canvas, 59 x 90cm (23¼ x 35’’) Signed with initials Provenance: “Important Irish Art Sale”, these rooms, December 2008, Lot 91, where purchased by present owner. When Nathaniel Hone returned to Ireland in 1872 it was almost twenty years since he had first gone to Paris to study at the studio of Yvon. On his return he married and settled at Seafield, Malahide, the family estate. While there he continued to paint and to farm and indeed many of his paintings from this period carry the influences of his Barbizon period and it can be difficult to distinguish untitled landscapes or coastal views as to whether they are French or Irish. The present work is doubtless Malahide, with it’s great expanse of sands reflected in the similarly vast open sky. There are strong similarities with ‘ Evening, Malahide Sands ’ from c.1883 (Hugh Lane) with its “afterglow of sunset seen across reaches of sand and water. The open sky, the expanse of air and light reflected in the extent of water and wet sand, convey an astonishing sense of space and freedom”. ( E.J.G. The Irish Times 1901) Unlike the Hugh Lane painting the two figures in the present work look the part of two North Dublin locals gathering kelp, complete with shawls and long skirts and are set against the reflected light of the outgoing stream which frames them in the centre of the composition. This device also provides the sense of scale which gives the landscape its vastness. € 20,000 - 30,000