ADAM'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART 24th September 2025

18 5 PATRICK HENNESSY RHA (1915-1980) Still Life Oil on canvas 63 x 89cm (24¾ x 35”) Signed Provenance: With David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin, July 1975, label verso; Collection of Mr & Mrs W. Cusack; thence by descent. € 5,000 - 8,000 Probably painted during one of Hennessy’s sojourns in North Africa, Still Life exemplifies the artist’s distinctive blend of realism and quiet sym- bolism. A timber orange crate stencilled Maroc forms the base of the composition and supports a bunch of grapes, an opened wine bottle and a green bowl, upon which perches a small Great Tit, its yellow breast vivid against a dramatic and ominously cloudy sky, infusing the work with an atmosphere at once serene and enigmatic. Combining meticulous observation with a sense of the surreal, Hennessy elevates ordinary objects into a composition of poetic resonance. Com- parable in mood and execution to his late still lifes painted in Tangier and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, the present work demonstrates the artist’s ability to transform simple motifs into meditative images of enduring power.