Mystery surrounds Paul Henry artwork up for auction

Des O'Sullivan previews the James Adam spring sale of Important Irish Art 

The artwork by Paul Henry, but is it Connemara or Kerry?

Is it Kerry or Connemara? A little bit of mystery surrounds the location of a small classical work by Paul Henry at the James Adam spring sale of Important Irish Art on March 1. The title of this 1930s work is Cottages by the Lake, Outer Killary, Connemara.

The late art historian Dr Brian Kennedy, author of the catalogue raisonné on Paul Henry, thought otherwise. He reckoned that this might well be a Co Kerry painting, possibly mislabelled at a gallery. 

In the mid-1930s Henry produced a number of Kerry landscapes using similar brushstrokes. Last at auction in 1977 Adams now estimate it at around €120,000.

George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson;s Shipping in Calm Waters, Cork Harbour at Adam's.

The auction will include a selection of works from the collection of senior counsel Paddy McEntee including eight consecutive lots (5-13) by Edward McGuire RHA. Seven are portraits. In a catalogue note, Aidan Dunne writes that the renowned defence barrister was a committed supporter of the artist and Brian Fallon, whose portrait is included, wrote that McGuire was "possibly the finest portrait painter of his generation, and was possibly the finest portraitist since John Butler Yeats”.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB

A portrait of the artist Patrick Collins by Edward McGuire.

The auction features portraits of Nobel laureate Sean McBride, painter Patrick Collins and writers and poets Sidney Bernard Smith, John Jordan and Paul Durcan. 

The McEntee collection includes three full-sized cartoons by Harry Clarke for stained-glass windows, two for the Church of the Assumption, Bride Street in Wexford and a single lancet window in St Mary's Church of Ireland in Killiney. The Wexford windows are among a very small number in memory of soldiers who fell in WWI in Catholic churches. Executed in 1918 they commemorate Lt William Henry O’Keefe who was killed at the age of 21. The Killiney window commemorates local solicitor Clifford Lloyd who lived at Ayesha Castle, now home to the musician Enya.

Still Life No 2 by William Scott.

A sea urchin by Walter Osborne dates to 1886, there are two works by Colin Middleton dating to 1971 and 1972, abstracts by William Scott and a large work from the Louis le Brocquy series of heads. Every picture tells a story. In his portrait of his lover Yvonne Aupicq, which he kept in his possession, Sir William Orpen dressed her as a nun. Nun (Sister X) is lot number 61.

There are notable works by Jack Butler Yeats, Richard T Moynan, Nathaniel Hone and Daniel O’Neill, as well as marine paintings by Edwin Hayes, Thomas Rose Miles and a view of Cork Harbour by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson (lot 36).

Some of Ireland's best-loved sculptors including Rowan Gillespie, John Behan, Eamonn O’Doherty and Rory Breslin have work in this auction. The catalogue is online and the sale will be on view at St. Stephen's Green from next Friday (February 24).