Art by Paul Henry, Fortunino Matania, Barbara Warren and William Scott

Preview of Whyte's sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on Monday 

'The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at the Rue du Bois' by Fortunino Matania.

In the fields of Flanders in May 1915 a battalion of soldiers from the Royal Munster Fusiliers lined up for a general absolution from a Tipperary priest on the day before the catastrophic Battle of Aubers Ridge on the Western Front. The following day one in six of the soldiers were killed.

A unique extant painting of the poignant scene by Fortunino Matania (1881-1963), the Italian artist noted for his realistic portrayal of trench warfare, comes up as lot 116 at Whyte's sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin next Monday evening.