.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Painted in 1925, Paul Henry’s The Fairy Thorn focuses on the curved profile of a lone hawthorn tree in the middle of the Irish countryside, situated on the edge of a body of water with a majestic mountain rising in the distance. Though the precise location of the scene remains uncertain, it is one of a series of paintings Henry devoted during this period to the mysterious subject of the so-called fairy thorns that he discovered in the west of Ireland. Held in the same family collection for close to a century, The Fairy Thorn showcases Henry at the height of his artistic powers, imbuing the landscape with a sense of timelessness, grandeur and elemental power.
Rather than depicting the hawthorn in its spring bloom, its branches filled with feathery leaves and delicate white flowers, Henry portrays the bare branches of winter, emphasising the dramatic, dynamic bent of the tree, the result of years spent bracing itself against the buffeting winds and strong gales along the Atlantic coast. The title of the painting invokes the mystical place these solitary specimens held in Irish folklore and legend. Believed to be sacred to the Aos Sí, or fairy folk, singular hawthorns were understood to mark the boundary between two worlds, standing as sites of magic and mystery. The felling or interference in such a tree was said to bring bad luck on the party responsible, with a myriad of cautionary tales warning of illness and misfortune regularly exchanged among the local population. Henry was fascinated by such traditions and superstitions, and the manner in which they were intrinsically intertwined with the natural world. ‘What always strikes me about the Irish landscape is its otherworldliness,’ he explained to the critic H.L. Morrow. ‘There’s an air of mystery about it… that anything may happen round the corner’ (quoted in H.L. Morrow, ‘The Art of Paul Henry’ in The Irish Times, 1 November 1941, p. 5).
Executed in a subtle palette of heather purple and blue-toned mauves, creamy whites and touches of soft, rosy pink, The Fairy Thorn was most likely painted in Henry’s Dublin studio from sketches and ‘shorthand notes’ he created en plein air during his travels through the west of Ireland. While flickering, curved strokes of pigment highlight the spindly character of the branches of the tree, the passage of water is captured in carefully layered, smooth vertical brushwork, creating a vivid impression of the play of reflections on its glass-like surface. Though there are no people glimpsed within the landscape, the dramatic inclusion of the tree in the foreground invokes the presence of the local community, and the legends and folk stories that shape their understanding of this extraordinary place.
The Fairy Thorn was included in the seminal exhibition ‘Contemporary Irish Art: First American Exhibition,’ organised by Madeline Boyd and held at Helen Hackett’s eponymous gallery in midtown Manhattan, on East 57th Street, in the spring of 1929. This was a particularly important period for the reception and promotion of modern Irish art in New York, driven by the enthusiastic engagement and support of the city’s large expatriate community (see E. O’Connor, ‘America Called: The Helen Hackett Gallery and the Irish Art Rooms, 1924-1934’ in New Hibernia Review, Winter 2011, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 16-33). The show included a broad range of contemporary Irish artists, showcasing the diversity of the country’s art scene, with many works selected for their distinctly Irish subject matter and character. In reviews of the exhibition, Henry’s paintings were singled out for praise, with the writer at The New York Times naming him the most accomplished landscape painter in the show (E.A. Jewell, ‘Welcoming the Irish’ in The New York Times, 31 March 1929, p. 12). The exhibition subsequently travelled to Boston, where it was restaged at the Grace Horne Galleries.
The Fairy Thorn was acquired by the pioneering American industrialist and financier John J. Raskob and his wife Helena, from the 1929 exhibition. Born in New York, Raskob was a self-made businessman who began his career as a stenographer, before joining the DuPont Company and working his way up through the ranks to play a central role in the company’s development. Raskob’s foresight and interest in new technology led him to make a pivotal early investment in General Motors, later taking on the role of Vice President and Chairman of the company’s finance committee, helping to shape the rise and development of the automobile industry through the early 1920s.
In 1929, he took charge of the Empire State Building Corporation, providing the key financing for the construction of the iconic building in Manhattan. Raskob involved himself in every aspect of the project, overseeing the planning and construction of the building, and vastly expanded the scope and scale of the original plans, determined to outstrip the achievements of the recently completed Chrysler Building further uptown. When the Empire State Building officially opened in 1931, it featured 102 floors of commercial and office spaces, as well as an observation deck; rising to over 1450 feet, it definitively earned the title of the tallest building in the world, fulfilling Raskob’s enormous ambitions for the project. Raskob’s interest in Irish culture may have been fostered by his mother, Frances, whose parents hailed from County Roscommon. The Fairy Thorn has remained in the Raskob family ever since, and comes to auction for the first time in its history.
Rather than depicting the hawthorn in its spring bloom, its branches filled with feathery leaves and delicate white flowers, Henry portrays the bare branches of winter, emphasising the dramatic, dynamic bent of the tree, the result of years spent bracing itself against the buffeting winds and strong gales along the Atlantic coast. The title of the painting invokes the mystical place these solitary specimens held in Irish folklore and legend. Believed to be sacred to the Aos Sí, or fairy folk, singular hawthorns were understood to mark the boundary between two worlds, standing as sites of magic and mystery. The felling or interference in such a tree was said to bring bad luck on the party responsible, with a myriad of cautionary tales warning of illness and misfortune regularly exchanged among the local population. Henry was fascinated by such traditions and superstitions, and the manner in which they were intrinsically intertwined with the natural world. ‘What always strikes me about the Irish landscape is its otherworldliness,’ he explained to the critic H.L. Morrow. ‘There’s an air of mystery about it… that anything may happen round the corner’ (quoted in H.L. Morrow, ‘The Art of Paul Henry’ in The Irish Times, 1 November 1941, p. 5).
Executed in a subtle palette of heather purple and blue-toned mauves, creamy whites and touches of soft, rosy pink, The Fairy Thorn was most likely painted in Henry’s Dublin studio from sketches and ‘shorthand notes’ he created en plein air during his travels through the west of Ireland. While flickering, curved strokes of pigment highlight the spindly character of the branches of the tree, the passage of water is captured in carefully layered, smooth vertical brushwork, creating a vivid impression of the play of reflections on its glass-like surface. Though there are no people glimpsed within the landscape, the dramatic inclusion of the tree in the foreground invokes the presence of the local community, and the legends and folk stories that shape their understanding of this extraordinary place.
The Fairy Thorn was included in the seminal exhibition ‘Contemporary Irish Art: First American Exhibition,’ organised by Madeline Boyd and held at Helen Hackett’s eponymous gallery in midtown Manhattan, on East 57th Street, in the spring of 1929. This was a particularly important period for the reception and promotion of modern Irish art in New York, driven by the enthusiastic engagement and support of the city’s large expatriate community (see E. O’Connor, ‘America Called: The Helen Hackett Gallery and the Irish Art Rooms, 1924-1934’ in New Hibernia Review, Winter 2011, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 16-33). The show included a broad range of contemporary Irish artists, showcasing the diversity of the country’s art scene, with many works selected for their distinctly Irish subject matter and character. In reviews of the exhibition, Henry’s paintings were singled out for praise, with the writer at The New York Times naming him the most accomplished landscape painter in the show (E.A. Jewell, ‘Welcoming the Irish’ in The New York Times, 31 March 1929, p. 12). The exhibition subsequently travelled to Boston, where it was restaged at the Grace Horne Galleries.
The Fairy Thorn was acquired by the pioneering American industrialist and financier John J. Raskob and his wife Helena, from the 1929 exhibition. Born in New York, Raskob was a self-made businessman who began his career as a stenographer, before joining the DuPont Company and working his way up through the ranks to play a central role in the company’s development. Raskob’s foresight and interest in new technology led him to make a pivotal early investment in General Motors, later taking on the role of Vice President and Chairman of the company’s finance committee, helping to shape the rise and development of the automobile industry through the early 1920s.
In 1929, he took charge of the Empire State Building Corporation, providing the key financing for the construction of the iconic building in Manhattan. Raskob involved himself in every aspect of the project, overseeing the planning and construction of the building, and vastly expanded the scope and scale of the original plans, determined to outstrip the achievements of the recently completed Chrysler Building further uptown. When the Empire State Building officially opened in 1931, it featured 102 floors of commercial and office spaces, as well as an observation deck; rising to over 1450 feet, it definitively earned the title of the tallest building in the world, fulfilling Raskob’s enormous ambitions for the project. Raskob’s interest in Irish culture may have been fostered by his mother, Frances, whose parents hailed from County Roscommon. The Fairy Thorn has remained in the Raskob family ever since, and comes to auction for the first time in its history.