Paul Henry, R.H.A. (1876-1958)
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… 顯示更多
Paul Henry, R.H.A. (1876-1958)

The Solitary Turf Gatherer

細節
Paul Henry, R.H.A. (1876-1958)
The Solitary Turf Gatherer
signed 'PAUL.HENRY' (lower right)
oil on canvas
12 x 17 in. (30.5 x 43.2 cm.)
Painted in 1917-18.
來源
Purchased by the present owner's grandmother.
展覽
Belfast, Magee's Gallery, Pictures by Mr and Mrs Paul Henry, March 1918.
Dublin, Mills' Hall, Exhibition of Pictures by Paul and Grace Henry, April 1918, no. 49.
注意事項
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品專文

This is almost certainly The Solitary Turf Gatherer, a picture that Henry first exhibited in Belfast in March 1918. It is one of several compositions depicting the same figure bent in toil.

Speaking of another of these works, The Turf Gatherer, which was exhibited in 1913, the Northern Whig commented (17 February 1913) in words that apply equally here. The 'woman bowed under the weight of a mighty creel of shining dark sods,' it said, with her red skirt 'adds a note of unconscious irony to a figure that has something classic in its tragic dignity, and the composition sums up in a striking conception the burden of monotonous labour that those who weave rustic pastorals forget is the greatest factor in the life of the tiller of the soil'. And it went on, noting perceptively that 'Mr. Henry states a fact, that he does not frame an indictment, and his pictures are never proclamations about social problems'.

The setting is probably the high ground immediately to the west of the village of Keel, Achill Island, with Trawmore Strand in the background and the Menawn Cliffs in the distance.

The present work will be included in Dr Brian Kennedy's forthcoming catalogue raisonné, listed under the provisional number 1077.

We are very grateful to Dr Brian Kennedy for providing the catalogue entry for this lot.