Paul Henry, R.H.A. (1876-1958)

This is the earliest of a number of pictures by Paul Henry which are similar in theme and arrangement (The Lobster Pots, circa 1912-15, presently on loan to the National Gallery of Ireland, and A Grey Evening, Achill, 1917-19, for example). The simple elegance of the Post-Impressionist inspired composition with its bold two-part division of the picture plane, the narrative confined to the lower part, produces a remarkably forceful image which is intensified by the almost monochromatic palette. Reviewing Henry's exhibition at John Magee's Gallery, Belfast, in March 1917, the News-Letter (15 March) admired the artist's subtle manipulation of warm tones and sharp observation. He 'succeeds in making the scene intensely realistic', said the paper, 'and he achieves this not by deliberately striving for dramatic effect, but by rigidly adhering to the truth'. The handling of paint, with carefully applied brush strokes on an evenly worked paint surface, shows Henry at his very best at this time.

The Lobster Fisher was issued as an Eire 15p postage stamp on Monday 30 August 1976 to mark the centenary of Paul Henry's birth (fig. 1).

Provisionally numbered 0049 in S.B. Kennedy's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.

Dr S.B. Kennedy