
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
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Sold for £56,250 inc. premium
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Head of UK and Ireland

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PROVENANCE:
Acquired in Dublin in the 1930's, thence by descent to the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.
EXHIBITED:
Possibly Dublin, Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Paul Henry: Retrospective Exhibition, May-July 1957, cat.no.52 (as Quiet Waves); this exhibition travelled to Belfast, Museum & Art Gallery
LITERATURE:
Possibly S.B. Kennedy, Paul Henry; Paintings, Drawings, Illustrations, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2007, p.279, cat.no.908 (as Quiet Waves)
Boats at Sea is a striking and unusual example by Paul Henry, an artist better known for his Western landscapes with cottages, turfstacks and mountains. A peaceful scene, it depicts two sailboats leaning into a breeze with a further three vessels distant on the horizon. The ocean is calm and contrasts with another marine painting by the artist sold in these rooms - Running for Shelter (£175,250, November 2011).
The present work is possibly the same picture as Quiet Waves (S.B. Kennedy, Paul Henry: with a catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings, Illustrations, New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 2007, cat.no. 908). There is a framing label on the reverse from William Rodman & Co., Belfast and the work can be dated to 1930-6 on stylistic grounds.
Boats at Sea is numbered 1282 in S.B. Kennedy's ongoing cataloguing of Paul Henry's oeuvre and we are grateful to him for his assistance.