Paul Henry: an Irish Portrait

IRISHARTS REVIEW PAUL HENRY: AN IRISH PORTRAIT Paul Henry (1876-1958)was one of the While it issixteen years since a the riseof Irishnationalism in the nine most influential artists to work in retrospectiveexhibition was held teenth century or the LiteraryRevival at Ireland during the first decades of this in Irelandof thepaintings of Paul the turn of this century-organized an century. Along with Walter Osborne, exhibition of modern paintings inDub Jack B. Yeats and Sean Keating in the Henry, theprices of his pictures lin which included works by Daumier, South and John Lavery and William have increaseddramatically and Degas, Manet, Monet, Whistler and Conor in theNorth, his isone of the few hiswork iswidely known.Here, others.5 Russell hoped to do for the 'household'names among the listof Irish Dr Brian Kennedy, who is visual artswhat thewriters of theRevival painters. To a considerable extent he preparinga biographyof Henry, had done for the literaryarts. He felt that founded single-handedly what one careerand the to achieve his purpose, rather than en might call the Irish school of landscape describesthe artist's courage the exhibition of works by only painting. Certainly, he largely fostered influencesupon him, and evaluates the foremost Irish artists, which would the popular view of the Irish landscape,a his contribution to Irishart. have been chauvinistic, one should ex view which fitted well with the social hibit the best of contemporary painting aspirations of the times. Moreover, as ivatives.Essentially, Modernism marked from outside Ireland, particularly from with the work of many influential an abruptbreak with traditionand those France, so as to provide a yardstick by artists-Constable in Suffolk, Cezanne artistswho embraced it eschewed estab which the native artists could measure in Provence, for example-once one has lished formsof representationalpainting themselves.Alas, his objective, at least as seen a 'PaulHenry' it is difficult to visit and concerned themselveswith a more he envisaged it, was never reached and the west of Ireland and not to see it ideological and reflexive approach, in the whole business of the 'Irishnessof through his eyes. But, paradoxically, particular emphasizing qualities of the IrishArt' has been an issue of debate perhaps in part due to his early popular medium, of process and technique. amongst artists and historians ever since. ity and because his is a type of painting Modernism representedthe main thrust In 1904 Hugh Lane, also in an attempt to until recently out of fashion, it is only of development in the arts until about stimulate a genuinely Irish school of now thatwe have begun seriously to con the late 1960s. It is thereforeonly now painting, brought to theRoyal Hibernian sider the importanceand nature of his in that we are able to view it as a historical Academy many pictures from the fluence on Irish art. phenomenon. celebrated collection of James Staats Henry's principal contribution to Irish Ireland is usually regarded as having Forbes (1823-1904), an English railway art was twofold: first, and most import been late in encountering theModern manager and connoisseur, and thus set in ant, by the example of his early work he Movement; but this in fact was not so motion thewell-known eventswhich led encouraged an interest in avant-garde and for a time, at the end of the last cent to the foundation in 1908 of theDublin painting, inModernism, at a time when ury and the beginning of this one, a Municipal Gallery of Modern Art. it was frowned upon. Second, through number of Irishmen andwomen were in Forbes's collection was particularly rich the Society of Dublin Painters,which he the vanguard of the new art. George in paintings of the French Barbizon helped to found in 1920, he created, for Moore, for example, who was in Paris School and included numerous Corots. the first time in Ireland, a forumwhere during the 1870s, knew several of the Lane obtained favourable terms for the themore experimental artists,who were leadingpainters of the time and was one purchaseof many of theworks exhibited usually ignored by the Royal Hibernian of their first champions;2Edward Mar provided that they went to a public Academy and other exhibiting bodies, tyn broughtworks byDegas andMonet3 gallery.6 In 1906 Lane brought French could show theirwork. Reflecting on att to Ireland in the 1880s, and Sarah Purser, Impressionist pictures, including sever itudes in Ireland towards avant-garde who had studied at theAcademie Julian al of his disputed Continental pictures, painting at that time,Henry later com in the late 1870s numbered Degas and to Belfast's Municipal Art Gallery,7 mented: "The French Impressionist Forain amongsther acquaintances.Also, while in 1911Ellen Duncan organized a movement," and, we might add, its after avant-gardepaintings were widely ex show of works by contemporary French math, "which had left such amark upon hibited inDublin earlier than inmany painters at the United Arts Club in the whole of European Painting, had largercentres, including either London Dublin,8 and the following year she passed without leaving a ripple ... upon or New York. Indeed, somuch was the brought to the same venue the first the complacent self satisfaction of this case that we might note here the main ex Cubist pictures to be seen in Ireland. Un country".'The expressions 'Modernism' hibitions of suchworks in Irelandduring fortunately neither the catalogue nor and 'ModernMovement' are omnibus what were PaulHenry's formativeyears. reviews of the exhibition enable us to termsused to embrace those avant-garde In 1884, the year of the first Salon des In identify the works shown on this occa tendencies, prevalent in the visual arts in dependants in Paris, James McNeill sion;9 all we know is that they included the first half of this century, to which Whistler exhibited twenty-sixworks, in works by Picasso, Gris, Marchand and most of those artists subscribed.Gener cluding several of his then notorious Herbin. The first two names especially, ally speaking, the terms are regarded as 'Nocturnes' at the annual exhibition of however, suggest that they included representingthe main streamof develop the Dublin Sketching Club,4 and in some of the latest innovations. By com ment inWestern art from the time of 1899George Russell (AE), in the hope of parison, London had to wait until Roger Manet and include Impressionism,Post stimulating the development of a gen Fry's exhibitions, 'Manet and the Post Impressionism,Symbolism, Expression uinely Irish school of painting-signifi Impressionists',held in 1910-11 and 'Se ism,Cubism, Surrealism and their der cantly, Irishart was littleaffected by either cond Post-Impressionist Exhibition', -43 Irish Arts Review is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The GPA Irish Arts Review Yearbook ® www.jstor.org IRISHARTS REVIEW PAUL HENRY: AN IRISH PORTRAIT held in 1912,before it saw suchworks in RobertMitchell Henry (d. 1891)and his Whether he was in fact offered this job is large numbers; and the so-called 'Ar wife Ann Berry (d. 1928). His eldest unknown and it would, perhaps, have mory' show held inNew York in 1913was brother, R.M. Henry (1873-1950), was been contrary to his inclinations to ac the first occasion on which modern art alsowell-known, having been a professor cept it.Moreover, from about that time, was seen there in quantity. Yet for all this of Latin at Queen's University, Belfast, with his funds running short, he became activity on the part of a few individuals from 1907-38, a prominent advocate of conscious of the need to earn his living therewas almost complete apathy in the Home Rule for Irelandand the author of and so about 1900-01 he moved to Lon Irishpublic formodern art and theRoyal The Evolutionof SinnFein (Dublin,Talbot don and for a number of years did black Hibernian Academy, despite Lane's ef Press,n.d.). Life in theHenry household andwhite illustrations forpublication in forts to help it in a number of ways, stead was rather severe and the Rev. Henry's books, magazines and newspapers. fastly refused to have anything to dowith strictly observed Protestant fundament While in Paris he had met the Scottish Modernism. Such, indeed, was to be its alism ensured a rigorous code of discip painter, Grace Mitchell (1868-1953), stance even until our own times. line which was maintained even after and they were married in September 1903. For his part Paul Henry adopted an his death. Writing towards the end of Together theHenrys shared lodgings in almost Post-Impressionistmanner and his life in Further Reminiscences,Paul London with Robert Lynd,'5whom Paul he was the first Irish artist to do so. The recalled that as children he and his had known at school inBelfast, until the main influences on him were the nine brotherswere 'held together'by a kind of latter'smarriage to the writer, Sylvia teenth century French painter of peasant parentaldespotism. They were not allow Dryhurst (1888-1952), in 1909. Lynd life,Jean Francois Millet, Van Gogh and ed to mix with or even to speak to other and his bride spent their honeymoon on the American-born painter, James children. 'We"were not as other child Achill Island and, on hearing their en McNeill Whistler, whom hemet inParis. ren" ... we were like four "infant Sam thusiasm for the islandwhen they return He first became acquaintedwith Millet uels,'' he said. In no other way could he ed, Paul and Grace Henry decided to go as a boy in Belfast through Alfred Sen explain the efforts thatwere made by his and see the place for themselves. Thus sier's biography'0 and later saw his pic parents to keep them 'unspotted' from they first visited Achill probably in the tures for himself in Paris, where he also the world.

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