Henry, Paul / O’Faolain, Sean (foreword). An Irish Portrait [Signed]. The Autobiography of Paul Henry R.H.A. With a Foreword by Sean O’Faolain. First Edition. London, B.T. Batsford, 1951, 22 x 15 cm. xi, 116 pages. With 12 Plates – complete. With a losely inserted letter, signed by Mabel Young, Paul Henry’s second wife, to whom the book is dedicated. Original red cloth. Hard cover. Inside original dust jacket, now inside clear archival jacket. Very good in fair only dust jacket. Minor shelf wear to book. Edges and end papers dust dulled and mildly foxed. Signed by the Author on the front free end paper. Dust jacket worn with significant paper losses (see images).

Paul Henry (1876 – 1958) was an Irish artist noted for depicting the West of Ireland landscape in a spare Post-Impressionist style.
Henry was born in Belfast, Ireland, the son of the Rev Robert Mitchell Henry. He began studying at Methodist College Belfast in 1882 where he first began drawing regularly. At the age of fifteen he moved to the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He studied art at the Belfast School of Art before going to Paris in 1898 to study at the Académie Julian and at Whistler’s Académie Carmen. He married the painter Grace Henry in 1903 and returned to Ireland in 1910. From then until 1919 he lived on Achill Island, where he learned to capture the peculiar interplay of light and landscape specific to the West of Ireland. In 1919 he moved to Dublin and in 1920, he was one of the founders of the Society of Dublin Painters, originally a group of ten artists. Henry designed several railway posters, some of which, notably Connemara Landscape, achieved considerable sales. He separated from his wife in 1929. His second wife was the artist Mabel Young. In the 1920s and 1930s, Henry was Ireland’s most renowned artist, significantly shaping the popular image of the west of Ireland. Although he appears to have stopped experimenting with his technique after leaving Achill, and his range is limited, he produced a substantial body of fine images whose familiarity attests to their influence.
Henry’s use of colour was affected by his red-green colour blindness. He lost his sight during 1945 and did not regain his vision before his death. He died at his home at 1 Sidmonton Square, Bray, County Wicklow, and was survived by his wife, Mabel.
Mabel Young (1889 – 1974) was a British artist, who spent her career painting in Ireland. She was born in Ryde, Isle of Wight, on 18 August 1889. She moved to Dublin in 1914 to work as an assistant to her sister, the housekeeping manager of the Shelbourne Hotel. She evaded gunfire on Easter Monday 1916 as she walked home from a day the Phoenix Park via O’Connell Bridge. During the civil war, on 1 July 1922 Young barely escaped a stray bullet that was shot through her living-room window and lodged in the wall. In 1924, Young met Paul Henry whilst holidaying in Kilmacanogue, County Wicklow, becoming his student and lover, until she discovered he was married to Grace Henry. She then went to run a guesthouse at Carrigoona Cottage, Kilmacanogue.
Henry moved in with Young at Carrigoona Cottage in 1929, building a studio there. During the summer of 1938, she and Henry visited the Twelve Bens area of Connemara, where Henry was collecting material for his autumn exhibition
When Henry lost his sight, Young transcribed the manuscript of his autobiography from his dictation around 1946 and 1947. The resulting book, An Irish portrait (1951), was dedicated to her. The couple moved to 1 Sidmonton Square, Bray, County Wicklow in 1950. After the death of Grace Henry in 1953, Young and Paul married in 1954. She continued to paint after Henry’s death in 1958, holding a solo show at the Ritchie Hendriks Gallery, Dublin in 1962. Young died in a private nursing home on 8 February 1974, and is buried in St Patrick’s churchyard, Enniskerry, County Wicklow. (Wikipedia).

• Keywords: Art · Art & Design · Biography & Literary Criticism · Ireland · Irish Art · Irish Literature · Literature
• Language: English
• Dust Jacket
• Signed/inscribed
• First edition
• Inventory Number: 104344AB

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