Paul Henry

Belfast-born Paul Henry studied at the Belfast School of Art and showed an early interest in the peasant paintings of Jean Francois Millet. In 1898 he travelled to Paris where he enrolled in the Acadèmie Julian. Here he became familiar with more contemporary ideas on art, the work of Van Gogh and James McNeill Whistler attracting him. He studied under the latter at the Acadèmie Carmen where he acquired an appreciation of tone over colour. In 1900 he moved from Paris to London where he worked as an illustrator. By 1910 his attention was turning back to Ireland and in 1910 he and his wife Grace made their first visit to Achill Island on the West Coast of Ireland. Enthralled by the rugged scenery they moved to Achill in 1912, remaining there until 1919 when they relocated to Dublin. In 1920 he helped to found the Society of Dublin Painters which until the 1940s was the focus of modernist art practice in Ireland. He exhibited regularly in Dublin, Belfast and abroad until 1945 when ill health brought his painting career to a close. His work has had a lasting influence on the landscape tradition in Ireland.